(SWIPCO Press Release) (Atlantic, Iowa April 14, 2020) Hiring new staff can be difficult, even without a global pandemic, but some things must keep moving forward during this crisis, especially recovery from the Floods of 2019. It has been a little over a year since parts of Southwest Iowa experienced major flooding. Since then, Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO) has been working with local communities and counties in many ways to help rebuild. Thanks to a grant from the US Economic Development Administration, SWIPCO was recently able to create a new staff position to focus on flood recovery. After a national search, the organization is happy to report that they were able to hire Leslie Wright, an Alabama native with a background in public administration and community engagement to take on this additional planning and grant writing work.

Leslie Wright

In normal times, moving someone from Alabama to Southwest Iowa would be a challenge. What no one could prepare for was hiring someone from out of state in a world of COVID-19, social distancing, and working from home. As planners do, SWIPCO looked at the bright side to see a path forward because even though onboarding a new staff member at this time is difficult, the problem pales in comparison to the problems area residents and businesses face dealing with the aftermath of the flood and COVID-19. In fact, flood recovery work is beginning to ramp up and SWIPCO could not be the weak link in that process, so an innovative approach needed to be taken to keep up with it. “As we were working through the challenges of setting up our staff to work from home because of COVID-19, I was also focused on the logistics of getting our new hire from Alabama to Iowa. I thought, if we are having people working remotely, why couldn’t we start onboarding someone in Alabama? It has gone well so far due to use of technology but more importantly, working with people that are resilient, positive, and can roll with the challenging times.” said Community Development Director, Alexsis Fleener.

Ms. Wright appreciates the flexibility as well during this challenging time, saying “I was so excited when I was offered the Community Development Specialist position with SWIPCO and immediately began planning how to move from Alabama to Iowa. There were several concerns about how a move this large would play out during a national quarantine due to CoVid-19, but things seemed to work out flawlessly. My parents, who helped me move, especially enjoyed the lack of heavy traffic on the thirteen hour trip. We were nervous about being able to find housing because of social distancing requirements, but once we were in Atlantic it seemed people were willing to bend over backwards to help us out and make sure that we were able to find what we needed. I immediately felt welcomed and at home, which made leaving the South for the Midwest less scary. From what I’ve experienced so far of Atlantic and its residents, I believe I am going to thoroughly enjoy my time here and will quickly settle into life in Iowa!”

Now residing in Atlantic, Ms. Wright will self-isolate for two weeks per the Iowa Department of Public Health recommendations before actually setting foot at the SWIPCO offices. In the meantime, her work is not that much different from many other staff who are working from home as Zoom meetings and conference calls have become the new normal. “The hard thing for me,” said SWIPCO Executive Director, John McCurdy, “is that since the interviews were done online and Leslie has started work remotely, I’ve never shaken her hand and welcomed her to the agency. On the other hand, I did have a good excuse to not help her unload her U-Haul.”