Mendy McAdams shares stories and life lessons from her work history

FAIRFIELD — Mendy McAdams is the new face of the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce, having assumed the helm at the organization in February of 2022.

Fairfield residents might have gotten to know McAdams at one of her many other roles in the area before joining the chamber, such as her time as assistant director of the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center from 2019-2022, or through her work at Tenco in Ottumwa as its marketing and development director.

McAdams’ journey all started in Washington, Iowa, where she was born, but she didn’t live there long. At 6 months of age, she and her family moved to Florida, where they spent the next 10 years. She spent the rest of her upbringing around Oskaloosa, since her grandparents lived in the little adjacent town of Beacon. Today, McAdams resides in What Cheer, where her in-laws live on the family’s Heritage Farm, and she and her family help them take care of the farm.

“We own other farms that we rent, so there’s always lots of work to be done,” she said.

McAdams said she doesn’t mind the hourlong drive to work. In fact, she said it helps her clear her head.

“I control the speed and the radio station, and there is no husband or children,” she said about the drive. “It’s a great way for me to put my business away, and the same is true when I’m driving to work. If my grandson is having a moment and doesn’t want to get on the bus, I can put that away before I get here.”

McAdams graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1993. She had two children, got a divorce, and was looking to turn her life around, so she enrolled at Indian Hills Community College.

“I didn’t want to continue the circle of poverty, and I had taken a really great class called Bridges Out of Poverty, so I went to college,” she said. “It had been so long since I had been in school, I didn’t know if I could do it. I took public speaking as my first college class, and I loved every minute of it.”

After getting her associate degree at IHCC, McAdams got an education degree and special education degree from William Penn University, later teaching special education in the Oskaloosa School District. She also obtained a master’s in special education, which she said she uses every day of her life.

“Special education teaches you how to make yourself accessible at every level, to specialize for each person,” she said. “Within a few minutes, I can figure out if someone needs me to use bigger words or smaller words. In special education, you learn about crisis intervention, because young children tend to act out since they can’t express themselves. I tell people that special education is the best degree you can get.”

McAdams appreciated her time teaching special ed, but the classroom she was in was not the right fit, and so she looked for other opportunities. Her husband notified her of an opening for a newspaper editor for a paper covering What Cheer, Fremont and New Sharon. On one hand, McAdams had already been submitting a lot of content to the newspaper, but on the other hand, she was unfamiliar with the mechanics of laying out pages. She decided to take a chance and apply for the job, and was hired immediately.

At first, McAdams was one of a handful of employees, but over time, those employees left and she took on their roles, including selling advertisements, covering sports, taking photographs and laying out the paper.

“I even delivered the papers to the post office on Wednesday,” she said. “I mowed the yard, for Pete’s sake! That job taught me that you have to be prepared to do every job.”

McAdams won a number of newspaper awards during her tenure as editor, but she felt like she was living at the newspaper, and needed a change. She became a job coordinator for a printing press, and later worked at a plastics factory in Victor, Iowa.

McAdams said she learned a lot about fundraising at her following job, as marketing and development director for Tenco. That’s where she met her “fundraising mentor” Bob Morrissey.

“He is still my mentor,” she said. “He taught me how to ask for money and how to write thank you notes, and how to make sure you appear in the proper manner based on the amount you’re asking for.”

After working for Tenco for five years, McAdams landed a job as development director at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in 2019. In 2020, then executive director Rustin Lippincott stepped down from his post, so McAdams had to step up and take some of the director’s responsibilities. But an even bigger change was afoot, because that’s when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the arts center to cancel its live shows.

“I had to lay off the entire staff,” McAdams said. “With no shows, we had no money coming in, but we still had bills to pay. Our donors stepped up, and I made sure to show our appreciation of them.”

McAdams said she loved her job at the arts center, but devoting so many of her weekends to weddings started to wear on her, and that’s when she decided to try her hand at something new. She applied to become the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director, and was hired, beginning her duties in February of 2022. Coincidentally, she, her husband and her son all started new jobs on the same day.

Today, McAdams and Danielle Briggs are a two-woman show at the chamber. Briggs is in charge of program operations, and McAdams said she would be “lost without Danielle.”

“She knows so many events, and it’s hard to host events when you don’t know what they’re supposed to look like,” McAdams said.

McAdams said she loves her new job, and especially enjoys seeing her hard work come to fruition in the form of successful events for the community.

“Our Blast Off Golf Tournament is so much work, but it’s great to see the golfers have so much fun,” she said. “For our Barnyard Bash this year, we had nearly 1,000 people show up. Planning events can be stressful, but when you see kids having fun, it’s all worth it.”