Parks community relations manager Amy Schroeder strives to ‘make a good place great’

Mark Wilson/News Tribune
Amy Schroeder is the community relations manager for the Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. She received the city's April Outstanding Employee Service Award.
Mark Wilson/News Tribune Amy Schroeder is the community relations manager for the Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. She received the city's April Outstanding Employee Service Award.

When Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department Director Todd Spalding asked Amy Schroeder to attend the April 15 Jefferson City Council meeting, she assumed she was filling in for him. She was surprised when she learned she was actually attending the meeting to accept her award as the city’s Outstanding Employee Service Award for April.

As the Parks Department community relations manager, Schroeder said her goal is to continue to “make a good place great.”

A Jefferson City native, Schroeder is involved in a wide range of community projects through the Parks Department, including, most recently, the new bike-share program and solar benches. She also serves as a Parks Department liaison to a few city commissions and helps the Jefferson City Fire Department with social media and event marketing.

A large portion of her role involves collaborating with individuals within the Parks Department, other city departments and outside entities from around the country.

She partnered with Capital Region Medical Center and bike-share company Skinny Labs Inc. — known as Spin — to bring the bike-share program to fruition last year. Over the last few months, she has been working with New York-based company EnGoPlanet and different divisions in the Parks Department to install new solar benches.

“I really enjoy working with organizations and other departments to make things happen,” she said. “It seems like it’s more rewarding and it turns out better than if I tried to do something by myself.”

There isn’t enough time to pursue all of her ideas though, Schroeder said. She keeps a running list at her desk of ideas the Parks Department could pursue but some of those items have been there for over a year due to other items taking priority, such as an anti-littering campaign called JC Trash Talks.

With all of the projects and collaboration, it’s difficult to imagine Schroeder being timid about pursuing ideas. When she was younger, though, she said, fear of failure did hold her back from pursuing some projects and ideas. Looking back on it now, she said, she wishes she could tell her younger self not to be afraid of failure.

“That’s something I want to give to my kids,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to try and fail. It’s totally expected. There were so many things where I look back and think I could have stepped forward or spoken up but I was scared to sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about or that it wouldn’t be supported, but that was never the case — that was just my perception.”

Schroeder has worked in various positions within the Parks Department for the past 11 years, including as a customer service representative, administrative technician and parks planner. Schroeder said she has always been satisfied working in the various roles since she was helping to better the community.

“I love Jefferson City and just making a good place better, and my platform at JC Parks provides me the opportunity to do that,” she said.

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in textiles and apparels management, Schroeder worked in reception and marketing at an SSM-St. Mary’s clinic before joining the Parks Department.

When she’s not working, Schroeder enjoys running, bicycling, playing volleyball, reading and spending time with her husband, Clint, and their two children, Henry and Lucy.