Mary Hopper
Executive Director
Hopper brings a wide range of experience to her job as UCP’s Executive Director, having served as an advocate for both neighborhoods and business corridors. Because of her work on City contracts, she has first-hand experience with street
design, road planning and transit projects as well as in forging better connectivity through the use of sidewalks and greenways. She served eight years on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission, the final two as its Chairman. Her work there included authoring the first report on Big Box retail and leading two summits on regional planning.
As a professional communicator, she has led two of the City’s communication associations and won both national and local awards for her work. She has direct experience with municipal service districts start ups, having been a 8+ year board member of Charlotte Uptown Development Corporation (predecessor to Charlotte Center City Partners) and serving on the founding body for South End.
Hopper has her undergraduate degree in Spanish from Georgia State University and her Master’s and Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Missouri - Columbia. She’s lived in Charlotte since 1967.
704.688.2483
mhopper@universitycitypartners.org