December 3, 2015

At our December 3, 2015 lunch meeting, we heard from Randy Recklaus and Lyndsey Shaner, who each delivered their classification speech.  Randy is the Arlington Heights Village Manager, and has lived in town for six months. He was born in Woodridge, Illinois, and attended Downers Grove North High School where he met his wife Tracy. Randy graduated from Northern Illinois University with an undergraduate degree in political science, and a Master's degree in public administration. After graduation he became the youngest elect official in Illinois when he was elected to the DeKalb County Board. Randy has two children, Regan age 11 and Ray age 8, and of course, Rocky the dog.  Randy and his wife like to cook and are very adventurous eaters.  Randy is also a science fiction nerd and already has his Star Wars tickets (his favorite Star Wars movie is Empire Strikes Back, and his least favorite is Attack of the Clones), and he's also fanatical about the Chicago Bears. Prior to joining the Village of Arlington Heights, Randy worked for the Village of St. Charles, was a consultant for SB Friedman, was the Assistant Village Manager for City of Batavia and was the Village Manager for Clarendon Hills.

 

Lyndsey Shaner was born in Dearborn, Michigan, the home of all things Ford.  Dearborn also has the largest population of Arabs in the United States and the largest mosque in North America. Lyndsey was married to Alex in September 2015, and has a brother Kyle, age 28, but her best (non-human) buddy is her dog Charlie Brown, a nine-year-old beagle.  Lyndsey's mother was also raised in Dearborn, Michigan and her father was from nearby Redford Township.  Her father earned a scholarship to play football at Indiana University, but was injured and then went on to dentistry at Wayne State University. He eventually operated an oil distribution business. Lyndsey's parents now spend half their year in sunny southwest Florida. Lyndsey met her husband, Alex, at a music festival in Chicago. They now live in Logan Square where they own a condominium. Lyndsey graduated from DePaul University in 2007 with a bachelors degree in communications, and obtained her master's degree from DePaul in 2010. Lindsey is a licensed clinical social worker, and is now in business development for Manor Care. Her favorite thing to do is travel, most often with her family. Lyndsey has been to 22 countries on five continents and plans to visit South America in 2016.