Wendy Birdsall has seen a lot of growth and big changes in the city during her 31 year career with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. The last 16 years she has served as president of the organization.
As she prepares to retire on Friday, Birdsall joined LNK Today on Tuesday to talk about the many changes she has experienced. “Population in 1991 was about 192,000 and now we’re at 300,000 plus, so that’s a lot of growth over a period of 30 years,” Birdsall says. “We had four high schools when I started at the chamber, now we’ll soon have eight.”
Birdsall also saw a lot of development across the city. “Antelope Valley, the expressway, really changed downtown in so many ways. And now we have the Telegraph District that built out of the Haymarket and Southpointe Mall is kind of old hat, you don’t think twice about it.”
Birdsall says her keys to success were to take risks, make yourself uncomfortable, surround yourself with mentors and be kind.