GUILDERLAND — After leading the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce through a time of upheaval, Danielle Walsh is moving on.

“I’ll be doing economic development in my home community, Schenectady,” she told The Enterprise on Tuesday.

Walsh was 27 when she started her first executive post, at the chamber, in January 2020.

She had worked previously at Discover Albany, a not-for-profit that promotes Albany County tourism.

The pandemic hit two months after Walsh became the chamber’s executive director. “We kind of had to throw everything out the window,” she said. “We found creative ways to stay relevant.”

During her tenure, the chamber awarded three Cooperative Marketing Program grants, new members joined, the retention rate improved, and an Advocacy and Economic Development Committee was formed.

The chamber worked with Crossgates Mall to host a job fair as a lot of the mall’s tenants were struggling to find workers.

“It was a difficult time for many businesses,” Walsh said.

Early on in the pandemic, Walsh surveyed chamber members and learned “there’s two main things they need right now,” she told The Enterprise in 2020. The first was operating funds, which she said the chamber was not large enough to provide. And the second is help with marketing and promotion.

Using $10,000 from the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency, Walsh set up a marketing cooperative fund where members would apply to the fund to receive matching grants for a variety of promotional projects.

Walsh modeled her idea on a program in Richmond, British Columbia that she learned of at a conference when working for Discover Albany.

As the nation went through a racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd — a Black man, under the knee of a white Mineapolis police officer — Walsh, in July 2020, issued a statement that “we stand with the Black community of Guilderland and beyond.”

“I think the most important thing that I have learned personally and continue to learn is that systemic racism affects so many more areas of our society than we ever could have thought and there is a lot of work to be done,” she told The Enterprise at the time.

Walsh, who is white, said she would like to start by “talking to more business owners of color to find out if there are challenges and issues where we could assist.” 

This week, Walsh listed, among her initiatives that she takes pride in, the redesign of the chamber’s business directory — the new 2022-23 guide was just published — which includes information on things to do in town.

She hosted the annual awards celebration, which was virtual in 2020 and in-person in 2021, and for the first time created a video of the award-winning businesses, available on the chamber’s website.

Walsh said she was grateful for a supportive board and a welcoming public and called leaving “bittersweet.”

Kathy Burbank, who led the chamber for seven years before moving on in 2013, will fill in as director until a new director is found.

After a year-long stint leading Community Caregivers, Burbank has been a real-estate agent for the last seven years.

She’ll keep that job while she helps out the chamber for the next three to six months, Burbank told The Enterprise. “I told the chambers I’d take a little less clients so they can take their time to find the right person,” Burbank said.

Walsh has launched a golden anniversary celebration for the chamber, which was founded in 1972, with the goal of bringing in 50 new members.

Walsh said of Burbank, “She lives in Guilderland and has a lot of community ties. She’s excited to be bringing folks back.”

“I am excited but know the way we do business has totally changed since I was here,” Burbank told The Enterprise.

She explained, reflecting on the regular in-person mixers the chamber used to hold monthly, “My take is chambers aren’t doing a lot of networking events these days. People just aren’t getting up at 7 every morning and putting on a suit to go to work … Every day is Casual Friday.”

Burbank said of the change in work habits, “I think it’s COVID-driven, but I also think it was a long time coming. The days of working 65 hours a week at the office are gone. There’s more work-life balance now … Businesses don’t automatically think of joining the chamber when they come to Guilderland.”

The Guilderland Chamber currently has 250 members, said Burbank, so adding another 50 members for its 50th anniversary will be a reach.

“I have my work cut out for me,” she concluded.