A community activist has been appointed by Premier Jim Prentice to run the Alberta government’s southern office in Calgary.

In the wake of last year’s flooding, Emma May headed up the Calgary River Communities Action Group that advocated for mitigation measures to prevent similar disasters from happening again.

As executive director of the McDougall Centre, May will be tasked with revitalizing the downtown McDougall Centre, Prentice announced on Wednesday.

“Her impressive, action-focused leadership after the 2013 floods served Albertans well and impressed me. Alberta is under new management and Ms. May is a perfect fit for my new team,” Prentice said in a written release.

Prentice said May's job is to animate the McDougall Centre and turn it into more of a people place.

“I want to see it, you know, bustling with life. I want to hear school children coming here to learn more about their government, and to see what a cabinet room looks like, to see what a caucus room looks like, you know. We want to see art from our communities here, we want business leaders coming, we want, you know, organizations from our cultural side here,” he said.

May said her new job is not political. She has previously worked as a realtor and a lawyer.