BATH, Maine — Main Street Bath President Brian Hatch announced Monday that Carolyn Lockwood, a city councilor and former community development coordinator for the city, has been chosen to serve as the organization’s director.

As a result, Lockwood has submitted her resignation from the council, effective Aug. 31. Her term ends December 2015 and the council will meet Wednesday night to consider accepting her resignation and conducting a special election Nov. 4 to fill the vacant seat for the remainder of the term.

According to Hatch, Lockwood was chosen from a strong field of candidates for the position and replaces Jennifer Geiger, who served as the organization’s director for five years until July, when she joined the Maine Office of Tourism as head of public relations and communications.

Lockwood, a bureau director at the Maine Department of Labor, brings more than two decades of project management and community and economic development experience to the position, according to a news release.

In her role as Ward 3 councilor, she represents the downtown and chairs the council’s Economic Development Committee.

“Although I’ll be resigning as a city councilor, I couldn’t imagine a better place to be headed,” Lockwood said. “I’ve been a longtime proponent of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program, have been on the board of Main Street, chaired events, and have the energy to continue the momentum that MSB has built over the last 13 years. This truly is a perfect fit.”

Lockwood, who has lived in Bath for 12 years, said she applied for the director position for Main Street Bath five years ago and has wanted to get back to Bath. She has gained a lot of experience in the last five years, working for the city and on Main Street Bath promotions, events and design committees, and also serving on the MSB board at one point.

Serving on the City Council provided a big educational component, Lockwood said, allowing her to work on partnerships and telling the community what Main Street Bath does.

Though there is nothing in the city charter requiring her to resign from the council upon stepping into the Main Street Bath director position, Lockwood said she felt she wouldn’t be as effective an advocate for her constituents or Main Street Bath by trying to do both — and would have to stay silent on downtown issues as they relate to Main Street Bath.

There is a lot of overlap between the two positions and “I figured there are plenty of people who can represent the downtown — residents and businesses,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood studied art history at Colby College and has a master’s degree from Columbia University, where she studied historic preservation. As a student in 1996, she introduced the concept of the Main Street program to a small town in New Jersey near her childhood home.

She moved to Bath in 2002 and has been an active member of the community, particularly Sagadahoc Preservation Inc., where she was president.

As director of Main Street Bath, Lockwood will be responsible for managing programs to preserve and promote Bath’s historic downtown. Bath, “Maine’s Cool Little City,” was named by the National Trust as one of the nation’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations in 2005; and in 2012, Main Street Bath received a Great American Main Street Award for organizational excellence from the National Main Streets Program.

Lockwood, who will now be able to walk to work, said Monday, “It will be great. I am really excited to work with all the businesses and volunteers, and keep on trucking.”