Jessica Greene spent much of her childhood in Reily Twp. and did lots of kids stuff like attending the summer concerts in the park, going trick or treating, visiting Santa. Later she played clarinet in Talawanda High School’s marching band and graduated from Miami University. She knows the area.

She spent the last seven years as vice president of programs at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County, so she also knows about non-profit management.

It seems almost inevitable that Greene would be hired as the new executive director of the renamed Oxford Visitors Bureau.

She takes over for Lil Fesperman, Visitors Bureau board president who filled in as the director after Diana Durr resigned earlier this year. The bureau, formerly known as the Oxford Visitors and Convention Bureau, had its name shortened, Fesperman said, because the board “realized there was no convention aspect.”

Greene is likely to bring a vast amount of experience, energy and enthusiasm to her new job.

I started my career at Big Brothers Big Sisters and really learned the ropes at a great non-profit organization,” she said. “Most people don’t know that it’s run like a business with strategic planning, setting metric goals and adhering to those numbers.

“At a non-profit you also learn to be creative, to keep it fun, and you can go far with enthusiasm. That’s what I’m going to try to bring to the bureau,” added Greene, who spent 12 years at Big Brothers Big Sisters. “I will miss them dearly and I still believe in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mission, but this felt right and it felt exciting to be working for my hometown.”

“It felt right to us, too,” said Fesperman, adding that Greene “knocked everybody’s socks off” during a three-hour interview. “The search committee and the board were unanimous in bringing her on board. That’s how right it felt.”

Greene noted that her family was involved in the Student Foreign Exchange program.

“Watching people’s reactions to seeing Oxford for the first time made me realize that Oxford is a beautiful town to a lot of people,” she said. “I really want to get out and share with this area and the country that Oxford is a unique and charming place to visit.”

Greene was asked about some of the early challenges she’s likely to face.

“I want to update our Web site and begin embracing social media, and how to bring it up to the level I want it to be,” she said. “With a limited budget.

Fesperman said she “was a little naive back in May” when she took over as acting director and added that she “never dreamed it would take until mid-November to hire a new executive director.”

Still, the bureau held its own under Fesperman’s leadership.

“In June we hired a new administrative assistant (Kim Daggy), and we were able to get out there and re-establish relationships,” Fesperman said. “We were able to stay open, pay the bills and put on successful music festivals.”

Fesperman emphasized that the Visitors Bureau “will continue to maintain its role to encourage tourism within the Oxford community and to provide resources and information to visitors” and added that the bureau will develop a new strategic plan moving into 2013 as it reaches out to new visitors and informs other communities of the “numerous amenities that Oxford offers.”

The Visitors Bureau, located at 13 W. Park Place, will hold an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, and residents are invited to come and meet Greene.

She and her husband, Andrew Greene, have a son, Anthony, 7, and a daughter, Addison, 5, both of whom attend Bogan Elementary School.