The city of Issaquah has welcomed a new finance director to its family.

Jennifer Olson, who has an extensive background in financial planning and public administration, started as the city of Issaquah’s finance director on Oct. 17 and is loving her new place of work so far.

“It has been phenomenal how welcome I feel,” Olson said. “[This community] is the poster child for being supportive. I’m so thrilled to be here.”

The Minnesota transplant first moved to Washington three years ago to take a job in Snohomish, where she still lives. Though the Pacific Northwest has a reputation for being gray and wet, Olson said that “the weather is significantly better than Minnesota.”

“I’m used to a 50 degrees below freezing windchill.” she laughed.

Olson also appreciates the geographical beauty of the area, which is very different from the flat Midwest.

“Issaquah is absolutely charming,” she said. “You have the Cascades right here.”

Although she is currently in the Executive MBA program at the University of Washington, Olson got her undergraduate degree in business management at the other UW — the University of Wisconsin.

It may seem ambitious to double as a city finance director and a student, but Olson said that the program is great about fitting into people’s schedules because it is designed for professionals with years of work experience.

Olson said that a program for working professionals is great because “you can use the things that happen in day-to-day life” as examples during class.

The ability to talk with others who are not just studying the same subject but who have actual experience in the field is amazing, Olson said.

“I get to learn from their experience,” she said. She added that the program’s staff “are phenomenal.”

When she is not hitting the books, Olson is busy learning all of the ins and outs of the Issaquah city government.

“I’m currently doing assessing and a lot of listening,” Olson said. For those who aren’t quite sure what the finance department does, she said that its role includes duties such as “managing the [operating and capital] budget process, financial reporting, accounting, purchasing, billing … supporting the direct service departments, financial planning and forecasting, and contract and risk management.”

With all of the growth and changes happening in Issaquah right now, Olson said that it is an exceptionally fascinating time to be working in the city.

“It’s exciting to develop a vision and goals for a number of years,” Olson said. She referenced the moratorium, the city’s transportation issues, the light rail proposal and park planning, saying “it’s such an opportunity to be part of the planning of the community as it develops … it’s really exciting to be a part of that.”

She continued, “There are always challenges when the council has to work on policy, but that’s the fun of it — to work through it and come up with a good policy.”

Olson also has some plans of her own for her new position, including “making improvements to the budget process, updating the capital budget policy, enhancing and updating the financial policies, making sure we are providing the right amount of financial reporting to the council and committee, ensuring we are transparent and accountable and that it’s easy for the public to get information.”

According to Olson, “being part of that is something I’m looking forward to.”