Kelly Nygaard, president and CEO of Discover Stillwater, is passionate about telling the stories of the communities she adores—her former home in Faribault and her adopted home in Stillwater. She notes, “I have been fortunate that I love the communities I have represented. I think that resonates in our messaging and our branding because the love is authentic, and Stillwater has many great assets that I can speak about in a genuine way.”
Although Nygaard started out in radio as an on-air professional in Faribault, a job she did for nine years, she says she knew that wasn’t where she wanted to be long-term. While in that role, she says, “I had an opportunity to work part-time, in addition to my full-time [radio] role, with the Faribault Main Street Program, a downtown revitalization nonprofit under the umbrella of the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. I worked on meetings and events and some economic development, and I became passionate about community.”
The part-time role developed into a full-time job as the chamber’s tourism director overseeing the program and the city’s tourism efforts, so she left radio, remaining in the tourism director role for six years. “I really enjoyed it,” Nygaard says. “I learned a ton about marketing and about community, and I played a role in improving a community and telling the story of the town. I fell in love with that work.”
She came to Stillwater to take the top job three years ago, and one of her goals as president and CEO is to market the pretty St. Croix River town as a meetings and events host city. Why Stillwater? “People are looking for something that feels authentic and tangible, and something that has history and character. And they want experiences they can’t have elsewhere,” Nygaard says. “They want a place with a [strong] sense of identity, and Stillwater has that.”
Explore Minnesota honored Discover Stillwater at the 2026 Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference in Duluth this February for its marketing campaign promoting the Stillwater Treats Trail, which transformed nine individual sweets shops in the city into a unified, branded destination.
As Nygaard considers her career trajectory, she says, “I didn’t necessarily seek out working in this industry, but I think it is where I was meant to land. Even when I was working in radio, so much of what we did was telling the story of the community.” And she loves the industry’s overall positivity. “In a world where we are inundated with negative news, tourism is very uplifting work,” she says. “I get to highlight the best [aspects] of my community, and that is joyful for me to be a part of.”
