She could hear the shooting and demonstrations in the streets outside her hotel window in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1997. Ironically, the training sessions on grassroots advocacy Arlinda McKeen was leading needed to pause until the noise of the demonstrators subsided. Her sense of adventure and desire to explore were tempered by a restriction to not leave the hotel without her driver/bodyguard. Eventually the demonstrations diminished, hyperinflation created instant poverty for Bulgarians, and after about three weeks of helping Bulgarian dairy industry “producers and processers” organize their budding associations to help develop the first national agriculture policy, McKeen returned to her other work at SPPG.
Her family and people who knew her in Cedar Falls didn’t have an inkling that this petite blonde would eventually work internationally or run a public policy consulting firm. And neither did she! Sure everyone knew she was smart. She had her own duck-raising business at age eight, drove the tractor mowing hay and cultivating corn, and by age 14 she “took care of the books” in her family’s nationally renowned English Shepherd business. She was a second generation “lab school brat” at UNI’s Price Laboratory School, but, at the suggestion of her wise father, got out of town to attend The University of Iowa and eventually graduate with a degree in social work. A product of the events of her formative years, Arlinda developed, and continues to hold, a deep-seated commitment to fairness and an impatiently-curious nature.
McKeen’s next focus became her two children. In their early years, she volunteered in the classroom and when she moved to Urbandale, she also moved to working in that district’s administrative office for another three years. The kids grew independent and went off to college, and Arlinda went off to join a new endeavor with the state of Iowa – a public/private partnership to train and assist Iowa businesses to become a part of the ever-expanding global marketplace. There she again flexed her organizational skills and business acumen. She put together the office, managed the finances, developed and conducted training for Iowa businesses, introduced companies to Canadian and Mexican markets, and was responsible for publications. After bailing water from the office after the 1993 Iowa floods, she joined SPPG. Her first project was to develop Iowa’s first statewide, All-Hazards Mitigation Plan.
At the time, she did not realize this first project would lead to a variety of similar kinds of work throughout the country. There is nothing more dissonant that watching this unassuming social work major hold her own amongst the legion of emergency management and homeland security experts. Over the years, Arlinda has worked throughout Iowa, Washington, DC, other parts of the US and its territories, and in 22 foreign countries. “In working at SPPG, I am never bored. And I want to learn or try something new every day. Whether it is working in process facilitation, policy and issue management, public affairs, managing projects, overseas training, or in my previous role as COO, I have been able to learn so much while truly affecting change and improving people’s lives.”
McKeen now, figuratively, rakes the hay, cultivates the corn, feeds the ducks, takes care of the pups again. In 2005 she became SPPG’s President. Sure, on some days she hears the noise and consternation outside her window, but clearly understands the value of the “care and feeding” and careful attention required for SPPG to continue another 25 years.
