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Tamara Lowney BRINGS INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES HOME
By Abigail Blonigen
“
Think globally, act locally” is something of a mantra for those who work in the development field. This sentiment especially rings true for Tamara Lowney, world traveler and proud resident of Hill City, Minnesota.
Lowney grew up in Hill City, a town of 613 people about 20 minutes south of Grand Rapids. After graduating high school, Lowney went to college to study medicine, then archaeology, then medicine again. She changed schools a couple times, too.
“I didn't really know what I wanted to do at all at that time,” she said.
While earning her degree — she ended up choosing licensed practical nursing from Itasca Community College — Lowney began working seasonally as a housekeeper in Alaska.
Seasonal work allowed Lowney to do what she had always wanted to do — travel.
“I would work (at the resort) in the summer and then I would come home and make a little bit of money doing Christmas wreaths with my family,” she said. “Then I would spend much of the winter traveling around Europe and different areas.”
Lowney spent a year in GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany, a winter in Dublin, Ireland, and made trips to Egypt and Kenya.
Though she loved the experience of traveling, Lowney began to crave more connection to the places she was visiting rather than just passing through. In the meantime, Lowney had been working her way up at Aramark, the food services and hospitality company where she did her seasonal work.
Aramark just so happened to be hiring a director of operations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which would oversee food service for the athletes. Lowney knew she had to apply, and after a vigorous process, she was offered the position.
Lowney spent just shy of a year in Beijing, managing 1,200 employees including over 100 managers. At peak operations, they served up to 12,000 people per day.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was really challenging, but it was real eye-opening. It's so much different when you live and work somewhere versus just traveling right along.”
In 2010, Lowney was back in China directing operations at the Asian Games, this time with even more employees than the Olympics. She was responsible for purchasing, planning, transportation, hiring, training and more.
