Maine Downtown Center names interim director

Photo / Maine Development Foundation Anne Ball is the new interim program director for the Maine Downtown Center program.

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By Staff

The Maine Development Foundation has hired Anne Ball as interim program director for the Maine Downtown Center program.

She replaces Lorain Francis, the former senior program manager for the Maine Development Foundation and Maine Downtown Center, who left the organization in June.

Ball has served as a consultant for Maine Downtown Center since 2012 and has been involved in the Healthy Maine Streets Program, Grants to Green and Making Headway in Your Community initiatives.

"I cannot think of a more respected, capable and ready professional to keep us moving forward seamlessly this year,” Yellow Light Breen, president and CEO of Maine Development Foundation, said in a statement announcing her appointment. “We are thrilled that Anne has joined our team at MDF and will lead our Maine Downtown Center program. She is a proven leader who has the experience and vision to take MDC to another level. Anne believes we can create a dynamic future — including the right sustainable delivery and staffing structures for the organization to grow."

Currently, Maine Downtown Center is involved in strategic planning and provides extensive outreach and technical assistance to the dozens of communities the program serves across the state.

In her interim position, Ball will lead the center’s program through 2016, working with stakeholders to finalize its strategic and operational planning. She will work closely with Breen to identify and build the capacity necessary to deliver critical day-to-day work and grants initiatives at the center.

"I am excited about my new position with the Maine Downtown Center and I am looking forward to building on my relationships with the MDF staff. Maine has so many great downtown areas and growing the MDC program by expanding partnerships and promoting it to more Maine businesses will improve economic development in downtown areas across the state," said Ball.

Ball is the former project director of Grants to Green Maine, a partnership of Maine Development Foundation's Maine Downtown Center, Efficiency Maine and the Maine Community Foundation. In recent years, she was project director for a Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention grant known as Healthy Maine Streets and worked in the state on other multi-sector projects, including serving as the cultural and heritage tourism coordinator for Department of Economic and Community Development for six years.

During the past several years, Ball also has served as a consultant to many organizations in Maine, including Maine Preservation, Maine Humanities Council, Maine State Museum and private architecture firms and communities.