Donna Alm

Donna Alm has watched closely the ups and downs of Downtown. As vice president of marketing and communications for the Centre City Development Corp., she has dedicated years to the marketing and branding of Downtown as a place to live, work and play.

But her witness to the evolution of the area began many years before. Alm was raised on a dairy farm about seven miles east of Downtown. She remembers when Downtown was the place to go shopping. “We would get dressed up and ride the bus down here,” she says. “Then it began going downhill.”

Years later, Alm was working for former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson when he began to pattern a vision of what Downtown could be. CCDC was created in 1975 and she came to work for the vision. One of the first major CCDC projects was the San Diego Convention Center. Alm was its communications manager. At the center in 1991, she was honored with a TWIN award. Since then, she says, her professional side has broadened considerably to include the whole gamut of public relations and marketing.

When she returned to CCDC, they were looking for someone who had marketing knowledge to help brand Downtown. “It’s been an interesting progression, but I’ve always been Downtown working in and around redevelopment,” she says.

A 23-year resident of La Mesa, Alm has served five years on the La Mesa Planning Commission, nine years on the La Mesa City Council, six years on the San Diego Transit Corp. board, and seven years on the San Diego Regional Wastewater Commission.

Alm loves to read, write and travel and manages to fit it all in while spending time with family. She will celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary next year and has three grown children and 20 grandchildren, all in San Diego.

— Maria L. Kirkpatrick