A Closer Look: Staci Bennett Executive director, Downtown Chamber of Commerce BY MICHAEL CRUMB, Senior Staff Writer Friday, June 4, 2021 6:00 AM At a Glance Family: Four cats and a dog Education: Bachelor’s degree from Iowa State, master’s in business administration from Drake University, working on a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary leadership from Creighton University Activities: Reading for pleasure, writing poetry, nature photography and gardening. Contact: sbennett@dtchamber.com Staci Bennett returned to downtown Des Moines when she began her new role as executive director of the Downtown Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 1. You may know her most recently from her work at Living History Farms, where she served for nearly two years as director of community relations, a position where she managed guest services, membership events and retail operations. Before that, she worked at the Des Moines Art Center. If you ask Bennett, she’ll tell you returning downtown during the pandemic has brought home the effect it has had on Downtown Chamber members. “I haven’t worked downtown for 10 years, so coming back downtown and seeing so few people and so little traffic when I’m used to it being this thriving place during the day, I wasn’t quite prepared for that.” The self-proclaimed introvert says that has helped her shape her goals and her organization’s mission to help its members thrive as they continue to recover from COVID-19.