“Living life, so others may live.”
Charlene began her career in the hospitality industry working at a local restaurant, Burger Five, in Decorah, Iowa when she was 16 years old. She went on to work in the retail industry while starting a family.
Charlene is a 1976 graduate of North Winneshiek high school. She earned a Masters in Tourism Administration from George Washington University and a Bachelors of Business Administration in Travel and Tourism from the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management, and earned an Associate Degree in Business Administration from Central New Mexico Community College.
After completing college, Charlene spent the first 20 years of her tourism career working in the New Mexico tourism industry. The last four years were spent working in the Iowa tourism industry as the Executive Director of the Winneshiek County Convention and Visitors Bureau in Decorah, Iowa. Last fall, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a marketing agency. She is now the owner of Outside the Lines Destination Marketing and works with clients in Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and New Mexico. In 2019, at the start of the pandemic, Charlene took a risk and applied for a freelance reporter’s position at a local newspaper in Spring Grove, MN. Now she is employed by the Fillmore County Journal as a reporter and manages their new office in Caledonia, MN, and does some ad sales in between articles.
Charlene has two blogs, Garden on the Rough and Just Around the Bend Travel. She loves working on them and is proud to say, “Every article I write, is based on my experience.