PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Janis Akerstrom has been selected to take over as the city's director of community development.

 

Akerstrom is the current housing and community development manager in Orlando, Fla. She would fill the position left by Douglas Clark, who resigned to return to his engineering business. James McGrath, the city's open space and parks director, is currently serving in the position on a interim basis and served on the committee to find Clark's replacement.

 

"I am very pleased to be able to bring on board a community development director with Ms. Akerstrom's qualifications," Mayor Daniel Bianchi wrote in a statement. "She brings a great deal of experience managing community block grant programs and a variety of other state and federal grant projects. Her knowledge of city planning and housing along with her strong management experience, will be invaluable to the department and the community."

 

Akerstrom boasts more than 20 years of experience with the most recent being the housing and community development manager in Orlando.

 

The City Council will be asked to approve her appointment at its Aug. 11 meeting. She was unanimously chosen by an interview committee consisting McGrath, Shirley Edgerton, cultural proficiency coach; Jesse Cook-Dubin, vice president of Pittsfield Downtown Inc.; Julia Sabourin, director of administrative services; and John DeAngelo, personnel director.

 

Akerstrom holds holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia College in Aurora, Colo., and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Illinois. She also studied law at Gonzaga School of Law in Spokane, Wash., though she did not complete the graduate degree. She also studied at the medicine with the Navy in Orlando and business administration at Barnes Business College in Denver.

 

In 1992, when she was studying law, she took a job in the Spokane County Community Development Division, where she focused on the federal Community Development Block Grant's aquifer protection program that connects homes to water lines. She also has worked on mixed-use and senior housing developments, administered a women and minority business development loan initiative, and oversaw the reconstruction of an above-ground sewer reservoir.

 

In 1998, she became the senior community development specialist in the Washing County Office of Community Development, in Hillsboro, Ore. There she headed the entire Community Development Block Grant program for the county. A year later, she did the same for Clark County in Washington.

 

In 2001, she moved to Illinois and was the community development manager and federal grant programs manager for the Village of Oak Park. There she again headed the Community Development Block Grant Program but also an array of other federal programs including receiving $11 million in funds for regional housing collaborative efforts for six cities, and earned her master's degree in 2010.

 

She took the job in Orlando in March 2013. She managed Orlando's $6 million worth of various federal grants including the Community Development Block Grants and worked with the federal Housing and Urban Development grant funds.