Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Lendved, Dillenberg, Steinbach, Fischer
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 2/13/2019
Chili Native Named Dean of Marshfield’s MSTC (Alex Lendved - 2019)
Alex Lendved
By Valorie Bracht
Although she’s lived on the opposite side of the country – and the globe – Alex Lendved has come to appreciate her rural roots and is looking forward to serving central Wisconsin in a new capacity.
On Feb. 25, Lendved will begin her new role as dean of Marshfield’s Mid-State Technical College (MSTC) campus. She will take over the position Brenda Dillenberg, who was dean from 2002 until she retired in August 2018.
As dean, she will work to promote Mid-State’s existing programs in the area of agriculture, health, business and manufacturing and potentially build partnerships in new areas. She will connect students to resources on campus.
Lendved’s leadership journey started back when she was in high school. Lendved was born and raised in Chili and went to school in Granton. She was part of FFA, band, and other school organizations, but for her, FFA really stuck out.
“FFA was huge for me. It helped give me confidence talking to people and the basic leadership skills I needed to get started on this journey,” she said. “It pushed me to get involved in the community and care about the community.”
Lendved said her FA advisor Cheryl Steinbach was “very instrumental” in helping her develop leadership skills and pushing her to succeed.
During her high school years, Lendved ran for Granton Fall Festival Queen and was named First Princess.
“Although it doesn’t seem like much now, it helped me to care about the community. It got me started,” she said.
Lendved said her parents encouraged her to be community-minded too.
“My parents ingrained in me the importance of getting involved.”
Her dad, Simon Fischer, is chief of the Chili-Fremont Volunteer Fire Department and has been for many years.
“So, I was always around that,” said Lendved. “As soon as I could take a first responder class, I did.”
She is a volunteer firefighter and first responder for the department and servers as service director.
After graduating from high school, Lendved continued serving people. She joined the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and was a combat medic in Afghanistan.
“I came home and came right back to Chili,” she said.
Lendved started attending classes at Mid-State in Marshfield. While attending Mid-State, she worked as a division assistant (similar to an administrative assistant) under Brenda Dillenberg. It was then Lendved decided that she would like to be a campus dean someday.
“I could tell from the start that this is where I wanted to be,” said Lendved. “I told Brenda [Dillenberg], ‘I want your job.’”
Lendved said Dillenberg was able to steer her in the right direction.
“She was a great mentor over the last nine years, and still is. We’re still connected.”
Lendved graduated from Mid-State in 2012 with an associate’s degree in business management, but knew she needed more education. She attended the University of Phoenix and earned a bachelor’s degree in management. She then completed her master’s degree in leadership from Capella University. She is a doctoral candidate in Capella’s educational leadership and management program.
In the meantime, Lendved returned to Mid-State. In 2017, she began working as manager of advising. Lendved said about 50 percent of her time was spent leading the college’s advising model and overseeing advisors. The other 50 percent was spent advising students.
That in-depth knowledge of the school’s schedule and programs will be an asset to her when she becomes Mid-State dean. In her new position, Lendved will divide her time between public relations and interacting with students on campus.
“That’s what I look forward to most, is the mix between it,” said Lendved.
“I love community aspect – getting out there and taking to employers, K-12 [staff], and the high school students, and fining out what their needs and desires are for education and bringing that to the Marshfield community.”
Lendved said she wants to be responsive to the community’s needs and promote the Mid-State programs that prepare workers to meet those needs. She would like to form more partnerships with local businesses and organizations, including fire departments and emergency medical services. She also plans to look at what community members want in terms of enrichment and continuing education classes and see if those classes can be brought to Marshfield.
Lendved said her guiding question is “What does the community want?”
“Mid-State is a public organization and our goal – our charge in life, I guess – is to fulfill the needs in the community,” she said. “That’s the whole point of a technical college.”
Lendved is also looking forward to helping the students. While she won’t be working with students as directly as in her previous role, she will be able to point them to resources to get the help they need, she said. Another part of her job will be building relationships.
“With the aspect of working with students, I can help those students walking in to their first day when they’re nervous, and I can still have that interaction and that impact on them to be like, ‘Hey, let me walk you to your first day of class,’ or ‘Let me introduce you to your instructor,’” she said.
Lendved hopes to provide some of the encouragement and guidance that proved so crucial to her when she was in high school and college. She had a message for young people.
“Being from a small town doesn’t make you ‘small town,’” said Lendved. “Being from a small town gave me the confidence and everything that I needed to succeed, so don’t let that mentality or the thought stop you. Take all the advantages you can. Small class sizes are so amazing, to have that one-on-one connection – so just soak it all in. Listen to your advisors, be involved and don’t let it limit you. It’s a great gift, being from a small town.”
Lendved resides in Chili with her husband Jon and son Aiden. They enjoy camping, fishing and spending time outside.
