Marlys Svendsen will speak at Wartburg College on Thursday, Feb. 11. Svendsen, a historic preservationist, will present “A Career in Historic Preservation: Waverly Projects,” highlighting her career in public history and showcasing her numerous projects with the city of Waverly, at 1 p.m. in Science Center room 134. The lecture is open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Svendsen was pivotal in assessing damage to historic property in Waverly after the 2008 flood and putting together the nomination for several of the newly recognized historic districts in town.

The talk, this year’s James W. Lynes Jr. Memorial Lecture in History, is sponsored by the Alpha Xi Chi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honors Society. A Waverly native, James W. Lynes Jr. was a 1988 graduate and Wartburg College class valedictorian who majored in history and English. He earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Iowa in 1989. Lynes went on to work as an admissions administrator at colleges in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. After his death in 2012, his wife, Dawn, and two daughters, Jenny (a 2014 Wartburg graduate) and Stephanie, established the annual Lynes Lecture in History.