Get to know Carrie Mardorf, Cedar Rapids’ new Parks & Rec director

CEDAR RAPIDS — Carrie Mardorf has lived all over the United States, but her heart has always been in the Midwest.

Mardorf — the newest director of the Cedar Rapids Parks & Recreation Department — has worked outdoors for over 20 years at jobs that have taken her everywhere from Vermont and Mississippi to New Mexico and Hawaii.

Now, the Iowa native is going back to her roots.

“There’s been no culture shock. It feels like coming home,” Mardorf said. “When you’re driving down a country road anywhere between here and the Mississippi (River) with all the rolling hills, the cornfields and the scattered farmsteads, that’s where I feel most myself.”

Mardorf, 43, joined the Parks & Recreation Department in late June. As director, she oversees operations related to city parks, recreation programs, forestry efforts, aquatics facilities, golf courses, the ReLeaf derecho recovery initiative, the Ushers Ferry Historic Village and overall department administration.

She replaces former director Hashim Taylor, who resigned this spring for a different job. In announcing her hiring, Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz recognized Mardorf’s prior park experience and her robust background in historic preservation.

“Carrie brings a strong track record of building partnerships, enhancing public spaces and expanding access to recreational and cultural experiences,” Pomeranz said. “We are excited to welcome her to Cedar Rapids and look forward to the leadership she will bring to the department and city team.”

Rural roots lead to lifelong passion

Mardorf grew up on her family’s farm near Monticello, Iowa, where she learned a robust, agrarian respect for the land that fostered a healthy harvest. Later, that respect opened the door to true passion.

During her high school years, the Monticello Community School District was constructing a new school building, and students were invited to meet with the project’s design team. It was there that Mardorf met the landscape architect responsible for the project’s natural and outdoor elements.

“I’d never heard the term landscape architecture before, and I became really intrigued,” Mardorf said during a recent Gazette interview. “From day one, it seemed like a cool job opportunity that I’d never even thought about.”

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With her parents’ blessing and assistance, she tested out her own horticultural skills in her family’s home garden and later went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Iowa State University.

She enjoyed the horticultural and planning part of the profession, Mardorf said, but it was the cultural and historic elements that really drew her in. She landed her first job in Vermont, where she also obtained a masters degree in historic preservation.

At first, she worked in the private sector around project management and historic landscape preservation. She then joined the National Park Service and worked at several natural sites across the country.

That work took her first to New Mexico before a series of moves that put Mardorf in leadership positions everywhere from Hawaii to Louisiana. Prior to moving back to Iowa, she served most recently as superintendent of Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Miss.

Each park taught her something different about human-environmental relations, although they had the common trait of strengthening Mardorf’s internal connection between natural areas and human culture.

“Whether that cultural connection is obvious or not, at the end of the day parks are a space for the people,” Mardorf said. “That’s why we need to be investing in those spaces, improving them and making sure that they’re accessible” for everyone.

‘Quality of life’ to underline future park efforts

Mardorf began looking for a new job earlier this year after considering where she’d like her career to go next. She found the job opening in Cedar Rapids, and it seemed like an opportunity to put her talents to good use while also moving closer to home.

“I think the job posting actually closed on my birthday,” Mardorf recalled. “It felt like a sign from the universe trying to tell me to go in this new direction.”

She was further attracted to the position by the sheer size of the city’s park system — one of the largest municipal park systems in Iowa — as well as the numerous initiatives meant to bolster public access to outdoor recreation.

Mardorf was ultimately selected for the role and assumed the position in late June. She has spent the last several weeks getting to know the staff and the area, and her goal is to visit all 107 city parks in her first 100 days, as well as the city’s golf courses, pools and other department facilities.

“I have an open door policy — not only for the team to come to me, but also for me to get out into the parks and into the city to see what' s going on and meet the team,” she said. “It’s good for me to step away from the desk and see things for myself.”

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Once more settled, her attention will shift to an upcoming update to the city’s comprehensive parks master plan approved as part of the department’s budget for fiscal year 2026.

The existing plan is more than 10 years old, Mardorf noted, and an updated look should allow plenty of opportunities for public input and help establish forward-looking goals and initiatives more in line with the department’s current reality.

She also expressed excitement and commitment to the city’s various ongoing parks projects and partnerships, such as planned riverfront greenway improvements to complement various flood control efforts.

“Ultimately, it all goes back to quality of life,” she said. “There’s some really visionary projects coming down the line that can tie everything together and make (Cedar Rapids) a place that people want to visit and want to explore.”

Comments: grace.nieland@thegazette.com