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Finally getting the corner office with a window after nine years at Iowa Workforce Development, Lori Adams, the new division administrator at Workforce Center Administration, is in the second week of her new position, and has already dived right in. Drinking a lot more coffee and beginning to think sleep is overrated, Adams is handling the responsibilities of her former job as bureau chief of field operations while adjusting to her new position.

What is your role?

I have oversight over two different bureaus: field operations and targeted services. Field operations is our network of 55 offices statewide in communities as small as Cherokee and as large as Des Moines. And then our targeted services bureau covers employment and training programs, the Workforce Investment Act, our New Iowans Center operations and a bunch of those new programs.

What’s your educational background?

I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University and I just completed the certified public manager program at Drake (University), which is part of their graduate school in public administration. That was a 17-month program. I have a lot of transferable skills such as interviewing skills, ability to work on deadline and I type really fast.

You used to be in the newspaper industry; what was your experience?

I was nine years in the newspaper business. I started off right out of Iowa State. I ran a darkroom for a newspaper, and that was back before digital photography was any big deal. So I developed film; I did everybody’s darkroom work. Luckily I had taken several photography classes at Iowa State, because that was the only job they had at the time. They saw on my resume that I had photography experience so I did that for a while. Then I came out of the dark, saw the light and worked as a general assignments reporter for a while. And then I became an associate editor.

How has working for a newspaper helped you in your position now?

I can work under deadline really easy. I know how to talk to people – I can interview people. I know how to get the facts straight. I can write on the fly. It’s common now, but at the time, a lot of people would write things out by hand; I can’t do that. I have to compose on a keyboard. I can type really fast, I am an excellent speller, and very good with grammar.

Are you a 9 to 5 worker or a 7 to 7 worker?

I always laugh and say I’m my father’s child – my dad was a workaholic. I am constantly thinking about work – maybe not the healthiest kind of environment. People laugh; they get e-mails from me in the middle of the night because something will come to me. I am generally in the office from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and I take work home. I’m just not a 9-to-5-type person. I love my job, and I just feel like I have a lot to contribute, and I can’t confine that to a schedule.

What is one thing that always turns your mood around?

My basset hound, Lilly. She’s always glad to see me, she never has a bad thing to say, and she’ll eat whatever I put in front of her.

Do you have a motto you live by?

I never ask anybody to do anything I wouldn’t do myself – that’s my management philosophy that I’ve carried with me ever since I got out of college. I think you have to lead from the front and hope that you’ve inspired your staff with enough confidence in you and enough faith in you that they’ll follow you.

How did you make your first dollar?

Walking beans. This is a farm-girl-type of job. You would actually walk up and down the soybean rows and pull weeds. It’s a terrible job. But back when I was younger and when I was a kid, you saw this all the time. You would walk up and down these rows and pull the weeds out. It was horribly low pay – I think you made a $1.50 an hour, so the first 40 minutes is when I made my first dollar.