Merxbauer settles into top role at South Central

As Michele Merxbauer settles into her new role as director of South Central Human Relations Center, she is focusing on a couple key initiatives.

First, she wants to bring back “the family feeling” that got lost over the past couple years thanks to COVID-19.

Her other major push will be marketing and advertising to educate the public about what the nonprofit organization does for Dodge, Steele, and Waseca. South Central has served the area since 1964 and has offices in Kasson, Owatonna and Waseca.

Merxbauer will be based in Owatonna.

“I would like to see us grow in our capacity to serve the community,” said Merxbauer, noting South Central has shifted its focus from the earlier years of doing direct therapy to now offering wide ranging services, including a dual recovery program.

She literally stumbled onto the job last fall. While she was content with her position as deputy director of Olmsted County Housing and Redevelopment Authority in Rochester, she was searching Indeed.com, which is a popular employment website, to make sure a job for her current employer had been listed correctly. In the course of reviewing the listing, she noticed jobs were popping up for Owatonna and came across the position with South Central.

“I wasn’t looking for a new job,” Merxbauer said. “I accidentally found this position,” she added.

Merxbauer already lived in Owatonna, and she and her husband Eric thought it wouldn’t hurt to apply.

“I left a job I loved,” she said. “I kind of had a golden egg over there.”

Merxbauer, 45, chuckles about how this will be the first time in her professional career that she hasn’t had to commute. Prior to working in Rochester, she had been community development coordinator for the City of Northfield. Her family has lived in Owatonna since 2002.

With an extensive background in social work, most of Merxbauer’s career has been focused on housing. She admits she was not cut out for direct therapy, so she focused on homeless shelters and housing services, which included affordable housing and rental assistance.

“I wanted to save the world, but in a more indirect way,” she said.

Calling herself a nerd, Merxbauer said she gets excited over dealing with policies. She also is known for having high energy and being “annoyingly perky” in her work.

“I don’t sit still well,” she says. “I am a mover and a shaker.”

She began in her new position in November and calls coming to South Central a “good change.” Merxbauer, who oversees 135 employees, points out that South Central functioned as a small business for a long time. However, she says, it’s no longer a small organization and needs to “behave as a medium-sized business.”

The nonprofit is operated by a board of directors consisting of two county commissioners from each of the counties involved.

“My job is to go out and shout from the rooftops about all the great things we are doing,” Merxbauer said, noting she feels blessed to have walked into an agency that did not need fixing. South Central employs a team of people who are ultimate professionals and do their jobs “amazingly well,” she said.

She refers to South Central as “the region’s best kept secret.” Merxbauer said, “We’re known as the quiet kid on the corner. I want to make the agency more well known in the community.” She added she will be looking for key partnerships within the community.

Many of the services provided by South Central can’t be found anywhere else in rural Minnesota, according to Merxbauer. “We want to increase our services and impact to best meet the needs of our community,” she said.

Merxbauer said South Central is a “multi-faceted organization that can assist all members of the family.”

She replaces Gary Hird, who retired last year.

Photo: Michele Merxbauer