Revitalization expert from Baltimore is DIA’s new CEO

ITHACA, N.Y. — Nan Rohrer has spent more than two decades in Baltimore, Maryland helping lead downtown/neighborhood revitalization and economic development efforts and will bring that expertise to the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA) when she starts as its next CEO in early July.

John Guttridge, who chairs the DIA board of directors, on June 5 announced that Rohrer will succeed Gary Ferguson, who is retiring after serving 24 years as executive director. 

The announcement follows a nationwide search conducted by HRS, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania–based executive search firm. Ashley Cake, a former chair of the DIA board of directors, and a group of six volunteer search committee members, led the search process. 

“After conducting a national search Nan stood out from among a crowded field of excellent candidates,” Guttridge said in a release. “I’m looking forward to working with her on guiding the DIA on its next chapter of growth and vitality.”

In her new role at the DIA, Rohrer will lead an organization charged with the revitalization, growth, management, and promotion of Ithaca’s downtown and central urban core. 

In accepting the job, Rohrer said, “Downtown Ithaca is well known nationally as a unique community gathering place filled with local dining and retail, cultural experiences, concerts, festivals, and much more that make it the center of the city and region. I am excited to bring my expertise to Ithaca and build upon the great success of the DIA and Downtown already achieved under Gary’s years of extraordinary vision and leadership. Together with the dedicated staff, board, partners, and community, we will further Downtown Ithaca’s vitality and enjoyment for those who live, work, study, and visit here.”

Guttridge went on to say, “Nan has experience carrying out the core focus of a business improvement district [BID] in diverse neighborhoods. She has built bridges between multicultural communities while carrying out economic development in a way that hears, respects, and preserves the interests of long-standing communities of color rather than displacing them through gentrification. She has navigated the complex web of differing interests such that everyone was heard and welcomed in the community while still building economic vitality and carrying out the clean, safe, and green function that any BID must.”

As search committee chair, Cake had the opportunity to oversee the wide array of candidates who applied for this position. 

“Given the overwhelming success of Gary’s leadership and downtown’s exponential growth and development, it became important for his successor to be someone with experience with large and growing Business Improvement Districts,” Cake said in the release. “Nan’s record and enthusiasm for the foundational work of strengthening and empowering neighborhoods and BIDs in Baltimore was a singular fit, and we’re so delighted that she is going to make Ithaca her home.”

Rohrer’s Baltimore work

Rohrer built her portfolio of district management and leadership experience in Baltimore. 

She served as the president of the Midtown Community Benefits District (similar to a BID in New York State), where she headed a staff of 30 and presided over the “interests and needs” of four different neighborhoods, DIA said. 

She also served 11 years as the VP for economic development and planning with the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPB). At the DPB, Rohrer worked on both large and small projects that “touched all sectors” of the downtown community. 

She worked on the downtown strategic plan, the downtown retail plan, and a downtown open space plan. In recent years, Rohrer served as a consultant specializing in long-term planning and project management and assessment. 

The Yale University graduate began her local-government experience at Baltimore City Hall, where she served as a neighborhood liaison and director of partnerships. She is also an advisor with the national Urban Land Institute.