COEUR d'ALENE - She might be small, but she's a big name in Idaho economic development. Gynii Abracosa Gilliam of Boise was introduced Tuesday as the new president of Jobs Plus, Inc., the region's nonprofit economic development agency.

Idaho's chief economic development officer in 2012 and 2013 and an economic development veteran in small and large communities for more than 20 years, Gilliam takes over for Steve Griffitts, who stepped down in early January after 12 years leading Jobs Plus.

Asked if there's any pressure becoming just the third Jobs Plus president since its inception in 1987, Gilliam didn't hesitate.

"No, because I'm going to stand on their [Griffitts and Bob Potter] shoulders and reach even higher," she said. "I'm short and they're both tall, so that's great!"

Patty Shea, Jobs Plus board chair, said Gilliam also stood above the other 16 applicants for the job.

"One, the depth of her experience on all levels - local, state, regional and national - relationships that she's already garnered," Shea said of Gilliam's traits that stood out. "She understands where we're headed with our new vision because we're changing that a little bit.

"The other thing is, she used the words 'partnership, collaboration, energizing, getting people engaged' - those words were used over and over again. To see her energy and passion, she didn't have to mention those; those are [evident] right there."

Jim Hawkins, Idaho Department of Commerce director under governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt, has worked with Gilliam on economic development for several years. He said North Idaho is in for a treat.

"She's going to be fantastic," Hawkins said. "She's as fine an economic development person as I've ever worked with."

Gilliam, who actually started work Monday and drove all over Kootenai County with an eye on potential business expansion, said bringing in new companies will be part of the plan, but not necessarily the biggest part.

"There's three segments to job creation: You do that through recruiting new businesses, you do that for your existing companies that are growing, and you do that with entrepreneurial development," she said, adding that roughly 80 percent of job creation nationally comes from business retention and expansion. "We're diversifying our approach to job creation. We really need to find that nice balance between all three of those segments."

Gilliam's economic development umbrella will cover far more than the agency's board of directors and closest supporters, she said.

"One of our biggest goals is to really engage the community - the leaders, whether it's the businesses or the individual residents, just everybody," she said.

That engagement will include lead generation, helping existing businesses with whatever they need, and promoting entrepreneurial development, she said.

Asked how she plans to do that, she replied: "It's easy. You just reach out and you ask for their help."

Shea again expressed gratitude to Potter and to Griffitts for their many years of work building Jobs Plus the right way.

"Bob Potter and all the community members who started this back in 1987 - huge," she said. "What a mark in our history here. We got Steve in - that was a mark in time. Again we reinforced that yes, we're doing the right things so let's keep going.

"And I believe right now in 2015 this is another mark, a milestone in where we're headed. We mined all that good information, all those relationships, and now we're going to jump forward."