Iowa City Downtown District names first executive director

The Iowa City Downtown District named Nancy Bird as its first executive director. Bird is expected to start her new role in Iowa City on Sept. 17.

Originally from Eastern Iowa, Bird currently resides in Seattle where for the past 10 years she has been a Senior Associate in the Planning and Economics division at AECOM, an international architecture, design and planning firm.

In that role she has worked closely with numerous business districts in Seattle and throughout the country.

Bird currently manages a diverse set of project types and budgets, multi-disciplinary planning teams, and stakeholder groups that include entire communities. Her clients have included municipalities, public agencies and private developers.

Educated at Drake University and Illinois State, with a three year tour in the U.S. Peace Corps, Bird is a certified community planner and economic development specialist with 17 years experience in municipal government and downtown consulting.

She has built her career on fostering broad public engagement, and aligning public, private and institutional partners for action and implementation in downtown communities.

Bird looks forward to the opportunity to return home to Iowa and apply the experience and insight she has gained working with various downtown communities throughout the country to downtown Iowa City, where she and her husband Steve were married.

The Iowa City Downtown District is a not-for-profit organization funded through contributions from property taxes assessed to properties in Downtown Iowa City and the Northside Marketplace and financial support from the University of Iowa.