In a career of key appointments, Mary Lawyer’s most recent might be her most obscure. She was named in January to be Iowa’s honorary consul for Canada, a job that allows her to promote Iowa businesses and use experience she has gained as a director, deputy director and chief of staff for the former Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED), president of the Downtown Community Alliance and business director for 108-year-old Conlon Construction Co. in Dubuque. Lawyer is the state leader for the Blue Zones Project, part of the Healthiest State initiative.

Tell us about Canada

When I was in the first grade, my dad showed up at school one day and said that he was going to take me out of first grade early because we had just bought a camp and we were going to be moving up there, and they were going to take me out of school early because we had to get the camp ready to run for the summer and I wouldn’t be coming back to school. We ran the camp for one summer and realized that is really a tough business, people are kind of demanding when they were tourists, and we would keep farming, thank you very much. We sold the cabins and kept what has been our family property for 40 years. We have made very good friends there. I’ve missed one year in the 40 years of being up there. Canadians know more about our political system than we know about our political system, it’s embarrassing. They are very well educated; we have good debates about politics. I have become very fond of the Canadians. Even the ones who don’t finish high school are smarter about politics than we are.

And now you are honorary consul for Canada

I was at the Iowa Department of Economic Development for quite a few years, and through that had a lot of great business connections, great interaction with (Iowa) Association of Business and Industry, and it just so happens that Roger Lande … got to know each other. One day we find out that we both have cabins on Lake of the Woods. Roger was honorary consul to Canada. We talked about that all of the time because of our joint interest. Well fast-forward, Roger takes the (job as director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources) and that prohibits him from being the honorary consul. They said to Roger, “Give us some names,” and he gave them several. After some kind of initial vetting, they did a more formal conversation with several of us, and I think that given my background, they chose me.

What will you do as honorary consul?

I’m not going to get involved with helping people with their passport issues or something like that. What they are interested in is the trade and public policy aspects of the job. I had the opportunity at (IDED) to know businesses all across the state, and know who has facilities in Canada, who trades in Canada. I’ve already had meetings and conversations between Iowa companies and the Canadians. The other thing that I think they were intrigued with was the fact that I have worked with the Legislature and have relationships there.

How do you balance that work with the Healthways Blue Zone Project?

Healthways is a very demanding job; that is my job. The honorary consul thing really isn’t a job; it’s sort of a passion, it’s like a hobby that you work on occasionally. I don’t want to marginalize it, but it’s something I’m passionate about. I have great fortune to have two things in my life that I’m very passionate about. If we don’t get out in front of our health-care issues, if we don’t start avoiding disease (rather) than managing disease, look at the impact for our economy. The World Economic Forum says that lifestyle issues as they relate to health will cost Iowa $16 billion over the next five years. You can’t keep heaping costs on people and employers.

What is the Blue Zones Project?

It’s one of the centerpieces of the healthiest state initiative. The governor and lieutenant governor want Iowa to be a healthiest state by 2016 by meeting six domains set by the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index, the most comprehensive well being index available. In 2010 we ranked 19th, we’re now up to 16th. … We will have 10 demonstration cities in Iowa, working with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. We will work with communities and individuals on a menu of things to nudge them toward healthier habits.

For more information about the Blue Zones Project, go to www.bluezonesproject.com