Tiffany O’Donnell named CBJ’s 2024 Most Influential Leader

Even as a prominent local figure who’s now been named the Corridor Business Journal’s Most Influential Leader for 2024, Tiffany O’Donnell says she has never considered herself an insider.

“When I look at myself as a leader, I describe myself as an outsider on the inside,” Ms. O’Donnell said during a recent wide-ranging sit-down interview at Cedar Rapids City Hall.

Later in the same interview, Ms. O’Donnell reinforced the point.

“I liken myself a little bit to Forrest Gump,” she said, “a really ordinary person who finds herself in some extraordinary situations, and that's the lens through which I view my leadership.”

In an official sense, Ms. O’Donnell’s influential leadership has fully emerged in recent years.

She first worked with Iowa Women Lead Change in 2012, moderating a conversation with Martha Stewart, one of the conference’s featured attendees.

She volunteered with the organization in subsequent years, and became part of the succession planning conversation. When IWLC founder Diane Ramsey retired, Ms. O’Donnell formally joined the organization as its first COO. She then became CEO in 2017 and, as she describes it, “never looked back.”

And in 2021, she won a three-way race for mayor of Cedar Rapids, defeating TrueNorth employee and Advocates for Social Justice vice president Amara Andrews in a runoff election to succeed former mayor Brad Hart for a four-year term.

Ms. O’Donnell was born Feb. 21, 1969, to parents Joe and Melanie DiBernardo. Her father was a first-generation American whose parents emigrated from Sicily to the south side of Chicago, while her mother was born in Florida and moved to Chicago as a young teen. The family moved several times, including stops in Florissant, Missouri and in Evergreen Park and Decatur, Illinois, before landing in Bettendorf in 1973.

Ms. O’Donnell graduated from Bettendorf High School in 1987 and enrolled at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where she graduated in 1991 with majors in French and communications.

In 1987, she won the title of Miss Scott County and went on to be named Miss Iowa 1988, competing in the Miss America pageant in 1989 before returning to DePauw to complete her studies.

She worked as a marketing planner at Uticor Technology in Bettendorf and did overnight news updates at WQAD-TV in Moline on Wednesdays and Fridays. Her description of that role: “Type on 5-ply paper, memorize 30 seconds of copy, set my shot, height with a broom, focus on a Coke can, master control would pop me up whenever it hit.”

After interviewing for multiple positions without success, Ms. O’Donnell paid $500 to attend a “Get Your First Job in TV” seminar hosted by Frank N. Magid & Associates in Cedar Rapids.

After marrying her husband Michael, Ms. O’Donnell moved to Des Moines, and in 1993, using a contact she had at the Magid Institute, she landed a job interview at WHO-TV.

“The station was starting a new Saturday morning show and needed a weather/news anchor.” she said. “I worked 20 hours a week doing that, and the other half I worked as a temp for Bankers Trust, the Iowa Motor Truck Association and Simonson Sinclair Architects.

“I was actually the weather lady as the floods of ’93 began to rise,” she noted. “It was a Saturday morning. The floods were my first opportunity to go ‘live.’ Shortly after that, I got hired full-time and began reporting and anchoring.”

After moving up to an anchor role at WHO, Ms. O’Donnell moved to Dallas, Texas, for her husband’s new job. Newly pregnant with the couple’s first daughter, Ms. O’Donnell stayed at home to raise her and did freelance work for Drkoop.com and crisis management for Wixted Pope, a public relations firm now known as Wixted & Associates, supporting their work with the STP nuclear plant near Houston.

After declining an offer to return to WHO, Ms. O’Donnell decided to continue working at home in freelance roles. But then, through a friendship between the general managers of WHO and KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids, Ms. O’Donnell learned that longtime KGAN anchor Amy Johnson was departing the station. She interviewed for the position, and subsequently embarked on a 15-year stint as an Emmy Award-winning news anchor at CBS2/Fox 28.

In 2008, the O’Donnells bought a company together – The Rose Company, now known as BizFitters, a Cedar Rapids-based firm providing promotional products for businesses and organizations. Mr. O’Donnell now owns that firm outright.

The O’Donnells have two daughters. Devon, 25, graduated from the University of Vermont and lives and works in Chicago with data analytics, and Lucci, 21, is a senior at Indiana University, majoring in journalism and public relations.

The O’Donnells also have a trio of four-legged family members – Charlotte, 13, an Old English sheepdog; Woody, 3, a golden retriever; and a cat, Angel, 18.

Ms. O’Donnell said she “loves to cook, loves the theatre, non-fiction and travel. As an introvert, I love people but energize alone.”

We asked Ms. O’Donnell a range of questions about her experiences and her views on key issues in the community, ranging from small business growth to worker recruitment and retention, flood recovery and the pursuit of a gaming license for a new casino in Cedar Rapids. She also addressed her political aspirations and her experience as a licensed private pilot. What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the discussion, in question-and-answer format.

---

CBJ: You hold two high-profile leadership positions in the Corridor – Mayor of Cedar Rapids and CEO of Women Lead Change (WLC). How do you feel these roles complement each other, and are there any instances when they might present challenges in working together? Ms. O’Donnell: The biggest challenge is the time. I liken it to having two awesome children and needing to focus on the one that needs me more on certain days. Being mayor is technically a part-time job, but it’s anything but part time. So I think my biggest challenge is just managing my time. There's so much synergy between the two of them, particularly at this time when we're so focused on workforce, because Women Lead Change has been inside some of our state's greatest companies for almost 20 years. So I've been in workforce development since my time at WLC, beginning in 2015, so understanding the unique challenges in recruiting talent and retaining talent is what we do at WLC. And now as mayor, there's a new intensity to it as we look to grow our population. And one of the unique privileges that you have as mayor in our form of government is Mayor of Economic Development. So when you look at my relationships in the private sector from Women Lead Change, it's been extremely helpful in getting inside those companies to make sure they're happy where they are here in the Corridor, or relationships that I have in recruiting new companies. We've got a new company that comes into town that wants to know about child care or workforce, and I've got relationships at existing companies that have been there since before my time as mayor that allow me to be able to reach out and say, “would you be willing to meet with them or ask them questions?” There's a lot of synergy among the relationships that I have at WLC and running a city. You've had a wealth of life experiences that have brought you where you are today, from Miss Iowa 1988, to two-plus decades in broadcast journalism, to your present roles as a civic and political leader. How do you feel those experiences have shaped you as an influential leader? Are there any key moments you would cite as turning points in your personal or professional life? When I look at myself as a leader, I describe myself as an outsider on the inside, and I may be a study in contrast here, but my experience in Miss Iowa was a prime example. I wasn't the obvious choice. Even when I won, they announced the first runner-up and there was an audible gasp from the audience, because she was first runner-up the year before. She was supposed to win (in 1988). I wasn't supposed to win. When I met with the judges afterwards for the critique, first of all, they told me I was thick, which was true. They weren’t lying. They literally nicknamed me “pasta” because I had shared in my interview that I ate pasta once a day. It’s true. I still do. They said “you didn't win any category outright. You weren't the best singer, you weren't the best swimsuit, you weren't the best interview, but you were high across the board.” I liken myself a little bit to Forrest Gump, a really ordinary person who finds herself in some extraordinary situations, and that's the lens through which I view my leadership, too. I am keenly aware that I happen to be the one, for whatever reasons. I don't think it's all luck. I think there's some preparation and opportunity. I am the fortunate one to find myself at some very interesting tables, and I never consider myself the obvious choice. So when I say that I'm an outsider on the inside, that's kind of how I view my role when I'm at the table, too. I have never really felt like I fit in anywhere, which might surprise people, but I think what that does is that fosters a level of grit, a level of intensity, a little bit of distance that I tend to keep, which keeps things professional.  What do you mean by distance? I take my role very seriously in making decisions. More than anything, I think it just keeps me objective. And when I look at my role as a reporter for so many years, that was how I viewed myself. Then, too, I was there at the table to tell the stories or to look out for people who weren't able to be at the table, and not in some sainthood way. I really find my perspective as an outsider incredibly valuable in making decisions for something as large as a community. I have the awareness that everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time. And being a reporter, I think, really honed that perspective. I would be with people on their best and their worst days, and really get to know humanity in a way that was pretty raw, and that serves me well leading a city that's made up of a lot of different kinds of people with a lot of different challenges and opportunities. I've been able to be around a lot of different situations and a lot of different people, and I think there's a humility that comes with that. I see that as an important trait for me to maintain as a leader. How do you feel about your tenure as Miss Iowa? Did you enjoy the experience? Has it helped or hindered you in your professional development? Why, if at all, do you think it was an important time in your life? Well, that experience really shifted my professional focus, for sure. I went to school because there was a really great international business program at DePauw, and after spending that year as Miss Iowa, honestly, it was like the ultimate internship. I was in and out of newsrooms, and loved the energy and felt that it was a place for me. So after that Miss Iowa experience, I went back to college and switched my major. I kept my French major, but I switched and double majored in French and communications, since we didn't have journalism at DePauw. You hadn't studied communications up to that point? No. How were you going to use a French degree? The international business program was a major and two minors. So it was economics, political science and a foreign language. So I kept the foreign language, but … You switched your majors completely? Yeah. It was because of that experience and being in the environment, and I thought, “this is a really cool place to be.” But I kept the French major, which I actually use in our community more than you would imagine, with our Congolese, Haitian and African communities. I also got to know the state pretty well. I’m not from here. I was born in St. Louis and moved to Chicago, and then Decatur. My dad was a traveling salesman, so we moved a little bit when I was really little, but we landed in Bettendorf when I was five. So we really, when I say I didn't belong, I really felt like that. So maybe (Miss Iowa) helped you feel like you belonged. I did get to know the state really well. That experience showed me what I was capable of. I did (Miss) Scott County to get $200 for a scholarship. We borrowed a dress, and my girlfriend and I did it. She got third place, and I won the stinking thing. I went away to freshman year of college in Indiana, and then I had to represent (Scott) County in June in the Miss Iowa pageant. It was just a whole bunch of stuff that I'd never done before, and that was the reason they said I won. They liked me because they thought I was refreshing. That was one of the first times when I saw a real benefit to embracing the stuff that I didn't always think was great. You've supported several philanthropic organizations during your time in Cedar Rapids. What are the ones you're most proud of, and what are the most pressing needs that those organizations support? Are there any that are really high on your priority list? I would say one that is close to my heart is Kids First Law Center. I met Jenny Schulz as a reporter doing an ALS story for the muscular dystrophy telethon, and she was at the hospital with her mom, and they were my story. We just hit it off. I would hang out with her, and we had lunch and became friends from a terrible interview. And then she said, “would you join my board?” She was with Legal Aid, and she was starting Kids First. It was Judy Goldberg, me, Thomas Wolle – we were kind of her first board. It’s been extremely gratifying to see. Those kids from when she started are adults now, and it would be really interesting to see how her work helped them. And then on a personal level, Revival Theater Company. I was a music and theater kid. I wasn't a sports kid, and being on stage remains one of the places where I do feel at home. Theater and newsrooms are the places where I felt like I belonged. They both have kind of a raw quality to them. And then there’s the NewBo Market. My involvement in the market came when I ran into Sarah Ordover in Hy-Vee. I had heard about what she was doing, and I said, “are you ever going to get, like, a food truck, to go out in the neighborhoods? I think it'd be really great if you could have produce and teach people how to do this stuff.” And she said, “You know what? You should join us.” That was when Monica Vernon was doing all the fundraising, so I joined for that, and then ended up joining the board. My earliest board experience was at the Iowa Children's Museum, because my daughter was young and was going there. I started off there in their guild, then I made my way over to the board, and was chair of that board when we got the “Take Flight” exhibit, which was one of the bigger ones. There's incredible need. And I actually got to the point where I wouldn't join a board unless I cared enough to want to lead it, whether I did (lead) it or not. If I cared enough to raise my hand and lead it, that was sort of my bar. I was on the Alzheimer's Association (board) two years ago, and I didn't have as much affinity for that board. I enjoyed my time there. But I got to the point where I'm only going to do things that, A, I'm going to be there anyway – so that was Children's Museum, that was NewBo – and B, I cared enough that I would join the leadership team. I got pretty particular about it. At that time, I was working nights, and when we raised our kids, I worked 2 to 11 p.m. for most of their lives. I had mornings, but the goal wasn't to totally fill my days and my nights. Cedar Rapids has seen a number of high-profile economic successes, including the recruitment of BAE Systems and Sub-Zero, and plans for two large-scale data center developments. But there have also been some losses, including Toyota Financial Services closing its local operations and Hy-Vee closing its First Avenue and Collins Road locations. What are the city's highest ongoing priorities in economic development, and how do you feel you can help facilitate them? That is a bigger question. One of the first challenges I tackled when I came in was looking at the structure of economic development in Cedar Rapids, as an outsider. I came in with pretty big goals in terms of retaining and recruiting companies, and I wasn't sure that we had the structure around being successful. We have an Economic Alliance that is kind of a regional entity. And Cedar Rapids had an economic development department, but there was some overlap between the two. There was a little bit of confusion over who's on first. So when I came in, that was one of my biggest challenges, to just dig into the structure. I asked some really important questions and had some difficult conversations and got to where I'm pretty comfortable with the setup now, and that our economic development team is laser-focused on Cedar Rapids. And the EA is still the point for some of the more state statewide opportunities. So when you saw the city pull back funding from the EA, It certainly wasn't to abandon the EA by any means. It was to really make sure we were focused on a structure that would help us achieve our goals, which allows us to keep up with existing companies, as well as all the new ones. That department has grown. It has. We have workforce support now, as well as a Director of Economic Development and a manager too. I don't know officially the number, but the city's economic development department has more resources than it has in the past. You're saying that the priority has just become greater with economic development. What I saw is that it was critical that the city be engaged early on. First of all, in the recruiting, it's helpful when you have relationships as a city. It's especially important when you want to bring somebody here, they want to talk to the city. The city has the incentives, the city has the support that they need. So if you're not engaged at that level, you might not have much of a shot. Yeah, you might lose it. So having a city where there's somebody here that wakes up every day thinking about economic development, that's really important. We still lean on the EA and Ron Corbett for his work on retaining. I am one of nine votes on the council. One of the unique positions that the mayor of Cedar Rapids does have, though, is the Mayor of Economic Development. So that is one of my roles that is not placed upon other members of the council. Is that an official title? Yeah, it’s called Mayor of Economic Development. It's listed in our charter as one of my roles. Economic development is my job. Specifically called out. The rest of the council is engaged as it relates to recruiting companies. Meeting with companies and potential owners, that's on me. Again, because of my work at Women Lead Change, I feel very comfortable in that space. And one of the things I'm most proud of, alongside that, is the bringing together of Marion and Hiawatha with Cedar Rapids for the population growth initiative. I think it speaks to our region that these three cities came together so easily to say, let's focus on a shared goal. We're at the point now where we're hiring a Director of Talent Attraction out of the EA, and then the next step for that is the marketing and branding that comes along with that. You'll have one person on point for achieving the metrics, which include very specific geographic areas. So we're working smarter, but it really is the first time that we've launched anything like this on this end of the Corridor. We began intentionally here with just the three cities, because we wanted it to be doable. We felt like we could manage the three. The goal is to expand that eventually to more cities. I'm really proud of the effort to bring those cities together. You've been adamant in your belief that Cedar Rapids must grow and develop its workforce pool. What are some of the major steps needed to make that happen, and what are the stakes, in your view, if such an effort is not successful? Well, we don't have a choice to not be successful, and maybe that's where the grit comes in. It’s not an option. If we want to keep the momentum that we have right now, people go alongside that. So in addition to making sure that people who are here are set up for the work that we have, we have got to bring in new citizens, and not just to Cedar Rapids. This is why the collaborative growth initiative really is about talent in general. I'm so proud of the range of housing opportunities that you have between Marion and Hiawatha. You want acreages? We’ve got a lot in certain areas. You want a suburban feel? We’ve got a lot of that. You want urban? We’ve got plenty of that. So I think it's critical that we all lean into how we're different to achieve the same goal. It is not an option to not be successful. We’ll stop being able to get companies to come here. We are seeing incredible growth right now, and with all of that growth comes a request for workforce. And we are not alone. There's not a city in this country that's not dealing with workforce. It’s super competitive. Everyone's in the game. We're joining a crowded game already. It's just critical that we're finally in it, being smart about it. Failure is not an option. Receiving a license for a Cedar Rapids casino has also been high on your priority list. Why is it so important to you? And what's at stake if the latest casino license application is denied? Would you plan to continue the campaign to bring a casino to town? It’s important to me, because it was important to the voters of Linn County, and I consider it my responsibility to represent those voices. I, very early on, said that I would be there for those voices, so I'll continue to work as hard as I can to be successful. I don't like to think about not being successful. It’s been denied twice. It has been. Honestly, if it's about the data and the numbers, I'm really optimistic that we may get a shot at this. I say get a shot at it, because that's all we want. We just want an opportunity to have the commission review our application, and that's going to happen. So I feel like if we were ever going to get it, it would be now. Again, you don't look at the flip side of what happens if it doesn't happen. I don’t. I see a casino only as an opportunity. There have been people that have talked about potential drawbacks. You could say that about any development. I grew up in Bettendorf, pre and post boat, so I've seen firsthand the benefits to schools and a community and a downtown when you have that kind of support. None of it happens in a vacuum. You’re going to need to provide opportunities for support. When you start adding something like gaming, you've got to have the support around that, too. Anytime you're looking at the influx of people that you'll get based on a destination, regardless if it was a casino or another massive entertainment venue, we have an influx of visitors that we hadn't had before. We've looked at the project holistically. The other reason I am extremely comfortable with it is the partners that we've chosen, with P2E and the local investors. You’ll see them at the grocery store, you’ll see them at school. I'm always more comfortable when I can put my reputation, my political capital, out there when I'm representing people that I know and trust. But in large measure, you see it as just speaking for the people and what they want. Absolutely, and I said I would when I was running. Personally, I do see the benefits from my life experience. I told the community I would do that. And that hasn't changed. What are some of the major accomplishments of Women Lead Change during your tenure, and what do you hope that organization will accomplish in the next few years? We are like so many organizations that saw what we were capable of when faced with a crisis, and that would have been COVID. We had our biggest conference of the year three weeks after the world shut down. That is our biggest funder of the organization, and it was threatened with absolutely being shut down like the rest of the world. I leaned on my experience in television and in production and my relationships, and we said, “You know what, I think we can do this thing online,” and so before anybody else did it, I like to say we turned the bus around on a two-lane highway, and we made that two-day conference virtual in April. No one had done it. But I knew people at Metro Studios and I had a friend who was a producer out of Des Moines, so we brought those people all together and said, let's just write a two -day show. So we produced what may have been the very first virtual conference. Virtual was something we always wanted to do. It was always in our goals, because so many of our partners are global. We were always saying we really needed an online presence, and this really pushed us to do that. Now, while everything that we do is in person, our global partners have asked us to keep a virtual component so that they can continue to sell tickets to the conferences we do offer in person, and that we do have virtual options. I think that's really expanded our touch. We can reach people in any time zone now. That's important, because for us, it continues to measure our relevance and our worth. In my tenure, we’ve expanded well beyond Iowa's borders. And that's why it's no longer called Iowa Women Lead Change. We got rid of the “Iowa” only because it was really becoming confusing to people. We have people from all over the place. The podcast that I do has been downloaded on every continent except Antarctica. It’s amazing what the virtual world can do. But  I'm really proud of that development. We're able to reach a lot more people, we've also grown in revenue and grown in staff. I would say the most important thing I did since taking over as CEO in 2017 was that I made a really strategic decision, with the support of a board of directors, to discontinue using a third-party event company. It was a turning point for us, and allowed us to launch into a new level. When I joined, we had a six-figure line item for the University of Iowa conference services. One of the hallmarks of these big conferences is that the speakers all require a down payment. It's usually half of their fee. By using U of I Conference Services, they acted a little bit like our bank. They would front the money for us, and then we would pay them with registrations, so it was really important that we have that outside entity. But when I came in, I said to the board, “would you be open to a line of credit?” That was a pivotal decision when they said yes. Well, we've never had to use it, because we had such success that first year that we ended up with our own money in the bank account. And so by getting rid of that third-party six-figure (line item), we were able to hire our own internal event person. The other thing that’s significant – I've diversified our funding, so while our conferences remain our largest funder, it’s only closely ahead of our Women Connect programs. That's the only membership opportunity we have in the organization. And it's like a chamber model, where in each market – like here, it's Corridor Women Connect – companies will pay an annual fee to have a member on the leadership cohort, and then they get like 10 seats to quarterly workshops for their teams. So that is almost equal to what we bring in for conferences. We still do research with the University of Illinois-Chicago, and we’re the administrators of the Women of Achievement Awards that you'll see on the plaques on the Women of Achievement bridge in Des Moines. That's still us. And then the Corporate Challenge, which is the free-of-charge, very intentional opportunity for companies to raise their hand and sign on the dotted line to say (they’re) going to pay attention to one, two or all five of the key metrics around advancing women, (including) pay equity, the number of women on your board, senior leadership, and recruitment and retention. What's interesting is that the organization started in 2007 out of issues with workforce, and we still find ourselves in the very same place. In terms of our relevance, our conversations are not just about negotiation skills and communication skills. We now talk about mental health in the workplace, workplace culture, standing out in a virtual world. Male allyship is a bigger conversation than ever. We've never talked to more men than we do today. We have more men at our conferences, more men at the table, understanding that we're not going to actually move the needle unless we're all a part of the conversation. Small businesses have struggled disproportionately since the COVID-19 pandemic, and recovery has been slower than many had hoped. What do small businesses mean to the Corridor economy, and what still needs to be done to help them be more successful? I'm constantly looking out for the next TrueNorth, the next Van Meter, that started as small businesses. We've got to continue cultivating the Altorfers of the world, the Lil’ Drug Stores. I think it's really important as a city that we pay attention to who those companies are. Again, we lean on our economic development team. We also lean on the Economic Alliance as sort of the front line of small businesses. It’s important as a city that we continue to be a place that is friendly to business, whether that's supporting landlords, getting business tenants, or the downtown. Probably the biggest effort we have right now is the downtown vision plan has a piece that requires more business and more retail. The city will be instrumental in finding creative ways to make that happen. We just hired our downtown (director), Caleb Knutson. We didn't have anybody really acting on the vision plan. Now we've got somebody that's on point for that, which is huge. As a city, we have to have a culture that welcomes small business and sees their importance and their role in our future, knowing that the existing companies today were once there. We’ve got to keep an eye on who's next. The demand for housing, specifically affordable housing, seems to be a persistent and ongoing issue. How critical is it to meet that demand, and are there key initiatives you would support to help address that issue? It absolutely remains a priority of the city council. Every year we look at our priorities, and certainly homelessness, we continue to send resources that way, and a focus on affordable housing continues to remain at the top of the list, because if we are going to grow in the ways that we hope, we need housing. The city has been very active, whether it's the ROOTS 2.0 program, which is individual home ownership, or supporting developers with multi-family units. It seems right now we're in a climate where the multi family tends to make more sense for developers, where we stepped in with ROOTS. That was money from HUD. But we see the need for individual single-family housing, and how we help them put pencil to paper, and the city stepped in with some real investment to help that make sense for them, in all quadrants. I think the city has a role in terms of incentives to help it make sense for the developers, and we've got a good record of doing that, more than 1,000 units downtown now, and more going up. Two new hotels have also helped Julie Stow book larger events and conferences beginning in 2027, because of those hotel rooms. The city, in terms of being on the map for those larger economic development opportunities, just got a lot better with those two additional hotels. You've tied downtown development and the implementation of a comprehensive flood control system together. How would you characterize both of those initiatives in terms of the overall outlook for Cedar Rapids? I think Cedar Rapids is the gold standard for flood mitigation, God forbid anybody have to go through what we went through. I've already reached out to the governor and director Durham, asking when folks down south come out from clean-up, to reach out to us. I think what Rob Davis and his team have done with flood protection is really the gold standard. He did the wishes of a lot of people. People who lost their homes shortly after the flood were very clear in saying they didn't want to wall off the river. How do we protect ourselves from the river and not wall ourselves off from it? Rob Davis and his team accepted that challenge, and in Cedar Rapids, we have flood protection in plain sight. We already have 100 miles of trails in the city, (much) of it on berms, on greenways, flood protection. We have a skate park that is where a retention pond would be. We have art at the amphitheater. If you look inside the slats, you'll see a removable flood wall. We have that beautiful arch going in between NewBo and Czech Village that is a removable gate, so you have flood protection and a view of the river. It’s made what we've done here exceptionally special. This plan was in place six weeks after the flood, because the city knew that there had to be a plan or we might not get those companies back. Why would anybody invest? It was literally six weeks after the flood that they began putting those plans together, and they've changed some, but they've been around a really long time. They had to be, just to give people security. It’s a priority for me personally that the downtown vision plan also includes activation of the river, and this year, I was chosen to be part of the eighth cohort for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. It’s me alongside 38 other mayors from around the world – Denver, Philadelphia, Raleigh. It's pretty amazing. We all are able to choose a focus area to work on with the Harvard Kennedy School, and I’ve chosen activating the river. You’ve seen our downtown vision plan. I'm working with the folks there to come up with a really audacious plan, asking the question – we’re Cedar Rapids without the rapids. You know, what's, what's we have. We have a river activation plan in place, with the kayaking ramp and canoe safari and all that. My famous line is, go big or go home. It's not my line, but it's one I've adopted. And that's exactly what we're working on with the river. What's the audacious goal that we have? We'll be working on that all year. So as a member of that cohort, I also get to bring alongside two team members from the city. I have our development director, Jennifer Pratt and our assistant city manager, Angie Charipar, that will work alongside me and the Bloomberg Harvard folks. You're saying there may be more to come. There will be more to come. We have their resources at our disposal, not just in terms of people, but in terms of feasibility studies, what's been done before, what's possible on a river like that. And then, ideally, being a part of this, we get to the front of the line for some funding opportunities through Bloomberg. It’s a really unique opportunity for Cedar Rapids to have a seat at that table. My focus is the river. And it’s the river beyond just flood control, right? Just making sure that we don't go underwater again? It's alongside all that. We're not turning our backs on the river anymore. We're gonna face it. You've been mayor of Cedar Rapids for nearly three years now, and there's always speculation about potential next steps. Do you have any future political aspirations, and do you anticipate remaining active in the political sphere for several years to come? I love being mayor, and I will run for mayor again. That’s my immediate plan. I will run for mayor. Why I like it is, it's extremely mission-focused and not political. It’s a nonpartisan role. I’ve never hidden from my political affiliation, and I will say I don't use my political affiliation in this role, nor do most of the members of council, I think, because there's a mix of political affiliation on the council. I’m not even sure where everybody falls politically. I have a guess. I can tell you I'm in the minority, and I make decisions that are best for my community, and I really relish that freedom. There's some real liberation in that. I think I’m like a lot of people right now, where I joke and say, I'm not sure either party would have me, because as mayor, you make decisions that are best for your city, and they're not based on partisanship. It's also why as a council, we've been able to get so much done, because we don't have political activists on our council, and that's really important. I see it all the time with the other mayors that I talk to, where it's just really hard to be effective when you (have political agendas). This community really rejected that in my election. They rejected partisanship. And we've got to maintain that. It should be the last bastion of real work getting done, because we share a mission as the city. If there were partisan elections in Cedar Rapids, I'm sure the council would function a lot differently. I think it would, and I don't like that. There have been talks about making these mayoral and council elections political. I have seen such benefit from a nonpartisan council, and particularly, this council works very well together. We all have our own interests and reasons why we're here, and we work really well together. There's often a misconception that we sit down at city council meetings, and that's the first time that any of us see any of the information. That's not the case. And as mayor, I determine the agenda. And I will tell you, I'm not going to put something on the agenda that hasn't been confidently vetted by members of council. That doesn't mean I don't know how they feel. I just have to be comfortable that they have all the information they need to talk about it in an educated way. We are a consensus council, and I've often said that if I'm an “only” on an issue with this council. I'm probably going to take a step back and self-reflect, because this is a very reasonable council, and it's a consensus council. I don't see many personal attacks on the council. And I'm sure there are people that don't see eye to eye. We don't, and I will tell you, it’s not like we're hanging out on the weekends. I'll go out to dinner occasionally as couples. I've done that with some members of council. But we're professionals. And I think the city benefits from that. Our effectiveness has not been by accident. It has been because as a leader, I consider it my role to continue to reinforce our role as a policy-making Council. I'm not here for politics. I'm here to govern. And that's where I find the most satisfaction. You’ve already decided that you're going to run for re-election? Yeah. Four years isn't enough time. How long have you been a certified private pilot? What does that accomplishment mean to you, and how are you able to deploy those skills in a professional setting? I started flying way before, before the mayor stuff. First of all, it was something I always wanted to do. And second of all, it was the ultimate focus. Flying is the one time where you really can't think about anything else. So it was incredibly relaxing while also invigorating. Has it mattered to you in any sort of professional sense? Have you been able to employ those skills, or is it just a hobby? It's just a hobby. But one thing I learned about flying is you’ve got to be alert and awake and flexible. I'm only a VFR (visual flight rules) rated pilot. I’m not instrument rated. Now, had I not run for mayor, that would have been the next step. But I'm just visual flight rules. It’s not that I can't fly at night. But conditions have to be great for me to fly, and I would never want to have to rely on my ability to fly somewhere for a meeting. Maybe you don't have enough time to fly as much as you'd like now. I don't have time at all. And when I really started to pull back was when I was running for mayor, because I really was having a hard time focusing. I had so much going on, and you really do need to be fully engaged. I'll get back to it. You know, my goal was always to fly in the summer, take as long as I needed to fly from here to Palm Springs, where my sister has a place, fly when it was nice, get up the next day and putz around. But this is not that day. So you haven't been a pilot that long? No. They certified four years. It took me two years to get my license. For someone like me, it was a hobby. But it’s also expensive. In a general sense, how do you characterize your status as an influencer leader? Are you comfortable being seen as influential? Are there key attributes in your mind that make you, or anyone, an influential leader? If I'm going to be successful in achieving the goals that I want during my time as mayor, I need to be able to have some influence. So I'm grateful that maybe a few other people saw that I have some influence, because it is critical to being able to get things done. I like to think, though, that there’s no shortcuts to influence. I think I'm most proud of the time I've put in so far to even put me in a place to be considered as somebody with influence. So it's not deliberate. You don't wake up every day and say, “How could I be more influential?” It can't be. And I always say to be leery of people who say they want that. I believe being somebody who is considered influential has to happen organically. I might even say, maybe (I’m) not an obvious choice, but proud to be here nonetheless. As a high-profile leader, you're no stranger to criticism. How do you respond to dissenting voices in a constructive way? And do the critics impact you, personally or professionally? I have pretty thick skin from 20 years of being in the public eye and television, which is helpful in this role. I have gotten to a point in my life, though, where the only criticism that affects me is the criticism that comes from people that I respect. There are a lot of voices, and it's not that I don't respect others’ opinions. I absolutely do. I just don't let them get to me in the same way that maybe I did as a new mayor. I've learned to take criticism very differently from people that I respect. It’s easy to take criticism personally. There's criticism and there's feedback. And I think it also depends on the lens through which I view it. Some criticism is often the best feedback, and if I really respect the person it's coming from, I'm gonna be smart and use it to be better. I use the term giving oxygen. I don't like to give oxygen to people who just throw out baseless claims that might get a click somewhere or get them some extra views, some notoriety. I just don't invest my time in that way. I know I'm not going to be liked by everybody all the time. Even people who support me will have different opinions. And I have said to people that supported me during the campaign on issues that we may differ, “you may not like how I feel on this issue. Here's why I feel this way, though.” And that's how I can sleep at night. People were kind enough to put me in this spot. I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do, and at the end of the day, I have to be confident in the reasons why. Social media has really ratcheted up the vitriol. It’s not helpful. I know why people don't run. We have to be careful, because we want good people to do this work. And you don't do it for the pay or the accolades. I say often, I'm not here for my health.  Outside of your paying gigs, if you want to call that one of the most important priorities in your life that you would want to identify, or are there still any outstanding items on your bucket list? My family is everything, my immediate family, my parents. I'm so fortunate to have my mom and dad still with me. My sister’s here in town. I have a brother who lives in Chicago. My oldest is in Chicago. My youngest is in Indiana. So we're all a nice drive from each other, and when I am at my most peaceful, it's when I'm with those people. I am someone that has a lot of acquaintances and a handful of very good friends. My time, like everyone's, is pretty short, and so I just invest my time with the people that give me energy. My best night is at a friend's home, or my home, having dinner. And theater. As somebody who never really felt like I belonged, I feel at home at the theater.