Jillian Finkle is the Deputy Director at Grow Smart Rhode Island, where she has held various roles since 2021. She oversees the organization’s initiatives related to economic development and placemaking, including Main Street RI, the developing effort to establish and manage a Main Street America Coordinating Program in the state.
Prior to joining Grow Smart RI, Jillian served as the Principal Planner for the City of Central Falls, RI and before that as the Coordinator of the Broad Street Regeneration Initiative, a joint planning and revitalization effort in the cities of Pawtucket, Central Falls and Cumberland, RI. She came to planning after many years as a museum professional, designing exhibits and managing programs for such institutions as the Providence Children’s Museum, the National Children’s Museum, the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, the Smithsonian Institution, and Providence PlayCorps, a program of the Providence Parks Department that provides open-ended play experiences in neighborhood parks around the city. For ten years she served on the board of the International Museum Theatre Alliance, including in the role of President. She holds a Masters in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and a Bachelors in Communications from Northwestern University, and is a 2020 graduate of Leadership Rhode Island.
