There'll be a new Main Street manager on the job in downtown Cambridge early next year, and Mari Stanley is eager to step into that role.

"The more I learn about the position, the more excited I am," Stanley said. "I'm thrilled by the prospect of working with the great folks involved in Main Street."

The hiring of Stanley was announced to the Main Street Board of Directors recently by President Phil Feldman. Feldman told the board that a five-person search committee felt that Stanley possessed the perfect mix of passion, people skills, and professional expertise for the position.

An attorney, Stanley worked for much of the last decade in Washington, DC at National Public Radio. She handled all real estate matters for NPR at a time when the organization was building a major new headquarters facility. More recently, she started her own landscape design business while also handling marketing and client relations for a family-run architecture and construction business.

"We're very excited to bring Mari on board," Feldman said, "and we're confident that our business community, our donors, and our volunteers are going to be just as excited once they meet Mari and work with her."

A volunteer-driven nonprofit, Cambridge Main Street is perhaps best known in the community for the events its volunteers put on in the downtown area-Second Saturdays, the Taste of Cambridge, Summer Sendoff among them. The organization also works to attract new businesses, boost existing ones, improve the downtown streetscape, and market the exciting revitalization that continues to gain momentum in the downtown area. Projects spearheaded by its volunteers have won four statewide awards in the last two years.

Current Main Street director Jim Duffy will be staying on the job through the transition to help introduce Stanley to the community. "I'm very excited to start helping Mari get acclimated to the job," Duffy said. "I've been very impressed in our meetings, and I can't wait to see the great things she helps our volunteers accomplish going forward."

Stanley and her husband were already in the process of moving to the Cambridge area before she applied for the job, having purchased a home in the Neck District of Dorchester County. Stanley is expected to be on the job full time sometime in February.

To keep up to date on the new director's arrival and other developments in downtown Cambridge, please visit www.cambridgemainstreet.com or www.facebook.com/CambridgeMainStreet.