The former director of the Vicksburg-Warren Community Alliance has been elected president of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development.

Charlotte Koestler is executive director of the Stone County Economic Development Partnership. She is a past vice president of the Coast alliance.

Koestler has a bachelor’s degree in general business from the University of Mississippi, and is pursuing a doctoral degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.

The Coast alliance is an independent partnership of five economic development agencies that work to promote the six Mississippi counties nearest the Gulf of Mexico — George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River and Stone. The Vicksburg alliance was formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2007.