We are moving Iowa forward together. I want to give our team and our partners a shout-out. On March 16 th , 2020, I met with my team and decided that we would start working from home because we heard the words, ‘community spread’. Was I well versed in pandemic terminology, nope. Let’s just say that I played a lot of video games in my youth and they pretty much focused on worst case scenario planning. Even looking back to the  Oregon Trail , which was only played on a school computer AND only if you earned positive credits or points. You then were able to go to the computer room, which was a transformed closet, with four other students and work together to survive the trip through select keystrokes on the amazing Apple IIE. We knew that we all could contribute to make our team successful. Looking back to those days, our concerns were whether we would die from dysentery or if we had enough food. Thank goodness quicksand wasn’t part of the equation! We now look back on March 16 th  and we know so much more. We know that our team dug in and reached out to our partners to see what we could do together. We know that long hours and short nights were a constant as we tried to quickly sort through information. Together, as a team, was a key ingredient. We know that by working together as a state, we were able to do everything possible to keep moving toward our goal of getting our state #Back2Biz. Thank you all for your part in this – you have made a difference.


-Lisa Shimkat, State Director