Staff
Linda McCarthy began her tenure with Downtown Missoula in 1999 as the Executive Director of the Missoula Downtown Association (MDA). Under her leadership, the MDA created the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) in 2005 and the Missoula Downtown Foundation in 2010. Under the guidance of the BID and the MDA, McCarthy helped to guide the creation of the Downtown Master Plan in 2008-09. In 2014, he MDA, BID and MDF formalized their collaboration with the creation of the Downtown Missoula Partnership.
As the Executive Director of the Downtown Missoula Partnership, McCarthy is responsible for ensuring the DMP is executing its work plan across all spectrums. She works more specifically strategic planning, board development, communications and public relations, advocacy and implementation of the Downtown Master Plan.
McCarthy served on the Board of Directors of Destination Missoula from 1999-2016, serving as President in 2011-12, and she was the recipient of the 2016 Jay Award for the Missoula Tourism Person of the Year. She also served on the First Night Missoula Board of Directors from 1999-2001, and the Mountain West Track Club Board of Directors from 1994-2004. McCarthy currently serves on the Hall of Fame Committee for Grizzly Athletics.
She is a double graduate of The University of Montana, earning a B.A. in Communication Studies in 1991 and an M.A. in Public Administration in 1999. She was named the Montana Alumni of the Year in 2008. McCarthy previously served as a Sports Information Director for the University of Montana from 1989-99.
Originally from Dupuyer, Mont., she is married to Tom Gallagher, and their daughter, Madelyn, is a student at Hellgate High School. In her free time, McCarthy enjoys volleyball, hiking, cross-country skiing, boating and watching her daughter play ice hockey.
Robert Giblin has been with the Downtown Missoula Partnership since February 2011. He is responsible for all the organizational budgets, accounts payable and receivable, administrative contracts, human resource management, strategic planning and more.
A native of Boston, Mass., Giblin moved to Missoula in 2003, leading the migration of his father and five siblings (including twin sister Amy) to the Garden City. Giblin holds a B.A. in Accountancy and Finance from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH and will complete the MBA program at the University of Montana in May 2018.
In his volunteer time, Giblin serves on the Board of Directors of Missoula City Club and currently holds the position of Treasurer.
Before joining the DMP, Giblin did bookkeeping for his brother’s company, JPR Roofing, served as a Registered Financial Representative/Market Analyst at McLaughlin, Piven & Vogel Securities. He has also worked as a high school calculus teacher in New Hampshire and as a dog musher/tour guide in Alaska.
Robert enjoys golfing, biking and playing hockey. He is an avid New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox fan and loves being an uncle to his niece Emily.
Sarah Ferguson has served as the Operations Coordinator for the Downtown Missoula Partnership since April 2016. Prior to joining the DMP, she worked the Montanan Innocence Project.
A native of Omaha, Neb., Ferguson moved to Missoula from Minneapolis, Minn., in 2014, where she did marketing for a law firm and writing for a weekly arts and entertainment journal. She has a B.A. in Journalism and Advertising from the University of Nebraska.
Ferguson is responsible for the daily operations of the office, including communications, database management, publication design and layout, the Downtown Gift Card program and more. She is the point of contact for renting Caras Park and the boulevard banner, plus she oversees the planning and production of the annual Parade of Lights in December.
Ferguson has recently been selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Poverello Center, Missoula’s emergency shelter and soup kitchen.
Sarah married Missoula-native Kelly Clark in July 2017. In her free time, she enjoys music, art, writing and animals.
With a long career in sales, marketing, operations, and project management, Snow joined the Downtown Missoula Partnership in 2017. She spent most of her career in the private sector, working most recently for ABC Fox Montana, Montana Radio Company, and Bob Ward & Sons.
She has been a long-standing volunteer for multiple non-profit organizations throughout Missoula, including the DUI Task Force, Habitat for Humanity, Buckle Up Montana, Safe Kids Missoula, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, and the Missoula Downtown Foundation.
Snow served on the Missoula Downtown Foundation Board of Directors for three years before joining the staff of the Downtown Missoula Partnership.
A native of Bozeman, Mont., Snow has a B.A. in Communications & Public Relations from Montana State University.
Snow is primarily responsible for the acquisition of grant funding, as well as fundraising campaigns for improvements in Downtown Missoula.
Sommers joined the DMP in 2017, coming from the Hamilton School District, where she served as a theater arts teacher and manager of the Hamilton Performance Arts Center in 2014. Prior to that, she served the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust, as its Events Coordinator from 2007-2010 and later as the Executive Director from 2010-2014. She also served as the Executive Director of the Hamilton Players from 2001-2007.
Snow is responsible for membership recruitment and retention, as well as membership benefits and socials. She is also responsible for the Out to Lunch Summer Series, portions of River City Roots Festival, the Festival of Trees, as well as the annual awards banquet, summer barbecue and holiday party.
Pam Udall became the DMP’s first Business Development professional in 2017, relocating home to Missoula after nearly 25 years away.
Most recently Udall worked at UNLV, where she helped launch the university’s first School of Medicine. Prior to that she served for 10 years as the Media and PR Director for the Texas Medical Association, and she also served on the team that started the Texas Lottery in the 1990s.
Originally from Ronan, Mont., Udall earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of Montana, and then embarked upon a 25-year career in communications and program start-ups in Montana, Texas and Nevada.
Udall is responsible for tracking investment and business activity in Downtown Missoula, formalizing business recruitment strategies, strengthening connections with Missoula’s economic development partners, deploying economic impact and community opinion analyses, and managing the Downtown business and property inventories.
Kalina Wickham returned to the Downtown Missoula Partnership in 2017 as the Customer Service Coordinator after serving as a student intern in 2015.
A native of Puyallup, Wash., she earned a B.A. Liberal Studies in 2015 with a certificate in Entertainment Management from the University of Montana. Wickham is responsible for frontline services, including visitor information services, gift card sales, data management, communications, mailings, event support services and more.
Prior to her appointment with the DMP, Wickham served as an event coordinator at the Tacoma Dome in Washington. She also works part-time for Logjam Presents and MacKenzie River Pizza Company.
Wickham lives with her boyfriend Charlie and enjoys music, concerts, and spending time with her dog in her free time.
Lincoln Mansch joined the Downtown Missoula Partnership in May of 2018. He will be directly responsible for all broad-based marketing of Downtown Missoula; event planning, production and marketing; gift card marketing; and social media outreach. His primary events include the Downtown ToNight Summer Series, River City Roots Festival, Small Business Saturday, Winter BrewFest, and Garden City BrewFest.
A 2008 graduate of Loyola Sacred Heart High School, Mansch attended Peru State College in Peru, Neb., where he earned a B.S. in Communications, Sports Management and Exercise Science and played baseball for the Bobcats. Mansch earned an M.S. in Tourism Administration, Sports Management & Hospitality from the George Washington University in 2016.
Mansch served as the assistant director of media and public relations for the athletic department at the University of Wyoming, where he handled all sports information responsibilities for volleyball, wrestling, swimming & diving, and golf from 2015-2018. He also worked in medical records at Partnership Health Center in Missoula for several years and worked at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. and Tandem Sports & Entertainment in Arlington, Va.
