Business Quiz: Vanessa Rogers

Vanessa Rogers

Director of Operations

Downtown District

Cedar Rapids

What was the last book you read?

“Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer. On Jan. 1, my husband and I decided to try a vegetarian diet and “Eating Animals” was recommended by several vegetarian/vegan friends.

“Eating Animals” is one of the most eye-opening books I've ever read - it has made me far more conscientious about what I decide to eat and encouraged me to learn more about where my food comes from.

Where is your favorite place to get away?

Before I moved to Iowa, I would have answered this question much differently and probably said to Colorado to ski. Now that I'm no longer attempting to escape the months of oppressive heat that you endure living in the South, I would definitely say any place that has a beautiful beach and limited cellphone service.

Did you have a professional mentor?

I have been fortunate to have many wonderful mentors in my life - several of whom, despite living far away, touch base with me regularly to see how things are going. I think that I will always want to have a mentor, no matter what stage of life or what place in my career path.

Everything that I have accomplished to date has been on the shoulders of some very courageous and wise women, beginning with my mother, Kathleen. I think the best piece of advice I ever received was to surround myself with strong, capable women.

Did you start out in this line of work?

If you told the 22 year-old me, that was deciding whether or not to move to Florida and enter a Ph.D. program, that in 2011 I would be spending about 95 percent of my time thinking about, researching or talking about parking, I would have thought you were crazy.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a college professor because I loved teaching and loved being in an environment where I was constantly challenged to learn.

Today, I'm drawn to the problem-solving aspects of my job and can't think of something that tests my background in communications and love of tackling challenging situations more than leading the revitalization of one of our downtown community's most vital infrastructure systems.

Plus, it allows my inner nerd to run free and that is pretty cool, too.

What do you always have close at hand at your workstation?

My long-term, weekly and daily “to do” lists, along with a current map of the downtown parking system.

Did you have a job while you were in school?

In undergraduate, I was always working at least two jobs. I waited tables at an upscale restaurant in the boutique downtown of Georgetown, Texas, and was the communication department's office manager.

In graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, I was a teaching assistant for the Interpersonal Communication Studies Department and a tutor for the women's soccer team.