Ponca City Main Street will have a new Executive Director with Maci Heppel.

Heppel was born in Ponca City and had moved to Fairfax at the age of eight. She lived in Fairfax till she graduated from Woodland High School, but it was there in Fairfax that Heppel realized the importance of being involved with her community.

“It truly means a lot. I grew up in Fairfax, so everything you do in a town that size you do locally,” said Heppel. “So I’ve always grown up with that mindset. That connection you have with the community is so critical in a town that size, so to see it on that scale, then come to Ponca City, it’s even more critical here.”

Heppel moved back to Ponca City after high school and went to Northern Oklahoma College, graduating with a degree in social sciences. After graduation, she worked in banking at Eastman Bank (before it became Equity Bank) and also worked at Community National Bank. It was her banking experience that Heppel cites as helping her to foster networking opportunities and give her the tools to be best suited for the job.

“I think this job is the perfect fit for me because that is exactly what I want to do and what I’ve been involved with for the last ten years,” said Heppel. “And that’s the great thing about being in banking, because they’ve given me the opportunity to be so involved in the community.”

Heppel is very active in the community, being a board member of Ponca City Main Street since 2019, chairing the Main Street Brew Fest, being a Leadership Ponca City graduate, a Ponca City Police Academy graduate, being on the Peachtree Landing Board for three years and is the Peachtree Landing Board Vice President and will roll onto the President role in January.

Heppel is coming into the role of executive director amidst COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifting and is excited to revitalize Main Street.

“It’s very exciting, being on the board we had several challenges that came up with COVID and so we worked hard to find different means as far as fundraising and things like that,” said Heppel. “[We’re] getting back into planning Crazy Days and Brew Fest; there is just a lot of excitement to be able to have those events back.”

Heppel revealed that the current transformation strategies going forward have a focus on community connection, as well as arts and entertainment.

“Those transformations strategies will change and evolve as the board evolves. We want to have continual community involvement as far as bringing in new board members, new committee members and new volunteers,” said Heppel. “[We] want to do things that are just good morale for the community, fun memorable things you can tell your kids about. Making a lasting impression is very important for us.”

Heppel feels her background with the Board will make her transition into the role even more seamless.

Heppel will start as executive director for Ponca City Main Street on Wednesday, June 2.

We want to do things that are just good morale for the community, fun memorable things you can tell your kids about.

Maci Heppel Executive Director Ponca City Main Street