Patience Fairbrother Named Vice President, Talent Attraction  

March 22, 2023

Development Counsellors International (DCI) is pleased to announce that Patience Fairbrother has been named Vice President, Talent Attraction. In this role, Patience will oversee DCI’s Talent Attraction practice area, which helps cities, states, regions and countries to attract the workforce of the future through custom research and targeted marketing campaigns.

In response to the increasing challenges that communities around the U.S. and the globe are facing as they navigate workforce and skill set shortages, in 2022, DCI officially designated Talent Attraction its third practice area after 62 years of specializing in economic development and tourism marketing aimed at helping destinations around the world attract business investment and visitors to spur economic growth. Since 2016, DCI’s annual Talent Wars research has become a sought-after study for organizations tasked with marketing their community to attract new residents and is the foundation of many campaigns.

Patience brings almost nine years of place-marketing experience to this new role. Since joining DCI in 2014, she has taken on numerous roles and responsibilities, starting out in public relations and creative services and, most recently, leading our website team as Vice President, Brand & Digital Strategy.

Spearheading the brand and UX/UI strategies for more than a dozen websites and campaigns, Patience’s work has earned recognition from the Summit Creative Awards, AVA Digital Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards, International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Excellence in Economic Development Awards, and Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) Awards.

Recently, Patience worked with Florida Power & Light to launch a statewide talent attraction campaign for Florida, WonderFL, which includes a multichannel state-level marketing campaign and eight regional campaigns designed to fill Florida’s talent pipeline. Other notable Talent Attraction projects include  MoveUpstateSC,  Chattanooga Calling,  Find Your Center NC  and  Work in Northern Virginia. She has also been a featured speaker on destination marketing research and best practices at conferences including Destinations InternationalECONOMIX, the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Annual Conference, and Young Smart & Local, where she will return as a keynote speaker in 2023.

Patience is also an embodiment of DCI’s values. She embraces a passion for all places, whether it be the rural town in Ohio where she attended college or Brooklyn, NY where she now resides. Her ability to thrive in different roles is a testament to her willingness to share her talents. Patience also serves as co-chair of DCI’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) initiative.

We cannot wait to see you take on this role, Patience!

Written by

Julie Curtin

President, Economic Development Practice