© 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Grand Center announces new president: Karin Hagaman

Karin Hagaman
Provided by Grand Center Inc.
Karin Hagaman

Grand Center Inc., which oversees development in the Midtown arts district, will be led by Karin Hagaman starting in mid-September. Currently head of project development at Cortex Innovation Community, Hagaman has experience in planning and executing the large-scale developments there.

Hagaman’s  work at the 3.5 acre Cortex development included “streetscape redevelopment,” according to a news release. Improving streets and public spaces will be the next phase of work in Grand Center.

Tom Voss, co-chair of the search committee, said, “The board is highly impressed with Karin’s urban development experience and her passion for our city and the arts.”

Before Cortex, Hagaman was with the St. Louis Development Corp., Development Strategies and St. Louis 2004. She has degrees from Harvard and Washington universities.

She will be taking over from Vince Schoemehl, who announced his retirement several months ago. Schoemehl has been president and chief executive of Grand Center since 2001. Before that, he served three terms as mayor of St. Louis.

Donna Korando started work in journalism at SIU’s Daily Egyptian in 1968. In between Carbondale and St. Louis Public Radio, she taught high school in Manitowoc, Wis., and worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the copy editor and letters editor for the editorial page from 1973-77. As an editorial writer from 1977-87, she covered Illinois and city politics, education, agriculture, family issues and sub-Saharan Africa. When she was editor of the Commentary Page from 1987-2003, the page won several awards from the Association of Opinion Page Editors. From 2003-07, she headed the features copy desk.