By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — When Thomas A. Mann, Jr. read the on-line ad for an executive director of the Pawtucket Foundation, he knew he had met his match. When the Pawtucket Foundation members met Mann, they felt the same, and hired the 32-year-old former Air Force captain and urban planner for their top post.

Mann, a native of Tupelo, Mississippi, will replace Richard Davis, who served as the Pawtucket Foundation’s executive director for almost seven years. Davis, 59, has taken a new job in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
At a press conference held Monday at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, Mann acknowledged the contributions of his predecessor, and said that everywhere he goes, he is told that he has “big shoes to fill.” However, the lanky Mann joked that since he wears a size 14, he thinks he’s got that covered.
Mann spoke of graduating from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, and of spending eight years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force after completing the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He began as a logistics planner and later served as a civil engineer officer, where he said he honed his leadership skills, vision and experience with managing large scale fiscal budgets and contracts.
After moving on to become an Air Force ROTC instructor and urban design teaching assistant at Rutgers University, Mann also completed a master’s degree in city and regional planning. “I felt a calling to leave the military and work on urban design challenges, he said.
In 2007, he began working as an urban design associate at A. Nelessen Associates, a nationally recognized firm. However, after his wife, the Pawtucket-born-and-raised Ewa Dzwierzynski, took a pharmacy
specialist position at a Rhode Island hospital, Mann said he began searching for a job in the region as well. He said he applied for the Pawtucket Foundation executive director’s job, thinking that while it sounded perfect for him, “They’re never going to hire a kid from Mississippi. But, here we are.”
Mann spoke optimistically about Pawtucket, saying he thinks its location between two major metropolitan areas, Boston and Providence, as well as its close proximity to the highways, bus lines, rail lines and waterways make it poised for successful economic development. “I am truly excited to be part of an organization that recognizes the tremendous need to reinvest in our existing urban places,” he stated.
Mann pointed out that, particularly in light of rising gasoline prices, companies and businesses that had moved out to the suburbs are once again looking at cities. Conversely, he said, employees are looking for ways to live closer to work and shorten their commutes. In addition, he said, the redevelopment of many of Pawtucket’s old mills as residences will naturally spur a downtown market for more grocery stores, laundrymats, restaurants and other types of service-oriented businesses.
“We have everything we need right here. The infrastructure is already set up,” noted Mann, adding that he is expecting to see an influx in both city dwellers and businesses within the next five to 10 years.
Responding to questions from the audience on some upcoming projects, he said that the redevelopment of Roosevelt Avenue and the former Paramount Cards/Conant Thread Mill property are priorities, along with Main Street and the surrounding downtown business areas. He also said that while tax incentives and other financial programs and policies serve as stimuli for redevelopment, he thinks an efficient, well thought out design is even more important. “I’m a strong advocate of strong urban design,” he said.