Amanda Lynch: Leader approaches profession, community involvement with passion

Cedar Falls hit the jackpot with one of its own, a native resident who loves her town, loves her profession and employer and works hard to make her community a better place to live.

“If leadership can be defined as seeing what needs to be done and doing it, there is no question that Amanda Lynch is an outstanding leader,” said Richard Congdon of Cedar Falls, who nominated Lynch for a 20 Under 40 Award. “In all my 60 years as a business person, I have never met anyone more deserving of this honor than (her).”

Lynch, 34, is head of a new program at Western Home Communities called Fortified Life. She began work at Western Home in 2012, two years out of college, as the company’s first wellness coordinator.

As she grew that program, bringing wellness education to residents and staff, she and CEO Kris Hansen developed the new Fortified Life program, which launched in July. It brings Western Home services and wellness programming to residents who want to stay in their own homes.

For Lynch, it was one more step in allowing her to lead people – residents and employees – through personal growth.

“It’s really been an interesting process to see their growth and see just the changes they can make, even if it’s small changes, which is what I am all about. I don’t want to try and climb the mountain in one day. I’d rather love the process and love being able to climb the mountain for however long it takes,” she said.

A 2006 graduate of Cedar Falls High School, Lynch went to the University of Northern Iowa on a swimming scholarship, and thought she might want to become a pharmacist like her father, Steve Firman. But along the way she fell in love with kinesiology, the study of body movement and exercise.

After graduation she first decided to pursue another passion, politics, and became clerk to Sen. Jeff Danielson in the Iowa Legislature. “I loved my time there and in all actuality, it was my second passion in life. To learn the process (of legislation) taught me so much. Public service is really important to me, it’s something I enjoy a lot. So being able to be mentored by Jeff was absolutely fantastic.”

In her second year of clerking, she met Kris Hansen, CEO of Western Home Communities, and the two began discussing the concept of wellness education and Hansen’s passion to bring it to Western Home.

It was a perfect fit for her.

“I was hired on in 2012, and I don’t foresee myself ever leaving this place. Western Home is definitely my family. It’s been in my family for a long time. My grandfather worked here, my uncle worked here. That’s what we are. We are a family business, all the way down to taking care of our residents,” she said.

In 2017, Hansen steered Lynch to the Cedar Valley Leadership Institute, a nine-month program through Grow Cedar Valley designed to foster community awareness and develop leadership skills.

“That program I took very seriously from a networking perspective. I wanted to meet as many people in the Cedar Valley as I could. It’s great to say you are from the Cedar Valley, but I know different things that a lot of people don’t know because of that program,” she said.

She is past president and a current board member of the Cedar Trails Partnership and is currently a member of the Cedar Falls Planning and Zoning Commission.

“The learning curve was straight up when I first started (on the planning commission). But I was given the opportunity and just feel forever grateful. I’ll be honest, for me this has been the most eye-opening piece of Cedar Falls and why I love Cedar Falls so much, and I don’t ever plan to leave. Being a native person, it’s really interesting to see how we’ve planned things out and looking to the future on how we want to set our town up for success for many years to come. I am just happy to be a part of that,” she said.

Nominator Cary Darrah, president and CEO of Grow Cedar Valley, said Lynch shows her leadership in many ways. She has been a facilitator for Women in Leadership with Grow Cedar Valley, which supports women professionally, “and has been a role model for them as they stay connected.”

Lynch said there are a few people who have helped mentor her along the way, including Danielson and her boss, Hansen.

“He has an amazing vision for not only the Western Home but also the Cedar Valley, and I love that he loves this town as much as I do,” she said of Hansen. “He helps me so much in leadership and growing and being able to be the best me. But also watching him and how he leads is something that is so beautiful to watch.”

She also cited her dad, who was instrumental in her early years and someone she wanted to be like. She cites Darrah, a lifelong family friend, whom she has watched grow in her profession. “I’m so proud of where’s she’s at today, and I aspire to do that,” Lynch said.

And finally, there’s her husband, Ryan Lynch, whom she met at UNI and now shares two children with, Madeline, 6, and Rowan, 2.

“If there is one person in my life that I am forever thankful for, it would be him. I am not the easiest person to get along with — in a really great way. He supports me. He dreams with me. He is a voice of reason in so many ways for me. He is instrumental in who I am.”