Rising Star: Michelle Feldman, East Falls Development Corporation

PACDC recognizes professionals under 40 who work at member organizations—both CDCs and Associate Members. The goal is to encourage young professionals to pursue careers in community development and to provide training and peer-support to enhance their success.

In her role as Executive Director over the past two years, Michelle has energized and catalyzed the work of East Falls Development Corporation (EFDC). From the interview to her major successes over the past two years Michelle has met and exceeded every expectation. In particular, Michelle excels in building relationships and connections with business owners, key stakeholders at the city, state and neighborhood levels. She is intentional, genuine, and cares deeply about the work of community economic development.

Michelle has excellent skills in grant writing, project management and project completion. She single-handedly took a languishing project with many challenges, the new East Falls River Landing, an ADA accessible access point to the Schuylkill River and brought it to project completion. The project challenges included budget overages due to recent hurricanes and tropical storms, engineering and vendor challenges, as well as water level and downstream complications of the safety line which required additional signage. She successfully managed important regional funders that included the William Penn Foundation, Schuylkill River Greenways, PA Fish and Boat and the Audubon Society in order to bring the project to completion.

Michelle has played a key role in identifying grant mechanisms that are appropriate for a riverfront community and leading proposal writing and submission. She has successfully won two important planning grants for EFDC, a transportation and pedestrian planning grant that will allow EFDC to create concrete options for future improvements to pathways from the business district to the Schuylkill River Trail and surrounding parkland where residents and visitors can fish, paddle, birdwatch and just relax. In addition, she was instrumental in winning a grant to conduct Flood Mitigation work in partnership with the Manayunk Development Corporation, a key partner in our Schuylkill River floodplain. Michelle has revitalized the Business Owners Association, has facilitated regularly scheduled meetings and programming and has helped business owners successfully win Storefront Improvement grants, Merchant Fund awards and other helpful financial awards to our businesses impacted by Covid19 and the hurricane/tropical storm flooding.

Michelle has also revamped the East Falls Website and Social Media platforms in order to better serve the various stakeholders looking to do business in East Falls as well as residents and business owners. Lastly, she is able to manage a one-person office and keep multiple high-stakes balls in the air. She is organized and plans ahead for any and all EFDC activities, including fundraising events, farmers market, corridor management and beautification as well as communications activities.

PACDC congratulates Michelle Feldman on being recognized as one of PACDC’s 2023 Rising Stars!