Felice McClendon serves as the executive director of Delmar Main Street. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri

Certificate: Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 2009

Current Position: Executive Director at Delmar Main Street

Fun Fact: McClendon holds a bachelor’s degree in journalims and spent the first 12 years of her career as a senior account executive with KMJM-FM Radio.

Felice McClendon is a transplant to St. Louis, having grown up across the state in Kansas City, but she’s lived in the region long enough that it feels like home. 

Over nearly three decades, McClendon has come to understand St. Louis’ complicated history, including the fractures and inequities that grew from its past. She also feels invested in its future, wanting to do her part to strengthen it at a time when the city’s population is declining and growth in the wider region has stagnated. 

She jumped at the opportunity to serve as the inaugural executive director of Delmar Main Street in May. The nonprofit community revitalization organization launched in 2021 as part of a pilot program funded by Missouri Main Street Connection. It adheres to an evidence-based model shared by more than 2,000 organizations across the country, built around the pillars of economic vitality, promotion, organization and design. 

With an office in Delmar DivINe, Delmar Main Street focuses on a roughly 3-mile stretch of Delmar Boulevard and the neighborhoods lying immediately to its north and south as it cuts through the center of St. Louis, from Taylor Avenue west to the border with University City in the Delmar Loop. McClendon, who earned a graduate certificate in nonprofit management and leadership at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, believes the commercial corridor is critical to the health and vitality of the broader region. 

Her position has put her in contact with residents and business owners alike as she works to cultivate partnerships, spark community involvement and help bring in new resources to the district, creating a foundation for sustainable revitalization, which she stresses does not have to mean gentrification. 

“This is where passion meets purpose for me,” she says. “It’s an honor to be an ambassador to carry forth this idea of community. I’m going to listen to everybody. Everyone deserves to have a voice and a seat at the table. So many times, that’s how things get lopsided – because decision-makers aren’t communicating with people, especially if they are in disinvested communities or have low to moderate incomes.” 

There’s momentum building along Delmar with the Maker District growing just west of Kingshighway and businesses filling in along the route of the Loop Trolley. The symbolism of a vibrant Delmar is not lost on McClendon, given that it has for years marked a chasm in the city along racial and socioeconomic lines. 

“This is a great opportunity to reverse the storyline about that Delmar Divide,” McClendon says, adding, “I’m here because we’re giving people a reason to stay. That’s not my job description, but that is my job.”

This story was originally published in the fall 2024 issue of UMSL Magazine. If you have a story idea for UMSL Magazine, email magazine@umsl.edu.