The new Jefferson Parks and Recreation Assistant Director has been very involved in the community prior to taking on her new role with the city.

Lyndsey Wathen is a Cedar Rapids native and a graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in graphic design. She then received online training from the User Experience Design Institute, based in Ireland. Wathen explains what drew her attention to graphic design as a career.

“I watched a lot of Disney movies and got a video game system in kindergarten, we got the Nintendo 64. My dad brought that home one Christmas and then we got a Playstation when I was in second grade. Animation was kind of what got me into the design field in general. The creativity part of it was important to me and I’ve always been attracted to different brands and things like that, and so graphic design was the next logical step.” 

After she married her husband, they moved to Jefferson in 2018 where she worked at Greene Bean Coffee and ShineOn Design, two chiropractic offices, and previously she was with the marketing department at Buena Vista University. She also serves on the Bell Tower Festival Committee and just joined two other boards. Wathen details that some of her graphic design work locally is with Bridgette Heisterkamp with the re-branding of Jefferson Matters, along with the theme and logos for the Bell Tower Festival. 

Wathen talks about why she wanted to be the new JPRD Assistant Director.“This is a good split between all of my interests. Marketing, obviously, we like marketing and graphic design and getting to do brand identities and designing things. But I also really enjoy working with kids and working with people. So having an in-office job where I get to see people of all ages throughout the day is really great, and getting to put together programs and just enriching the community.”

Wathen started at the assistant director on December 1st, as she took over for Henry Pohlmeyer, who became the new city financial officer.