ADRIAN — The Adrian City Commission, at its Sept. 8 meeting, voted unanimously to approve the hiring of Christy Mesaros-Winckles as the Adrian Downtown Development Authority’s new executive director.

The vote came after the DDA board at its August meeting recommended the commission hire her.

“Christy stood out to us because she brings a strong combination of strategic communications, marketing, and community engagement experience, along with a genuine understanding of Downtown Adrian,” DDA board chair Darcy Gifford said in an email to The Lenawee Voice.

“She understands how to build a strong brand, tell a compelling story and, just as importantly, bring people together around a shared vision. We believe she is the right leader to help us build on what makes Downtown Adrian special and create even more energy and excitement around its future.”

During the public comment portion of the city commission meeting, Gifford said the DDA was excited to welcome Mesaros-Winckles as its new director.

“Christy is smart, she is collaborative, and she is ready to be unleashed,” Gifford continued. “So she has a lot of ideas and a lot of energy and we’re really looking forward to her and the partnership with the city.”

Mesaros-Winckles, who previously was an associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Adrian College, said in an interview that she’s “super excited” to get started in her new role.

“And I love the board,” she said. “There’s a lot of positive momentum. They’re so, so dedicated to this.”

Mesaros-Winckles is no stranger to the downtown area. It was where she and her family originally lived when they first moved to the city 11 years ago.

“That was my family’s introduction to Adrian,” she said.

Although they don’t live downtown anymore, what happens in that area and the success of the business community there has remained important to her. She even intentionally partnered her Adrian College public relations students with downtown businesses.

While she enjoyed her work with college students, she came to realize that she wanted to spend more time with her two young children than all the responsibilities of being a professor, such as spending evenings grading tests and papers, would allow. And so, when the DDA began its search for a new executive director this spring, she decided to apply.

Adrian Mayor Angela Sword Heath welcomed Mesaros-Winckles’ hiring, saying she will bring “a new perspective” to the DDA and has expertise that will be valuable.

“She knows how to bring social media in and will really get out and talk to the businesses,” she said. “She’s just a wealth of knowledge and has already done a lot of research on how to bring people downtown.”

What does Mesaros-Winckles see as some big challenges for the DDA?

“Communication and resources,” she said. “We have the resources, but we need to communicate it better.”

Some of those resources are local, such as the Chamber of Commerce, Launch Lenawee, and the DDA itself. Others are statewide, including programs such as Michigan Main Street, a resource she tapped into on her own before she was hired.

Michigan Main Street, run through the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC), describes itself on its Website as “a common-sense approach to tackling the complex issues of revitalization by capitalizing on downtown’s history and identifying the unique assets of the community itself.”

The program “has a lot of resources,” Mesaros-Winckles said, and she plans to promote those resources. She also wants to set up workshops on how to complete grant applications.

One resource she wants to bring into the mix, Generative Engine Optimization or GEO, “is a big thing now that people aren’t aware of.”  It’s an AI tool that, in this context, would make a business’s information more visible to people searching online.

Because she sees her role as “to support the small businesses as much as possible,” she wants to spend plenty of time meeting with business owners to see what they need.

To that end, she expects to hold events such as coffee hours so that people can talk with her. “I want to be accessible,” she said. “Tell me what it is you need and want.”

People can contact her at [email protected].

Heath said downtown Adrian is beginning to see more activity and that Mesaros-Winckles “needs to be able to build on that momentum.”

“We know we want more retail, more dining, more for kids. How do we bring people downtown?”

Mesaros-Winckles said she thinks “the building blocks are there” for downtown to grow.

“I think we’re on the right track, but I’m always an advocate for family-friendly businesses. Our new playground is great. I want to see more of that sort of thing,” she said, citing Albion as an example because of its children’s museum.

She said she wants to develop the sense of downtown Adrian being a destination spot. “I think we have the chance to make downtown Adrian a meeting place,” she said.

“The challenge is making people think of downtown as ‘their’ space, a community hub. It builds that relationship, builds long-term economic growth.”

Michigan Main Street and the DDA have developed an online survey, accessible at this link, that Mesaros-Winckles encourages people to take.

“We need feedback for what people want to see,” she said. “Even if you don’t live in Adrian, fill out the survey if you ever came here.” The survey will be live through Oct. 1.