CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Alex Ferneau, pictured, is the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce’s new Marshall County Economic Development Director.

Melbourne native Alex Ferneau is the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce’s new economic development director. She’s spent her first week on the job traveling the county, getting to know local officials and the general public.

“We are so pleased to have Alex joining our team. Her personality and skillsets lend themselves well to this work and I think we will see incredible progress in a short time with her ability to build connections throughout Marshall County,” said Chamber President and CEO John Hall. “We know there are opportunities that our rural communities can pursue to overcome the direction they have been heading over the last few decades with declining and aging populations. Over and over, we see younger residents banding together to push new life and energy into their community. With the support, led by Alex, we can provide them, their city leadership, and the businesses in those communities, acceleration of their goals and chart a new course for all of Marshall County.”

Ferneau attended the West Marshall school system and has lived in the area most of her life. She went to MCC and obtained certification to work as a dental assistant, staying in that profession for five years.

“I worked for a company based out of Wisconsin. I went to different bases including Camp Dodge, to work on people that are in the Armed Forces,” she said.

She then transitioned to the ag industry, building materials and then paint sales the last 10 years. Then she learned of the position at the Chamber.

“Once I got into sales, I was pretty much traveling all the time, so I was looking to do something that’s more local, because I have three little kids, and they’re going to go to school in East Marshall,” she noted. “I wanted to just try to do something where I’m going to be around more frequently, and this looked interesting, and I felt it would be very rewarding to work in a community I grew up in and my kids were going to go to school.”

Her role as economic development director is to help Marshall County towns grow, thrive, improve and become places young people wish to stay.

“I really want to work with the agricultural community — that’s a goal of mine — and to help younger people want to stay around Marshall County,” she said.

Ferneau said she’s hit the ground running and has spent this initial week on the job meeting with mayors, city clerks and other officials.

“We talk about goals. It’s based on what the communities want and who they want me to visit, or if they have ideas,” she noted.

She said she wants to explore creative means of problem solving and economic development.

She’s married to Matt Ferneau, who operates the longstanding local Ferneau & Sons House Moving & Raising, LLC. They have three children: Carter, 5, Raegan, 3 and Cooper, 1.

“I like being out and about talking to people. I enjoy the interaction,” she said.

She may be reached at: aferneau@marshalltown.org.