DAA goes international

The Downtown Austin Alliance’s Mandi Thomas will join the International Downtown Association’s 2019 Emerging Leaders Fellowship. The fellowship, according to a press release about the honor, “is a week-long experiential program bringing together a cohort of IDA professionals from within the urban district management industry. The fellows learn essential leadership and place management skills and gain practical tools in the areas of place-based economic development, the live-work-play experience, and public-private partnerships.” As the director of strategic partnerships, Thomas manages programming and partnerships for Republic Square. “Mandi Thomas is an excellent addition to the IDA Emerging Leaders Fellowship program and we are thrilled she was selected,” Dewitt Peart, president and CEO of the Downtown Austin Alliance, said. “Her leadership and commitment to building relationships with Austin businesses, organizations and artists have made the programming at Republic Square, a downtown urban greenspace, and annual events such as the Downtown Holiday Stroll a huge part of Austin’s cultural fabric.”