Welcome New Michigan Main Street Staff!

By Joe Borgstrom, Director
Specialized Technical Assistance &
Revitalization Strategy Division
Michigan State Housing Development Authority

Ok, ok, ok. I promised we’d post a new blog entry every week and now I’m already late. Not a good way to start. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

If you haven’t heard, the Michigan Main Street program is expanding its offerings and staff and which makes it the fastest growing coordinating program in the country today. The Michigan Main Street program has welcomed two new staff in addition to our outstanding existing staff (Organizational Specialist Laura Krizov and SHPO’s Michigan Main Street Architect Kelly Larson). These people are:

Duane Thelen, Community Initiated Development (CID) Specialist- Duane has a great deal of experience with the State of Michigan and has most recently served as field staff to the Community Assistance Team (CATeam) while it was at MSHDA. Duane also has a great deal of experience in the Brownfield arena and has worked with numerous communities and consultants to bring a multitude of projects to fruition. He will be working with Michigan Main Street communities to help facilitate development projects and learn how they can take on development projects on their own!

Jodie Willobee, Promotions, Arts and Culture (PAC) Specialist- Jodie comes to us most recently from MSHDA’s Office of Community Development where she spearheaded a number of projects, most notably the Jackson Armory Arts project which redeveloped the former prison into a thriving artist colony. Jodie has also been MSHDA’s point person for the Department of History, Arts, and Library’s Cultural Economic Development initiatives. She brings a solid arts and culture background and understands the resources that are available to communities in these areas. In addition to cultural economic development related activities, Jodie will also be working with communities to help make their promotions events more successful.

The Michigan Main Street program recently posted our new Economic Restructuring Specialist position. We received more than 80 resumes and have whittled it down to seven potential candidates. We will be conducting the first round of these interviews on Friday. We hope to have an announcement on this position by the end of this month.

Be on the lookout for these talented new staff as they will be tagging along with Laura and Kelly on several year-end visits as well as attending all of the upcoming Associate and Selected trainings. Please help us welcome them to the Michigan Main Street family!