Reporter’s note: People have been inquiring about the identity of the “mystery woman” who continues to show up at various meetings, representing the city of Valdosta’s Department of Utilities Services. The Times inquired and solved the mystery. She is Afsaneh Jabbar, P.E. (Professional Engineer), assistant director of Utilities Services for the city. So how did this intelligent woman who excels at math, of all things, find her way from her home country of Iran to her position with the city? Well, we solved that mystery as well. Meet Afsaneh Jabbar.

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VALDOSTA — Afasaneh Jabbar is not from Muskogee, but she is an “Okie.” That is, the city of Valdosta’s assistant director of Utilities Services graduated from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., “about 20 years ago” with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in civil engineering.

This month she celebrates her first year in her city position.

Jabbar hails from Kermanshah, Iran, where she was born. Kermanshah is approximately 500 miles southwest of Tehran, Iran’s capital city. She came to the U.S. on a visa to study, like some of her friends, engineering at the University of Oklahoma.

Turns out her high school years in Tehran put her on a career track to becoming a

professional engineer.

“I studied math in high school,” she explained. “Am I good at math? Not too bad,” she said with a wry grin.

“My emphasis in high school was in math,” she said. “You either pick math, science or literature. I chose math because I am good at it and it is interesting.”

Jabbar had friends from Iran studying mechanical engineering, most of whom received their degrees in that field from Oklahoma. She became a naturalized citizen five years after her arrival in the U.S.

She said she found the Valdosta job opening while researching potential career opportunities while working as the director of Utilities for the city of Shawnee, Okla., population approximately 30,000.