Juliet Abdel wants to put a megaphone on everything that’s going on in the Cedar Rapids area, calling it a “gem” that people have been too humble to talk about.

Abdel is the new president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, a regional economic development organization that serves five counties in the Cedar Rapids statistical area and has 12 affiliate groups that fall under its umbrella. She joined the Alliance in August after serving as president of the Topeka Chamber of Commerce, in Topeka, Kan.

Iowa is the latest stop for the New York native. Abdel was born in Manhattan and grew up in Queens. She went to school at Oklahoma State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in international business. She stayed in Stillwater, Okla., for her master’s degree, which was focused on her research on microcrediting or lending as a form of empowerment, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, Abdel said.

Before joining the Topeka Chamber of Commerce, Abdel was president of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce in Westminster, Colo., a community of about 115,000 people that is part of the Denver metropolitan area.

The Business Record caught up with Abdel to talk about her new position, what motivates her and what her goals are for the Cedar Rapids area.

Her responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

How have your previous roles helped prepare you for this position?

Each community has sharpened my skills in different ways. In Oklahoma, it was a research community because you had the university there that had such a strong presence. In Colorado, you had a growing urban center that was between Denver and Boulder, and developing an organization based on the needs of the stakeholders that were there. Kansas was uniquely different because of how spread out the communities were and working together despite the distance from one community to the next, and the differences in the market. It’s also a capital city, so you had a stronger presence in the state government and lobbying for the business community and tourism. That played a direct role in everything we did. And this market, in eastern Iowa, being the second largest city in the state, it’s a gem that’s been here but the people are really humble and haven’t really boasted about it.

What attracted you to your current role?

It was a combination of things, God’s timing and the things that have been seeded in this market that are starting to sprout. Those are the two factors that really drew me here. When I talk about God’s timing, there’s natural changes in a career path and for me and a lot of folks in this industry, usually when you have senior leadership or someone above you transition out, that is an opportunity for you to decide to step into a role. When I saw about the casino vote they had and the data center projects that had come in, those were a couple of good indications of projects they had been working on that were kind of finally coming to the finish line. And then I looked at the market details and the different industries, and the organization itself, and I saw there was an opportunity to be moving in the direction that continues to enhance the potential for growth and progress in the future.

What has surprised you about the Cedar Rapids area and the state of Iowa?

There’s one thing that’s distinctively different in Iowa than most other states, and it holds true even when we talk about population growth and the need for newcomers. We have a strong percentage of Iowans that are Iowans. These are folks that have been here and lived here. Some have left and come back, which is great. It has created a sense of community and a strong sense of that culture that’s here. But there’s also not very many from the outside that have come in and brought in their unique perspectives and experiences to enhance those areas they are interested in plugging into.

Describe your management style.

I would say I’m an empowering visionary that’s charismatic. I’m very excited about the work [my team] is doing and I support them to get the resources, training and education they need to succeed. I like vision setting, so where are we heading and having that North Star for us because if we know where we’re going then we’re going to be very intentional with what we do and what we prioritize. On the charismatic part, sometimes we wake up and may not be feeling like we really want to be doing what we’re doing today. It’s a natural thing, and I’m  here to try and continue to ignite that fire and spark and motivate my team to turn around those days into a positive day.

What motivates you each day?

I would not be in the work I am in if I didn’t see the profound impact that we have, not just on the community but on the livelihood of others. I’ve come to this mindset, two mindsets. One is that I’m grateful to do the work I do that shapes so much that people don’t necessarily understand or see. And the second is, having been a two-time aneurysm survivor, I’m very much focused on impacting others and leaving the legacy by helping people better themselves.

Can you talk about being an aneurysm survivor and the work you do to create awareness around women’s health?

I’ve been a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign and have continued to emphasize the need to focus on your well-being and stress management, and setting and creating boundaries where you can because it’s very easy not to have those when you’re doing so many roles in your life, regardless of who you are. I always make myself available for speaking engagements, and I never say no to anyone that’s open to learning ways you can cope in your life or just things you can be doing. Mine were younger-age [aneurysms]. I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions is that sometimes people think they need to be old to have a heart attack or go through something, and that’s not the case.

What are your goals in your new position?

We’re trying to focus on our industry cluster and diversification we’re wanting, and we’re focused on the long-term vision setting for a regional prosperity effort, and then the overall structure of the regional organization, the different communities we serve and opening up lines of communication that maybe we haven’t had in the past or maybe haven’t initiated in a while.

What opportunities do you see in the Cedar Rapids area?

There are a number of things related specifically to business and how we position ourselves in today’s environment as a region and a state. Iowa has continued to be No. 1 with the opportunity for affordability and housing and for being an affordable state with strong work-based learning. We’ve also been proactive in trying to make things speed-to-market ready for developers and site consultants. That’s why you’re seeing things like the gas plant Alliant Energy is starting to work on and our support for the restarting of the Duane Arnold nuclear facility. And some of our available land that’s gone through the certified site programs at the state level.

How does the Alliance support workforce development?

We had three communities come together and develop a new program called the Collaborative Growth Initiative that kicked off around the time I started. It is a job attraction campaign that was supposed to run for about six months and bring in about 15 new families to the market. We actually completed that goal in three months, so we had some significant wins off this remote worker campaign that we launched. We’ve been building since then this two-phase approach where we’re trying to fill jobs the market has and a trailing spouse program for people who are trying to gain employment in the area. We’ve been very strong with some of the layoffs in the market in knowing that those workers can find other opportunities and we want them to find opportunities here in our local market.

What is a book you have read that you would recommend?

It’s “Eat that Frog!” by Brian Tracy. It talks about how often we create lists or we have these items that we’re trying to achieve in a day, and more often than not we’ll go to the easier things that we work on and continue to push off the larger things. The idea is for you to eat the largest, hardest thing and get that out of the way and then everything else gets easier for you to achieve afterwards. It’s just the difference in prioritizing what’s on your list of things to do.