Helen Ramirez

What we talked about

Growth that reaches local businesses

Helen Ramirez looks at San Marcos as a connected economy, not a collection of separate projects. In this Making Names conversation with Aidan Evans, the city's director of economic and local business development connects downtown, Texas State University, tourism, athletics and the regional airport. Her department's local-business focus matters as much as business recruitment. The question is how activity in one part of the city can create opportunities elsewhere, including for the restaurants, shops and smaller employers already serving the community.

Turning visitors into customers

Texas State athletics offers one example. Ramirez sees visiting fans as potential weekend customers, not just people attending a game. She describes helping retailers and restaurants understand what is coming so they can prepare experiences, promotions and services for visitors. The same thinking connects attractions along the highway with downtown, shopping and the river. Rather than assuming tourism spending will automatically spread, she wants local businesses involved early enough to benefit. It is an approach that gives business owners something practical to do with the city's growth story.

A place for students to build their futures

The conversation also follows the connection between university research, young companies and local jobs. Ramirez discusses Texas State's STAR Park and the region's interest in aviation and aerospace. What excites her is not only attracting established employers, but giving smaller innovators room to grow. Keeping graduates in the area is part of that ambition. She wants people to see a path from studying locally to building a career and a life there. That makes talent retention a community-development question as well as an employer concern.

Negotiating benefits people can understand

Ramirez draws on her experience in Hutto and Brownsville when discussing development agreements and public-private partnerships. She describes the work as a negotiation in which the community's needs should be visible, whether the subject is wages, public facilities or access to shared amenities. Her examples include a developer contributing toward a fire station and agreements that tie community facilities to construction milestones. The larger point is accountability: residents should understand what a development brings, and commitments should be specific enough to follow. Announcing a project is only part of explaining why it belongs in the community.

Communication and culture are part of the work

For Ramirez, collaboration inside city government and openness outside it support the same goal. She recalls working to move development departments out of silos and create a culture where people can acknowledge a mistake, learn and continue. She also encourages companies to introduce themselves and explain how they intend to participate in the community. Looking ahead, she discusses connecting local vendors with institutional buyers through events that make procurement more approachable. Across these examples, economic development is about helping people navigate opportunities, not simply asking them to accept change.