After four years spent running Live Baltimore’s marketing department, Annie Milli will step in as the organization’s leader next month.
The nonprofit, which promotes homebuying and renting in Baltimore, announced Milli’s promotion today. In an interview, she said she felt she had her “dream job” already as marketing director “until this opportunity presented itself.”
Her hiring caps a three-month national search. Stacie Tobin, Live Baltimore’s board president, said in a statement that the group received “dozens of applications from highly-qualified individuals” and interviewed a dozen applicants in all, but that “it became clear that the ideal candidate was already in the organization.”
Since she started working there in 2013, Milli has helped promote Live Baltimore’s initiatives to recruit families to the city, keep those already living here from moving county-side, encourage residents to renovate and rehabilitate homes and highlight lesser-known neighborhoods.
Milli said one of her proudest accomplishments has been leading the creation of the Way to Stay program, which aims to retain city-dwelling families with children. Milli said Live Baltimore hadn’t found a way to target that audience of Baltimoreans during its first 15 years in existence before the program’s inception.
“I think it’s an incredible area of opportunity,” she said.
She also touted “Baltimore by the Numbers,” a series of monthly data-driven updates that keep residents abreast of city-specific real estate trends. Milli spearheaded that project, which has been publishing figures online each month since early 2016.
“We have a great story to tell in the housing market in Baltimore City,” she said. “I think we’ve been doing a great job of telling that story after the unrest that occurred in 2015.”
For her success, she credits Steven Gondol, the group’s former executive director who resigned his position in March to move to Ohio with his family. Gondol had served in that role since 2011.
“I’m just incredibly honored,” Milli said. “I would have worked for Steve forever.”
Milli worked in advertising before coming to Live Baltimore, serving in stints at Eisner Communications and Siquis, Ltd. — both of which have since shut down — and doing other work for independent businesses.
She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and graphic design from The Columbus College of Art and Design and a master’s in communication management from Towson University. She lives with her family in Arcadia in Northeast Baltimore.
Her first day as executive director will be June 16.
