I Am Home: Katy Silliman

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Katy Silliman

By Jennie Renner | Photo provided

Katy Silliman was born and raised in Fort Wayne. She grew up on the southwest side of town and went to Homestead High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in college and then joined the Peace Corps and lived in West Africa for a couple of years.

After returning home, Silliman worked for the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership from 2006 to 2014, serving in several roles, including being the Vision 2020 Director. After a short stint in Cincinnati, she came back to Fort Wayne and worked as a controller for a company called GeneAlign. During this time her other “non-paying job” was as co-founder of the Middle Waves Music Festival. After that, she went to work at Three Rivers Distilling Company where she was the Vice President of Retail Operations.

In October 2021, Silliman was laid off due to the pandemic and found a remote role doing special projects for a property management company out of Chicago. Then someone forwarded her a job opportunity at Electric Works.

Silliman has lived in the West Central neighborhood for most of her adult life and remembers driving around the Electric Works campus thinking how cool it would be to be a part of its rebirth.

“When I saw the job posting, I had butterflies in my stomach because I was thinking, ‘I really want this job,’” she said. “And I just had to let it go to the universe and hope the stars would align.”

In July, Silliman became the Senior Experience Director for Electric Works. Serving as the public face of the organization when the owners can’t be there, she oversees daily operations, private and public events, community initiatives, and the Union Street Market. “It’s a weird combination of all of my past work experience,” said Silliman.

Silliman got married in October 2020 and said she and her husband are happy calling Fort Wayne home. “I feel like if you’re looking for a meaningful career and good friends and opportunities, I have that in spades, and so why look to go to a different city?”

“I was never one of those kids that was just itching to get away from Fort Wayne. I don’t know why because that seems like a very normal thing to do,” Silliman said laughing. She admitted she was “a pretty lucky kid.” “My dad was well connected, and I was able to get involved in community efforts working at the Partnership,” said Silliman. “As a young person, I got to interact with a lot of business leaders… it was just really cool to see the passion and commitment that others had for the community.”

“I’m so excited because I think Electric Works is such a cool project… And I think for me, it only gets better,” said Silliman. “I really appreciate the vision of (Electric Works) ownership that this is a community space. And that’s why I’m not going anywhere. The full G.E. campus during World War II was like 20,000 people daily coming here. And I want to see how we do 20,000 people again, in a whole new way.” a