Traci Wickett, in her new role as chair of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation board of directors, said she wants not only to maintain the organization’s considerable economic development momentum but accelerate it.
Wickett, president and CEO of United Way of Southern Cameron County, previously served two years as the BCIC board’s vice chair. She succeeds outgoing chair Michael Limas, who served in the position for three years and leaves “big shoes to fill,” according to Wickett.
“The first thing I said to the board was, ‘Let’s just get clear on one point. I am not Michael Limas,’” she said. “I wish I had all of his skills and talents. I don’t. Mine are different, and I hope that they will be helpful to keeping the momentum going that he established. He was really a transformational leader for BCIC.”
Wickett credited Limas and BCIC President and CEO Josh Mejia for seizing on the organization’s vast untapped potential.
“It’s the type of economic development organization that has such broad authority in what it can do,” she said. “There’s so much latitude. I think for many years it was like the 5k sponsor. That’s what people turned to BCIC for: Build the Sports Park and be the 5k sponsor. But also traditional economic development opportunities were not being taken advantage of.”
It was a matter of reaching BCIC’s potential by “actually pushing up against the boundaries of what we’re permitted to do,” Wickett said.
One result is the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization, to be located in the former La Casa del Nylon building now under renovation at 1304 E. Adams St. The eBridge Center will serve as a business incubator providing new entrepreneurs with skills and resources necessary for success and growth.
The project is a collaboration between BCIC, the city of Brownsville, Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, Lower Rio Grande Valley Economic Development Council, U.S. Economic Development Administration, U.S. Small Business Administration, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the UTRGV Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center. Grants from EDA and BCIC are paying for the renovation.
It will be the largest entrepreneurial center of its kind south of San Antonio, Wickett noted. In addition, the BCIC board voted last month to move its offices into the new center from its current home on East St. Charles Street, she said.
“The BCIC staff will be located there, so that will be a great resource,” Wickett said. “Imagine all the skills and talents represented by BCIC’s staff that will be right there in the eBridge Center to help support budding entrepreneurs.”
The opening was originally scheduled for February but has been delayed by supply chain issues, she said, adding that BCIC is now “cautiously hoping for April.”
“I wouldn’t place any bets on that,” Wickett said. “So much of this is just out of our control. Things are moving along as quickly as they can given the circumstances.”
All the same, when it does open the facility will have a huge impact on Brownsville, she predicted.
“I think that the opening of the eBridge Center is going to be transformational for our community, because I think that entrepreneurship is kind of a natural bent for people in our community,” Wickett said.
“Think about all the informal entrepreneurship that goes on. If we can help formalize that and give people the tools and the skills and the support that they need to really blast off with their entrepreneurship idea, I think it’s going to change our community in really beautiful ways.”
Meanwhile, her aim and that of the BCIC board is to accelerate the organization’s momentum, keep following the strategic plan, achieve goals that have been set, and always be on the lookout for new economic development opportunities, she said.
BCIC welcomes three new board members as well: Murad Abusalim, Cesar Lopez and Linda Macias join Wickett and board members Zoraima Diaz, Jill Dominguez and Mark Horowitz in “providing direction and leadership to BCIC’s strategic plan, goals and objectives,” according to a press release.
Mejia welcomed the newly appointed members.
“We are certain their experience and direction will be valuable to the board in helping BCIC achieve its mission of enhancing quality of life through innovative and equitable economic development initiatives,” he said.
