While things generally slow down during the month of December, Lindsey Senter has been working at anything but a snail’s pace. After all, there’s no time to dawdle when you’re at the helm of a port district.
At the start of the month, Senter, 33, took over as CEO of the Port of Chehalis. She’s the protege of former CEO Randy Mueller, who departed this year to lead the Port of Ridgefield in Clark County.
A Centralia native, Senter has deep roots in the Twin Cities community, having previously worked for the Economic Alliance of Lewis County (formerly known as the Economic Development Council), the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and as a small business owner herself.
Working in these institutions, she said, helped her discover a passion for civic engagement and economic development. Every opportunity, she said, was a stepping stone where someone believed in her and helped spotlight her talents to the greater community.
"Honestly, I think that I really appreciate the opportunity to do what I can for this community because this community has done so much for me,” Senter said. “This may give me a small opportunity to give back.”
Senter is the second woman ever to lead the Port of Chehalis, she said, following in the footsteps of Heidi Pehl, who was hired in 1992 as the port’s first-ever executive.
“She has a great communication style that I think helps everyone work together. I enjoy that about her,” Economic Alliance Executive Director Richard DeBolt said of Senter. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to working with her and I think she’s going to be a great asset to our community and I think things are going to go very well.”
DeBolt was hired as the Economic Alliance executive earlier this year, but has known Senter through both their work in the community.
After graduating from Centralia High School in 2006, Senter moved to Phoenix in 2009 seeking desert, sun and opportunities. But after “missing the seasons” and her family, Senter arrived back in Washington in 2012.
“It's kind of nice to be near family again and be back part of this community. I really didn't appreciate what this community did until I came back," she said.
She started those early years working in retail, as a barista and at odd jobs — “living my best mid-20s life,” she said — before Senter started getting serious about going back to school. That’s when she began attending classes at Centralia College.
She would go on to earn her associate’s degree in administration from the college and, in 2015, Senter applied for an office management position with the Economic Alliance.
"I came in and they hired me. They took a chance with me. And I loved the work I did. I became a big civic nerd, and I didn't understand that was an interest in mind until I got into it," Senter said. "I just thought it was interesting there was this subculture of civics that was going on around here that I had no idea about."
A few years later, she took her talents over to the local chamber of commerce where she was hired as a marketing manager.
“Honestly, all the opportunities I’ve had that were stepping stones to getting where I am today were opportunities that someone offered me that they thought I could fulfill,” Senter said, crediting community leaders for seeing something in her. “Definitely surround yourself with the people who care about the same things as you.”
It wasn’t long, though, before she left the chamber for maternity leave. Senter said the brief time she was away from work helped her gauge what she wanted to do next.
While at home, Senter started her own local business, Vulcan Creative, which specializes in web design, social media consultation and software development. She would later hand off that business to a partner, she said, though her information is still listed on the company’s “About Us” page.
In October 2019, she started part-time at the Port of Chehalis after being hired by Mueller. She worked first as a “member service manager,” she said, adding that it was something of a made-up title that encapsulated the responsibilities she would undertake as the director of finance and administration, which she transitioned into about six months later. Senter said she was pulled into the port by Mueller.
When Mueller announced his planned departure from the Port of Chehalis earlier this year, Senter said it seemed natural that she would apply for the position. She had already been working closely with Mueller to promote and manage the hundreds of acres of port property. She had also worked closely with the small staff.
It seemed like an obvious next move, Senter said. She felt like a quality fit for the position.
"I think that I always knew that I wanted to," Senter said, noting her ties to the community and other economic development organizations. She added later: "I think (the port’s) a really good vessel for community development, and economic development, and I think that's something I wanted to be a part of.”
Port commissioners appeared to agree that her ties to the community and local experience mattered, as Chair Mark Anders previously said that Senter’s application “rose to the top” among the top-three applicants.
"When I made it to that level, I thought 'Oh, maybe that's something they value. Maybe that's something they see in my resume,'" she said.
Now, with nearly a month under her belt, Senter, her staff and commissioners are setting the stage for a bright 2022. Stepping into the role, she said, gave her a better perspective as to the sheer number of property transactions the port is currently at either the tail-end of or in the midst of negotiating.
Senter said she’s looking forward to helping steer the port commission’s priorities over the coming years. She said she’s in it for the long haul.
From her perspective, she’d like to see the port work to build more leasable space to help attract and build up more local business. Senter said she’s excited about prospects to build the state’s first hydrogen refueling station on their own port property, and to see what additional economic activity the energy source brings to the region.
Senter said grain and barley will continue to be a priority for the port with the Southwest Washington Grain Project. The port is currently in the process of applying for an infrastructure grant to build silos local farmers can use to store their crop for eventual export.
Senter will make an annual base salary of $100,000 to start out as the port’s leader, which will increase by $5,000 after she completes her bachelor’s degree this fall.
