Meet Melissa Goetze
Melissa Goetze is the Regional Representative for the Central Region for ILCSWMA. She is currently the Director of Environmental Health at the Tazewell County Health Department, taking the position in 2021. She received a B.S. in Business Management & Administration from Bradley University in 1991, while also focusing on Chemistry and Biology. She began at TCHD in 1991, took a break from 1994-2005 to raise her 3 kids and went back to TCHD as Sanitarian in 2005. In 2013 she became the Supervisor of Environmental Health and received her certification as an inspector for IEPA Non-Hazardous Solid Waste Management Sites; working with IEPA to put a cap on Tazewell’s legacy landfill. This landfill had never been properly closed and abandoned for several years, exposing garbage and causing several areas to be eroded.
Melissa worked alongside the previous Director where they spent several months working on the County’s current Resource Recover and Management Plan. A Green Initiatives team was created to work on the action plans. They held several public meetings for input from the community on strategies for dealing with solid waste. As Melissa now oversees the county’s plan, she enjoys the collaboration with ILCSWMA and their partnerships to try to provide Tazewell County with a well-rounded opportunity to put their action plans in play!
In her free time (lol) Melissa enjoys spending time down in Southern Illinois with her granddaughter and soon-to-be second grandchild. Fishing with her husband and rescued pound hound Skye or riding around looking for “critters” on their 100-acre property that was placed into CRP, a land conversation program that removes environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality.
