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After traveling around the world as executive director of the Silicones Environmental, Health and Safety Council of North America (SEHSC), Reo Menning is excited to finally unpack her bags for good. She and her family moved to Iowa from Washington, D.C., about a year ago, and she continued to work for SEHSC until she took a new position as public affairs manager for Metro Waste Authority in February. Now she wants to get more involved in the community and spend time with her children (1-year-old twins and a 4-year-old).

What were you doing as executive director of SEHSC?

My main role was to do advocacy and the promotion of safe use of silicones on environmental, health and safety issues. I worked with major silicone manufacturers that made the materials that go into finished products. It was a really interesting job.

Where did you grow up in Iowa?

Council Bluffs is where I graduated from high school. My husband’s family is from Dubuque. [Des Moines] had a really good job market for the field that I’m in.

What’s your career background?

My entire career has been in the trade association business, so I have always been involved with the chemical industry and I’ve always been involved with environmental, health and safety issues and working with regulations and legislation that impact those. So when I came here, it was a good fit for me to move to an organization like this that is so environmental, health and safety focused and apply those program management skills, advocacy skills, all those things I’ve learned in my prior jobs. As far as my education background, I went to the University of Northern Iowa and I got my degree in chemistry and marketing there and then I went to Johns Hopkins and got my master’s in environmental science.

Did you expect to go into this career?

I fell into it with my first job and just loved it and really excelled. It allows me to be what I call an indoor environmentalist. You’re able to apply all that science knowledge that you know for the betterment of the public.

What led you to Washington, D.C.?

I had friends out there who kept sending me the employment ads and I saw a lot more jobs I was interested in out there than I was able to find in the Omaha area. So I loaded up my car, I had 600 bucks – I thought I was rich – moved to D.C. without any really good plans and next thing I knew, six weeks later, I was on my way. I’m not usually that big a risk taker but it was good in the long run.

What’s your role now with this job?

I’m initially working on probably three major initiatives. The first, we’re working up at the Capitol to get some legislation passed that will evaluate landfill areas based on their ability to improve the environment rather than on just waste reduction, which is how they’re currently evaluated. We’re very hopeful that that will pass. Another thing I’m working on is Des Moines is moving to single-stream recycling, which is basically you get a big garbage can that you can put all your recycling in and it’s automatically picked up. We’re looking at that for the broader metro area. And just looking at the future of our strategic plan.

What are you most excited about with this job?

This organization is very environmentally proactive. I’m so impressed with all the programs that they have and the quality of the staff here. I’m actually very excited not to have to travel a lot and also just getting involved in the community and having a job that allows me to do that.

What’s the most interesting place you traveled to?

Tokyo, Japan. It’s an amazingly clean city and the way they’ve really made the best use of all space is very interesting to witness, and the customer service that they have there is just second to none.

What do you like to do for fun?

Mostly I play with my kids on the weekends, spend time with my family and go visit friends.