Photo by Scott Cunninghama
After spending most of her life bouncing from place to place – first as a Navy brat, then as a “corporate gypsy” – Cherie Nelson, 20 years ago, found a place she wanted to call home.
In November, the 51-year-old New Albany resident reached the latest milestone in her two decades of community involvement when she was named executive director of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m kind of a commercial for New Albany,” Nelson says.
Nelson has spent most of her career in human resources and staffing. Her work, and her family before that, had her doing a considerable amount of moving – she was born in Warwick, R.I., her sister was born in Cuba and she went to high school in Spain – before she and her husband, Jim, a captain for Delta Air Lines, arrived in New Albany with their then 6-month-old son, Conner.
“When we landed here, we didn’t want to move again,” says Nelson.
Nelson has a degree in business administration from Central Michigan University. Previous gigs in New Albany have had her at Kelly Services and New Albany Realty.
She had been involved with the chamber as a volunteer and business member for years, and was on the board for three years, prior to being named executive director. When the chamber needed a new executive director last year, the other board members – remembering how she had talked up the position as a great job – came directly to Nelson.
She appreciates the opportunity to move the chamber forward, in large part because of the ambition of its members and board.
“We don’t think about ourselves as a small chamber with regards to the things we pull off and the things we plan,” Nelson says.
In a few short months at the helm, Nelson has already seen some impressive accomplishments. Watching the New Albany Young Professionals surge forward has been one such promising sign, she says.
“They are not just doing the networking ‘meet for a drink’ thing,” she says. “They are really serious about developing themselves.”
One major endeavor of the group is a mentorship program that will be piloted from June to December.
“It’s very ambitious, but we have such a good group of young professionals on our steering committee,” she says.
The chamber’s Human Resource Council also has some big plans Nelson is looking forward to seeing through to completion. In March, it held a breakfast event focused on workplace violence – recognizing the signs, knowing how to approach the situation, how to seek help, etc. In the fall, it will hold a seminar on developing successful internship programs, with information including timelines for starting a program, developing meaningful work for interns and using such programs as talent pipelines.
“You either don’t want to do (an internship program) or you want to do it right,” says Nelson.
Continuing the events the chamber is known for – including the Legislative Breakfast, the Community Update Breakfast and the Taste of New Albany – is another of Nelson’s priorities. She’s already gone through her first Business Expo Fair in early March, and this year, for the first time, the event included a job fair.
“Of the 70-plus businesses and nonprofit organizations that were there … about half of them were participating in the job fair,” Nelson says.
The chamber is looking to hold a standalone job fair over the summer focused primarily on manufacturing jobs, mainly represented by the Personal Care and Beauty Campus in the New Albany Business Park.
Nelson has lived and worked in a lot of places, so she’s in a good position to see what separates New Albany from other communities. One major standout point for the city and its business community is the spirit of collaboration: From the city, Plain Township and New Albany-Plain Local Schools to the New Albany Community Foundation and Healthy New Albany, local entities make a point to keep one another updated and work together whenever possible, she says.
Another positive quality is the vibrancy of the business community. Though New Albany has a number of long-term companies within its borders, business here is growing by leaps and bounds – as demonstrated, again, by the Personal Care and Beauty Campus, among other areas.
Nelson’s first major contribution to New Albany came in 1998 when she, along with a group of other community women, founded the New Albany Women’s Network. She was off work and caring for her young son at home, and she found herself in the same boat as a number of her neighbors. The city, then a village, was growing, but a crucial social component was underdeveloped – play groups, book clubs, even an informal network to bring casseroles to fellow residents when they fell sick were lacking.
The women, many of whom had moved there in the preceding few years, loved the community and formed the network to fill those gaps.
“It kind of happened on the playground – a lot of talented, educated women talking about New Albany and how great it was,” Nelson says.
As busy as her schedule is now that she’s executive director of the chamber, Nelson makes sure she pays attention to her own health, not just the health of the business community. Exercise occupies a permanent spot on her agenda – a calculated move to ensure it always remains a priority.
“What I’ve learned through the years is, as a professional, you have to look at your (work) schedule … and overlap that with when you’re going to work out,” she says. “It doesn’t always work out that way, but you have to have it on your calendar.”
Of course, it always helps when health and wellness are family endeavors, Nelson says. Jim is also an athlete; he goes for runs three days a week. And Conner – who is now a freshman at Arizona State University, studying earth and space exploration through the school’s engineering program – played football and lacrosse at Columbus Academy.
As an athlete, Nelson has two great loves: tennis and bicycling.
Nelson played tennis in school and has kept in practice all these years. She plays competitively with a team based out of the New Albany Country Club.
“I’ve moved around a lot, but I usually found a team to play with,” she says.
Tennis has done more than help keep Nelson in shape. Being a varsity athlete helped turn her into the person she is today, she says, teaching her to be part of a team.
On the cycling front, Nelson is a member of Girls with Gears, a women’s biking group that participates in Pelotonia. New Albany is a great place to ride a bike, she says; go one mile east or one mile north, and you’re riding past cornfields without serious traffic to navigate.
Her fitness regimen also includes BodyPump, as well as other indoor gym activities in the winter when the weather does not allow for cycling or tennis.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
