With only four months on the job, Oak Harbor’s first full-time economic development director says she’s just finding her footing. But there’s one thing Barbara Spohn (pronounced “spawn”) is sure of: Everyone has a different idea about what her job is.

“The position can be defined in so many ways,” said Spohn. “Ask four people and they’ll each have a different priority: filling empty storefronts, building a hotel, opening a seafood restaurant, cleaning up the neighbor’s trash.”

Some directives, she said, are clear: make sure the economy is vibrant and sustainable. Create jobs. Bring in business, and ensure existing businesses can thrive.

It’s far too soon to judge her success in any of those undertakings, especially with a mayor who’s only been in office two months. But Spohn said she believes she’s well suited to the task.

For one thing, she’s an outsider, raised in Columbus, Ohio, and a graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in political science. That gives her a fresh eye, which she said sees “a city with such a great natural setting that has the potential to be a vibrant, entertaining, self-sufficient community.”

“I would not have come here if I didn’t see amazing potential.”

For another, she is well connected to national-scale developers, employers and investors. That will help her bring jobs to Oak Harbor, she said. “I want to bring my friends in and show them how cool this place is.”

Ideal jobs for the city would include sales offices, call centers, administrative centers, light manufacturing and “anything marine-oriented,” she said.

Oak Harbor has “a well-educated workforce and a lot of space,” she said. Employing the spouses of the city’s growing Navy population is an especially important challenge, she said.

Developing partnerships, such as Oak Harbor’s with Skagit Valley College, will prove key, she predicted.

The college is working to clarify which industries would do well in Oak Harbor and to train or retrain residents to fill those jobs, she said.

After graduation, Spohn did marketing and business development for architecture and engineering firms. She branched out into real estate development, working with major companies such as Coca-Cola, Sports Authority and Nationwide Insurance. She ran her own Atlanta-based consultancy, Marketing Strategies Inc., for 25 years, helping cities as large as Berlin and as small as Guin, Ala. attract businesses.

She did all that while raising two sons as a single mother. When her boys proved reluctant to leave the nest, she decided to move herself — to “head west, hit the water and stop.”

She found the Oak Harbor position advertised through the International Economic Development Council, came out from Atlanta to interview and got the job.

“It was a long shot, someone my age (62) and from out of town getting the job, but I did. I had two weeks to pack up my household and move 2,200 miles. What a great adventure!” she said, adding that, even if she hadn’t gotten the job, she would have moved here anyway.

To those who might bemoan Oak Harbor’s lack of central planning, sleepy downtown and lack of charm or even a distinctive identity, Spohn advises patience.

“There is a lot to do, and it can’t all be done at once,” she said. “As a developer, I’m used to doing things fast — buy the property, design the house, build the house. Here, I have to hold myself back and know that things will happen, but slowly.”

Spohn said she believes she’s part of a competent team, with newly elected Mayor Bob Severns, longtime Planning Director Steve Powers and a city council packed with  “smart, smart businesspeople who see what can be done.”

She will succeed at her task, she said, so long as “people are talking to each other, working for the same thing. I don’t think that has happened in the past.”