Alyssa Barrera begins her new job as executive director of the Downtown Management District on Feb. 5. Courtesy photo
The Downtown Management District board chose a hometown professional as its new executive director. Alyssa Barrera will take over Feb. 5, replacing Terry Sweeney, who left last fall for a similar job in Kentucky.
As business liaison for the city of Corpus Christi, Barerra worked closely with Sweeney during his almost four-year tenure at the DMD. That and her knowledge of the city and downtown in particular gave her an edge over the 40 applicants produced by a nationwide search. Of those, five were local.
“Her passion for Corpus Christi and for downtown really stood out,” said Harold Shockley Jr., chair of the DMD board of directors. “She has a wealth of knowledge about what we’ve done so far. We are fortunate to have such a strong candidate.”
A Corpus Christi native, Barerra earned Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Public Administration degrees from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. In 2011, she began working for the city as an intern. She worked her way up through the ranks, becoming business liaison in 2014.
“Growing up in Corpus Christi, I saw a lot of my peers interested in leaving the community,” Barerra told Corpus Christi Business News. “Corpus Christi is where my home and family are. I began to focus on making Corpus Christi more attractive to young people so they wound’t want to leave. I’ve kind of run with that. Our community deserves an advocacy in that regards.”
Barerra’s immediate plans revolve around the three-year strategic plan adopted by the DMD last fall.
“I want to keep up the work that’s going on,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of transformative, good change in the downtown area in the last few years.”
Her main focus short term will be continuing to keep downtown safe and expanding the number of business in the area. The long term includes a vision of a completely revitalized downtown area popular with locals, tourists and business travelers.
“I envision a bustling, eighteen-hour downtown that is exciting and attractive and something we can all be even more proud of,” she said. “In any community, the downtown is the face of the community. It is so important that our downtown look good and remain safe.”
Shockley echoed her sentiments.
“Downtown is the heart of any city,” he said. “It drives a community. Barerra’s job is to complete the three-year plan and to take us to the next level. We all want to revitalize downtown to keep the city going. The board looks forward to Alyssa’s leadership and vision to elevate our revitalization efforts.”
