Currently Executive Director of the Huntington Municipal Development Authority, which is the economic development arm of the City of Huntington. The development Authority is currently developing a 42-acre former manufacturing site formally known as American Car Foundry. The Development Authority also envisioned and developed Kinetic Park, a business park located at the Hal Greer entrance into the city of Huntington. HMDA is aggressively working to transform over 50 acres of former brownfield manufacturing land into clean, new economy jobs.
Cathy served three years (2016-2019) as City Manager where her primary focus included assisting balancing the city’s finances, spearheading stabilization of rising health care and pension costs, undertaking major renovations to city-owned buildings such as Mountain Health Civic Arena, Huntington Police and Fire Departments. This was her 2nd stint working for the city. After completing a Master’s in Public Administration from Eastern Kentucky University and a Bachelor’s from Marshall University, she began her career working for Mayors Bobby Nelson and Jean Dean leading the Department of Planning and Development.
From 2000 to 2012 she managed a regional economic development initiative crossing state boundaries of West Virginia and Ohio, the Huntington-Ironton Empowerment Zone. The work of the empowerment zone had major involvement in the development and construction of Pullman Square, a retail commercial development located in downtown Huntington; Kinetic Park, a business park located on a former green field now valued at over $19 million and home to Amazon Customer Service Center; a new business park along Route 2 and home to Alcon, an intraocular lens manufacturing company employing over 800 people; establishing downtown Huntington as an historic district and positioning property owners to quality for historic tax credits which led to the downtown renaissance of restoring and rehabilitating the beautiful downtown architecture.
Cathy was honored to be selected as the 1st female President and CEO of the longstanding Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce (2013-2016). With a dynamic team of co-workers she grew the membership to over 550 members, launched a leadership program for middle management incumbent work force, expanded programming for small business members and created a manufacturing institute.