Rebecca Hersch
Rebecca Hersh, writer, urban planner, event producer, social media expert, is current executive director for Main Street Highland Park NJ. In that role she conceives and implements multi-faceted marketing program to promote the downtown business district of Highland Park, New Jersey. This includes development of promotional materials and marketing collateral, upgrading website, purchasing advertising, social media campaigns, and developing other strategic communications. She represents the interests of organization’s membership (merchants), in both written and verbal communications, to the press and local governments and organizes all aspects of over a dozen annual events of varying sizes. Events include the Arts in the Park festival that engages over 150 vendors and over 12,000 attendees; a 5k race that includes over 500 runners; and a weekly farmers market that runs for seven months of the year.
Her other jobs have included: manager of Transportation Programs for the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association, Princeton NJ; public relations consultant for variety of clients, such as political campaigns, New Jersey Future, Princeton University Office of Government Affairs, Petra Solar, and Rutgers Voorhees Transportation Center; director of Special Projects for New Jersey Future; author, co-author, and/or editor of numerous policy white papers defining positions on policy issues such as historic preservation, transfer of development rights, community benefit agreements, and smart growth; communications director for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, New York, NY, where she worked with print and web design consultants on newsletters, websites, brochures, and other materials.
With an undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University and graduate degree from Columbia University, she has also served as an adjunct professor and teaching assistant at Columbia, an editor of the URBAN Newsletter at Columbia University, and executive editor of the graduate student Urban Planning newsletter. Her volunteer activities have been extensive, focusing on community development and writing and event planning gratis for a variety of non-profits in Central New Jersey.