By Anna Skinner

After realizing she was born to be the executive director of the Downtown Westfield Association, Teresa Otis Skelton stepped out of her retirement to take the position suggested to her by the board of directors.

Skelton previously served as the president of the board, and stepped up to be interim executive director when Ken Kingshill resigned.

“I wasn’t really looking to do this, but when Ken resigned I stepped in as interim and then the board asked me if I would consider taking the position permanently in December,” Skelton said.

Skelton previously served as clerk treasurer, a town council member and a deputy clerk treasurer when Westfield became a city. She currently works part time at My Father’s Garden, and will finish her employment there at the end of this month to fully focus on her new role. And since her official start last month, Skelton’s already got big plans for the DWA for 2016.

“The board of directors wants us to focus on primarily intimate events such as Party on the Patio, poetry readings, and others,” she said. “We are also still diligently working toward becoming America’s Best Community semi-finalist, which we find out if we accomplished on January 13.”

Skelton was already in charge of Party on the Patio and is quite ready to bring the event back starting in June. Poetry readings through the Westfield Arts Alliance will begin soon as well. Another event Skelton plans to focus on is relocate the farmer’s market to downtown Westfield.

“Ken and I had worked together on a lot of projects. At least from a board standpoint, I was the one that met with him on a regular basis, and he was very supportive with Party on the Patio,” Skelton said. “We are also looking into a community building in which the DWA would have office space shared with other nonprofit entities. We are looking into public and private arts displays and projects.”

Some new board members are coming on in January to assist Skelton with her plans.

To learn more, visit www.dwna.org.