Susan Pollay is the former executive director of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, a position she held from September 1996 to the end of 2020. During that time she also served as associate city administrator from 2000-2002 – along with former city parks manager Ron Olson – during a transitional period after the resignation of city administrator Neil Berlin and before the hiring of a new administrator, Roger Fraser.
Susan Pollay at a February 2012 forum on sustainability. (Photo courtesy of The Ann Arbor Chronicle.)
Prior to joining the city staff, Pollay was executive director of the State Street Area Association from 1994-1996. She was assistant to the provost of the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities Inc. in Malaysia from 1993-1994, and from 1990-1993 served as executive director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.
Pollay has an undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of California-Santa Cruz, and a masters in communication studies from the University of Michigan.
As of 2014, she served on the board for The Ark, an Ann Arbor music venue; the University of Michigan Natural History Museum board of advisors; the International Downtown Association (IDA) board of directors, and the getDowntown advisory board.
She is a former board member of the Washtenaw Community College Foundation.
In the News
Ann Arbor DDA bids farewell to Susan Pollay after 24 years leading downtown authority - MLive Ann Arbor, December 2 2020.
City Downtown Development Authority meeting canceled – Michigan Daily, Sept. 3, 2014
Downtown property owner at odds with Ann Arbor DDA over loading zone relocation – MLive Ann Arbor, Aug. 27, 2014
Column: DDA Pay Increases, Open Meetings – Ann Arbor Chronicle, July 22, 2014
Ann Arbor SPARK podcast – Jan. 9, 2013
