If you feel the winds of change blowing through NOHO, there’s a good reason. Christina Lucas is back in town.

Downtown was able to grab a quick chat with Christina about her career, vision, and tenacity.

Christina Lucas, A Leading Voice — Photo by Universal Admedia

Fresh off her multi-year world tour with insurance giant AIG –

Christina returns to Manhattan as an executive within Global Claims. It’s a role she’s undeniably suited for, having successfully led hundreds of people and managed multiple business units from Miami to Tokyo to Bulgaria, where she was in charge of over 500 multi-lingual insurance professionals supporting the UK and Western Europe. And everywhere she goes she brings change with her, transforming divisions to deliver groundbreaking results.

Bright and engaging, Christina is naturally drawn to the energy and diversity of life in NoHo. Slipping spur-of-the-moment into a table at Atla, waiting patiently for sushi at Uchū, or shopping at DiPalo’s to prepare an impromptu antipasti platter for friends in her home.

When Christina steps out, she’s always dressed for success –

whether she is heading out for tennis, attending an art gallery showing, delivering a keynote address, or discussing global trends with business leaders. “A solid, 90% of what I wear to work is, St. John,” she admits. “But I feel absolutely inspired when I wear Anya Ponorovskaya. I feel like I can do anything.”

Apparently, Christina can do anything she sets her mind to.

Fearless and courageous even at the age of 8, she boarded a jet from Louisville, Kentucky, for Wiesbaden, Germany, to join her mother who was serving in the U.S. Army. “I knew that I wanted to be a global citizen, to be international and see the world,” Christina says. “Now, I’m so glad to be back in Manhattan. It’s the right change for me right now.”

Christina Lucas is Senior Vice President, Global Claims Business Performance at AIG.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Georgetown University, and a Masters of Information Technology from American Intercontinental University. She currently lives in Manhattan, speaks five languages, and is passionate about the arts, cooking, and tennis.

You can find her on Instagram at Instagram link.

Former City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin has been selected to replace the late Elizabeth Berger as president of the Alliance for Downtown New York.

Lappin, who represented the East Side in the Council for six years until 2013, ran for Manhattan borough president last year and is now turning her focus to the Downtown Alliance’s business improvement district.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Downtown Alliance and eager to lead such an accomplished team,” Lappin said in a statement. “It is particularly exciting to be taking the helm at the Alliance at this point in the district’s history.”

Ms. Berger passed away in August from pancreatic cancer.

Lappin replaces Elizabeth Berger, the former Downtown Alliance president and longtime advocate of Lower Manhattan, who died of pancreatic cancer in August.

“The transformation unfolding in Lower Manhattan is inspiring,” Lappin said in the statement. “Few places anywhere can boast of the constellation of game-changing projects underway and nearing fruition. Lower Manhattan is an extraordinary place. Working on behalf of the area’s businesses, residents, workers and visitors will be an honor and a privilege. ”

Prior to holding office, Ms. Lappin served as a senior advisor to Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who also represented the fifth district on the New York City Council. In 2011, she was selected to be a Rodel Fellow by the Aspen Institute, a renowned international think tank. The program is focused on transcending political partisanship to address overarching questions of leadership and governance. Alumni include Congresswomen Gabby Giffords and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Ms. Lappin is a native New Yorker who graduated from Georgetown University with high honors and Stuyvesant High School where she was in the first class to graduate from its Lower Manhattan location.