Tamara Lowney

The Asian Games were in Guangzhou, China, the southern part of the country and Lowney was able to visit Thailand a few times during her yearlong post.

In between international gigs, Lowney returned to work in Alaska. Her next adventure was as site director at Weymouth Sailing Village for the 2012 London Olympics. There, she helped with operations for serving the athletes, coaches and employees of the facility.

The upscale nature of sailing — catering private yachts, surprise celebrity appearances (notably Kate Middleton and Prince Phillip) — made operations a bit more difficult, but living in England allowed Lowney to travel to Norway, France and Italy. By that point, Lowney decided she needed a break from the hospitality industry, so

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Grades K-8 3301 Technolog yDrive (218) 728-9556 she decided to go back to school.

During this new chapter, Lowney met her husband, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Bemidji State University, and gave birth to her daughter, Goldie.

In 2015, Lowney was hired as a business developer for the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion, which promotes economic development in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin.

Though economic development was new to her, Lowney immediately knew it was the right fit.

“I was like, wow this is it. I found what I really love doing,” she said. “It's interesting. There's all kinds of problems to solve. There's ways to do things better. There's a litany of things you can do every day to help people.”

In 2019, Lowney became president and CEO of the Itasca Economic Development Corp., where she is able to apply the lessons she’s learned across the globe to her own community.

“I loved my job and I loved working abroad and working with all the different cultures. That was alway my big dream — to live and work abroad and learn so much from that,” Lowney said. “But then I could take all this stuff about human nature and how to problem solve and how to work through stressful situations and bring it all home.”

Lowney has helped lead Itasca County through the hardship of the pandemic, facilitating loan and grant programs and fostering support for local businesses. Her advocacy earned her an innovation award in 2020 from the Economic Development Association of Minnesota.

Lowney has faced a number of challenges being a woman in a leadership position. While working abroad, she had to adjust to different social and cultural expectations.

The primary challenge has been people doubting her abilities due to her gender, and she never passes up a chance to prove them wrong.

“Our journey is always going to be harder,” she said of being a woman in a leadership position. “I don't care what anybody tells you, it just is, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing.” D