Kylie Diaz Named Vice President of Community Engagement

In his first major hire since being named Visit St. Pete/Clearwater President/CEO, Brian Lowack today named Kylie Diazas the organization’s Vice President of Community Engagement. In her role, Diaz will oversee the Visit St. Pete/Clearwater Community Relations, Brand Activations, and Funding Programs – including the Elite Event programming.

Diaz joins Visit St. Pete/Clearwater from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where she served as the Director of Tourism since 2018. In that role, she oversaw community and hospitality relations, supervising a team responsible for brand activations and a CMA-branded hotel. Her responsibilities included managing community partnerships with local hotels, destination marketing organizations, sports teams, chambers of commerce, business leaders, and tour operators, as well as overseeing CMA advertising.

“Kylie’s reputation within the St. Pete/Clearwater community precedes her,” Lowack said. “She has developed meaningful relationships with our hotels and chambers and has created innovative promotional activations to generate interest and partnerships. Her experience will be an outstanding addition to our talented Community Engagement and Brand Activations teams, and I could not be more excited to add Kylie to our leadership team.”

Diaz began working in hospitality during her time at Hunter College University in New York City, where she graduated cum laude as a Golden Key National Honor Society member. Her career journey took her to South Carolina before relocating to Pinellas County in 2016 when she joined Salamander Hotel & Resorts (Innisbrook) in Senior Sales.

In addition to her bachelor’s degree from Hunter, Diaz has obtained an additional Digital Marketing Continuing Education Certificate from Columbia University as well as a Hospitality and Tourism Management Continuing Education Certificate from FAU.

Diaz joins another recent hire made by Lowack with Jason Latimer joining the Visit St. Pete/Clearwater staff as Director of Public Relations. A native of the Tampa Bay area, Latimer has more than 20 years of communications experience in sports, entertainment, and government. He has worked for some of the most prominent brands in sports, including the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees, Miami Marlins, and University of Florida football.