McKenzie CDC Welcomes New Managing Director
Lisa Mattes-McCreary officially joined the McKenzie Community Development Corporation this week. She brings a wealth of experience to the newly created role of Managing Director, including 12 years as District Manager and 26 years as a development professional in the fields of forestry and business at Oregon State University and the University of Montana.
Originally from Idaho, Lisa has lived in Oregon for over 30 years – she is passionate about fly-fishing and you can always find her on a river somewhere! Her two sons also helped to fight Holiday Farm Fire last year, so the CDC’s mission of helping our valley communities, environment, and economy recover after that tragic event resonated with her.
The Managing Director role was created to provide long-term strategic vision to the McKenzie CDC as it continues to grow and evolve to meet the needs of the community and help it build back better. Lisa and her team will help build the organizational structure to achieve the present wildfire recovery objectives while stabilizing the changes implemented to meet the challenges of rapid growth following the fire.
Before joining the McKenzie CDC, Lisa worked in a variety of roles in both business and not-for-profit sectors. As Director of Development at the College of Forestry and Business at the University of Montana Foundation she developed and led fundraising and communication strategy plans, where she created and implemented programs for major gifts, planned giving, capital campaign, corporate and foundation support and annual giving, procuring a $2 million gift to support wildlife programs.
This week Lisa visited local organizations in the valley and stopped off to see recovery projects in action including a visit to the Orchid Health mobile health clinic in Rainbow hosted by Nurse Practitioner Specialist Tia Cloke.
Additionally, she managed operations for GCA Services and was District Manager administering the Environmental Services contract with Oregon State University Housing Division, overseeing a $1.6 million budget that encompassed customer relations, program design and implementation, scheduling, staffing, purchasing and working closely with Union representatives.
Lisa’s passion, skills and expertise will help to support the McKenzie CDC as it grows and continues to drive fire recovery and rebuilding efforts. Her main remit will be to support MCDC staff as they lead the wildfire recovery program, and overseeing the CDC’s financial performance and grant management and reporting. She will also implement information management protocols, monitoring the flow of information from local, regional, state, and federal stakeholders.
We hope our community will welcome her and look forward to accomplishing some great things together!
