When Cindy Johnson learned that The Grand Island Independent had named her Woman of the Year, she was overwhelmed. “I lost my breath when I learned about it,” Johnson said. “I’m so honored.”Johnson said, in that moment, “there were so many thoughts of the women who have been recognized for this honor. I also thought how proud my father would have been because he was such a huge influence in my life.”

She lost her father, Lavern Suntych, in 2008. Johnson, who serves as president of the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce, was raised on a farm and learned from her father the work ethic that has propelled her career. “I learned about doing a day’s work and always doing more, and that whole commitment to your life and your family and to your kids was real strong,” Johnson said.

Among the many accomplishments during her career, one she can look back on with pride is being part of a team of focused individuals who worked against what many thought were impossible odds to bring the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island.

“I told him (her dad) that we were going through the process with the State Fair, and he said it would never move out of Lincoln,” Johnson said. “I told him that ‘you’re coming with me on opening day.’ He didn’t make it to opening day. But he would have been proud.”

Independent Publisher Don Smith said Johnson was selected as the Woman of the Year because of the “professional commitment and leadership she devoted to her community in 2010.”He said it’s unusual for this honor to be awarded to the head of a community-based organization because leaders of those organizations are compensated to do a specific job.

“However, Cindy Johnson’s efforts have left an impact on Central Nebraska that extends far beyond the realm of the chamber of commerce,” Smith said. “2010 will be remembered as Grand Island’s year; a moment in the community’s history when the entire state was focused on Grand Island to see how it would deal with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity it fought for and won.”

From her time growing up on the farm to her work as a social worker, her employment with the city of Grand Island, her position at the chamber and her role as the mother of Adam Hayes and Kenzie Cartwright, Johnson has been driven by her ability to bring diverse voices together for a common goal. When working on the State Fair move, Johnson said, the first task was bringing the various parties to the table.

“They all had their own agenda,” she said. “They all have their own interests and priorities, as they should. The challenge was to find the most commonality that works for everybody and have everybody walk away a winner.”

Johnson said that’s a process “where patience is important and the ability to hear what somebody wants, even though they may not say what is important to them or what isn’t important to them. Going to that deeper level, whether it is respect or position or support, there is always something more to the story that drives every entity, every organization and every person.”“If you can get to that level,” Johnson said, “then you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish.”

State Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island said Johnson is “always looking for a way to advance the community.”“She is one of those people who constantly has on her thinking cap when it comes to what will benefit this community,” Gloor said. He said Johnson “goes well beyond what is expected for her to do in her position.”

“She is always thinking of ways that things can be done that will benefit the community,” Gloor said. “She is looking ahead at what changes the community should make and where do we want to be five or 10 years down the road,” he said. “It is not about running around and addressing immediate needs and stomping out fires that flare up all of a sudden. It’s about the long pull and taking a long look at things.”

Johnson’s philosophy began to gel when she was Grand Island city clerk, working with city council members who each had their own goals but shared a common interest in the betterment of the community.

Johnson said the skill of a good administrator is looking at the motives that drive people and dealing with issues from that individual’s perspective. “That is the only way to accomplish the things we are talking about accomplishing,” she said. “It can’t be one person dictating it out. It has to be owned by the parties involved.”

When they began the process of bringing the State Fair to Grand Island, Johnson said, the fair was something that was owned by a “few.”“But as this process grew, it needed to be owned by more,” she said. “Then you brought in the additional parties. But without that start with just the few core people who saw ‘it,’ the scattered approach would not have been productive.”

That decision to relocate the State Fair to Grand Island “was on such a short time frame that we had to be focused and be very strategic and systematic on what we were doing in order to accomplish everything that needed to be accomplished,” she said.

Phil Erdman, who serves as U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns’ state agriculture director, worked directly with Johnson on moving the fair when Erdman chaired the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee. When serving in the Legislature, Erdman said, one of the best things a lawmaker can do is sit and listen to the experience, wisdom and knowledge of the people of Nebraska.

“When the folks from Grand Island came and made their presentation, they were thoughtful, articulate, and Cindy was a great spokesperson for the community and what it has to offer,” Erdman said. He said Johnson was always well-prepared, and “if she didn’t have the answers to the questions that were asked, she would get them back to us.”

“She did her homework, and now, as we all have seen, experienced and hopefully continue to experience, we got to see the results of her hard work and a number of other folks in this year’s fair and for many fairs to come,” he said. Smith said Johnson was instrumental in the effort to move the fair to Grand Island from the moment the chamber board decided to support the fair’s relocation.

“Cindy stepped forward to help lead the challenging and complex undertaking, knowing full well that the downside risks and personal time commitment would be enormous,” Smith said. “Obviously, Cindy had lots of company as an army of dedicated local people had a hand in rolling out Grand Island’s welcome mat. However, her organized, diplomatic, visionary, failure-is-not-an-option leadership approach served to keep Grand Island’s role in the fair on track to a successful conclusion.”

Smith said it’s important to consider, too, that Johnson’s commitment to the success of the chamber was not slighted during the two years she devoted to the State Fair. “In fact, the chamber continued to prosper throughout the economic downturn as it has throughout her eight-year tenure as president,” Smith said.

Johnson believes Grand Island has a “can-do” spirit that can accomplish great things. She said Grand Island, after a decade of great accomplishments, can’t stop for a breather but must continue to push if the community wants to continue to grow and be competitive.

The turning point, Johnson said, came earlier in the decade when Grand Island was named home of the Nebraska National Guard Army Aviation Support Facility.

“We made a decision that we could do that, and it was a determined decision, a calculated decision, and it wasn’t just by chance,” she said. “We said we can do this and we can be competitive with anybody in the state of Nebraska, and we did that with the State Fair, and we are doing that with the career tech center.”Johnson said the Career and Technical Education Center will open many doors for Grand Island.

“We can develop a work force that is every bit as important to economic development today and for years to come as land, utilities and expensive buildings are. The work force is going to be it,” she said. “We have to maximize what we have here. There are a lot of great minds in this community, and if we set our sights on a target collectively, we can get that done.”

“The Grand Island Independent is proud to acknowledge the considerable contribution Cindy Johnson has made for the future of Grand Island and the indelible imprint she has left on one of the most important chapters in the region’s history,” Smith said.