Former lawmaker tapped as DSA leader

Brian Mattson: Quade will be instrumental in developing vision for downtown Springfield.

Downtown Springfield Association announced early this month that former Rep. Crystal Quade, a Democrat who represented downtown Springfield’s Missouri House District 132 2017-25 and ran for governor in 2024, will serve as the nonprofit’s next executive director. Quade confirmed she will begin the new DSA role Feb. 17.

Quade told Springfield Business Journal in an interview that she applied for the role due to the challenges and opportunities linked to it, following eight years representing the neighborhood in the statehouse.

“I have lived, worked and loved downtown for so long,” Quade said, “and I truly believe that downtown’s success and vibrancy really is the heart of all things Springfield.”

Quade said she agreed with community perceptions that downtown businesses need to get on the same page and work together more collaboratively, and she said she wants DSA to help find solutions for “barriers” that hold back small and family-owned downtown businesses.

“We really need to, as an association and just downtown in general, bring folks out of their silos and start rowing in the same direction,” she said. “… A big part of this role is going to be that relationship-building, showing up and listening to our business owners, to the residents of downtown, to the folks who come downtown and the folks who don’t, to find out where are the opportunities and challenges that exist and really trying to come to that plan together and then executing those plans to make downtown a vibrant, exciting place that people want to be in.”

Quade is set to take on a role that had been open since June 30, 2025, after Rusty Worley, former executive director, announced he would step down after almost 20 years of leadership, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

DSA board President Brian Mattson, pastor of The Downtown Church, said about 40 candidates applied.

Asked about whether she intends to use the DSA executive director role to advocate for a proposed downtown convention and events center, Quade said “it might be too early to answer exactly what I am going to be advocating for in terms of public policy or votes that may happen,” as she has not yet started the job.

“My role will be to represent the different entities that exist downtown,” Quade said. “We’ve got the downtown business association, of course; we’ve got the [Community Improvement District], the downtown business champions, all of those folks, and then of course the residents of downtown will have a say in what that activation looks like and that activism may be. And so I don’t want to say yes or no until I dive into that role, honestly … and find out what is expected of me.”

Asked to evaluate downtown today and describe what she wants to see a year from now, Quade acknowledged many businesses are struggling: “I would say that is not just localized to downtown. I think that brick-and-mortars are having a difficult time right now in our country in general.”

Quade added, “What I would like to see over the next year is of course we want to see businesses thriving and opening up downtown and really honing in on the types of businesses that we’re missing and trying to recruit them in there in partnership with the city. But really the overarching goal for me is I want downtown to be a safe, exciting place for everyone.”

Quade said downtown already hosts “fantastic” events, but she wants the neighborhood to thrive in addition to event traffic.

“I want a 2 o’clock on a Tuesday, for there to be folks walking up and down the street frequenting our businesses and spending their money there,” she said.

Asked about projects like the city’s plan for Jordan Creek renewal and upcoming events including Route 66 hundred-year celebrations and the 250th anniversary of the United States, Quade said the activities are “huge” for downtown, and that it’s key to make their success sustainable.

“It’s not just about these one-time investments,” she said. “We have to take those investments and turn them into long-term success. And so that’s going to be a big part of my role, is leaning into deep understanding of what opportunities these things bring us and then leveraging new bodies, the new people coming downtown, maybe for the first time. How do we turn those people into folks who come downtown all the time, and not just for these exciting projects and events?”

In an interview with SBJ, Mattson said DSA is “super excited” for Quade to take on the job.

“Obviously, she’s a well-known name [for] people in Springfield, around our region and in the state,” Mattson said, “and she’s just got such a strong resume of relationship-building, collaboration, finding ways to work across all sorts of lines.”

Mattson noted that “there hasn’t been necessarily this collaborative relationship-building history” among the many small businesses and other entities that make up downtown’s pool of stakeholders.

“All of those people are doing great work, but we feel like it’s time to bring them all together so that they’re all on the same page, going the same direction,” Mattson said. “Crystal just has the relationship-building prowess to make sure that works.”

Mattson touched on the search process for a new DSA leader: “And that’s been one of the difficulties with this position and Downtown Springfield Association, for years, is that you’re trying to please a bunch of different people – small-, medium- and large-size entities to gain consensus and go forward. The board, and our relationships with other boards and institutions, a lot of those discussions have been happening in the backgrounds at the same time as the discussions with the search committee of finding the right executive director.”

Mattson said that the DSA board’s goal is that in a year’s time, the association and its collaborators and stakeholders will have “developed a clear vision and a roadmap to get to that preferred future.”

“Crystal is going to be instrumental in the process of developing that vision, along with our stakeholders,” Mattson said. “There’s no one clear solution, this is what it looks like. But the first step is getting everybody on the same page. So, collaboration-related, is the No. 1 thing.”

Quade’s salary is undisclosed, Mattson told SBJ; Quade characterized it as competitive.

Quade said that since her term in elected office ended, she’s been running her own firm, CQ Strategies LLC, consulting for nonprofits and political movements. She acknowledged that taking on the DSA leadership role means she’s out of elected politics at this time.

“I’m not going to say I will never run for office again,” Quade said. “I do plan to continue to engage in things that impact Missouri that we all deeply care about. But I’m really excited for this next chapter, to not be running for office and to be investing my time and energy in the city that I love.”