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Vizena dives into new role
Doug Flanagan/Post-Register
Karen Vizena bought her new dog, Maggie, a Havanese, as a retirement gift after she left her job at John Deere. Vizena now calls Maggie the chamber of commerce’s ‘official greeter.’
Karen Vizena is the new director of the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, but she’s not new to the chamber, and she’s certainly not new to the community.
Vizena, who grew up in Quincy, was hired earlier this month to take over the director role from Erin James. Vizena had been working as a bookkeeper for the chamber at the time of her appointment, and before that served on the chamber’s board of directors for two and a half years.
It is because of that experience that Vizena feels as if she can bring somewhat of a different perspective to the director role.
“This is completely different for me,” she said. “I kind of came in the back door. I think I can bring an interesting perspective to things, something unique. I know what the board needs, I’ve been in both positions now. I know what they want, I know what their responsibilities are, I know how they want the meetings to be run. These people only get together for one hour a month, so you have to give them good information in a timely manner. I’ll know how to keep them motivated. And I understand the daily grind of the office work.”
Vizena doesn’t have any plans to come in and make any big sweeping changes right away, and will be grateful to move into the fall and winter, traditionally slower times for the chamber.
“I’d like to start seeing what other chambers are doing,” she said. “It’s still a bit of a learning process for me.”
But she does want to make sure the chamber accomplishes its mission of promoting area businesses. It’s something Vizena believes in.
“I love to be more involved in the community commerce and help put Quincy on the map and support our local businesses,” she said. “I think we’re doing better than most areas our size, but it’s the sign of the times, and we’d like people to shop locally.
“Without that support, we’ll lose our local businesses. I know it’s difficult to resist the lure of the bigger cities, but if we don’t support these businesses, they won’t be in town.”
Vizena said she’s received more than adequate support from the community so far in her new post.
“It’s amazing how little I knew before and how much you can take things for granted,” she said. “Before there were so many people and so many businesses that I didn’t know. Now I get to have more of a creative outlook. It’s opened a lot of doors for me. It’s fun meeting new people, being active and involved. I didn’t do a lot of that before.”
Before taking the bookkeeper job at the chamber, Vizena had retired from her job at John Deere, where she had worked for 35 years. She started as a bookkeeper and eventually took a controller position.
Vizena graduated from Quincy High School and Central Washington University, but didn’t think that she would eventually settle down in her hometown.
“Not in the least,” she said. “I swore I would never marry a farmer, but I married a farmer and ended up living two miles from my parents.”
Her husband, Chris, presides over about 1,500 acres of land, mostly orchards and hay, and is a partner for an organic apple shed in Yakima.
Vizena counts gardening, boating and golfing as some of her main hobbies, as well as scuba diving, an activity that Chris, a certified diver, worked to teach her. The Vizenas have dived in such exotic locals as the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Micronesian island of Palel.
“It was a unique experience for me because I didn’t even know how to swim before (I learned to dive),” Vizena said. “Once I got over the fear of having my face in the water and trusting the tank and the air, I was good, but it took a while. It’s so surreal, beautiful and relaxing.
“That’s why I love diving in the Caribbean — it’s colorful, the fish are colorful and the water is warm.”
Vizena is now diving into her new job with similar vigor.
