Robbinsdale’s New Communications Coordinator Keeps Information Tap Open
Rachel Leen didn’t study in college to be a communications professional. The 2022 graduate of College of St. Benedict and Saint John’s University earned a degree in environmental studies, with a minor in political science. A year with Americorps working for the forestry department with the City of Edina was followed by work for a small non-profit.
Robbinsdale’s new communications coordinator, Rachel Leen at her office manning the city’s social media accounts.
“I was looking for a role that kind of combined my experience in local government that I gained in Edina with those communications skills I learned with the non-profit,” said Leen, who started as the City of Robbinsdale’s newest communications coordinator in March. “So this role seemed perfect for me.”
Leen said she “jumped right in” to her new role and started working to connect departments within city hall with residents who have questions and by constantly updating the public through the city’s social media channels and through weekly newsletters.
“As I get more comfortable with how long things take me to complete, and just kind of get a better sense of time management and all of the different departments that I need to be keeping in touch with,” said Leen. “As I get to know more people, it gets easier to kind of get updates from all of the different departments.”
She said the biggest single pieces of information residents seem to be looking for are questions about paying utility bills and how to reserve parks and other city facilities for use.
“We want to make sure we always get public safety updates out to residents as best as we can as well,” said Leen.
She said her role is to keep the information flowing so residents can find the answers they need quickly.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of website updates, and so, we want people to be able to go to the website and know exactly where to go and for it to be self-explanatory and for there just to be a few clicks for people to find the most requested services that they need and the most common things people are going to the websites for,” she said.
