VISIONS Summer 2020

THE MAGAZINE FOR MEMBERS OF THE IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION |

Summer 2020

Staying safe Cyclones work and learn remotely to slow the spread of COVID-19

GE T T IN G S TARTED

by Carole Gieseke

C GI E SE K E @ I A S TAT E . E DU

T

he story has a beginning, but it does not yet have an end.

It’s ongoing and fluid.

Announcements made one day change the next. It’s hard to plan a week in advance, and downright impossible to plan months ahead.

As an introvert who enjoys working alone, I’m doing OK. As a planner, I am freaking out.

I’d planned for months to travel to Poland in late March to do a story for an upcoming issue of the magazine.

That trip understandably had to be canceled when COVID-19 began to spread across the globe.

My husband, Dave, and I had big plans for our 40th wedding anniversary in May. We originally thought maybe we’d go to Europe. Then we scaled it back to New York. Then a week in an Airbnb cottage near a national park. At this writing, I am hoping to be able to get takeout from a nice restaurant and eat it at home, along with a good bottle of wine.

My plans for this issue included profiles on a number of alumnae to accompany the “On equal terms” story about women’s contributions at Iowa State. We scrapped those features in favor of a mostly historic perspective because it just seemed safer. At the time we were finalizing the story plans for this issue, everything felt so… chaotic. I didn’t know if I’d be working at home or if I’d still have access to all my work files. Honestly, I felt completely befuddled for a number of days before I decided I needed to snap out of it and make a magazine.

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I’ve been really lucky. My sacrifices have been nothing – NOTHING – compared with people who have lost their jobs, lost their businesses, lost their loved ones, lost their lives. I’ve been through nothing at all like the front-line workers in hospitals and clinics and long-term care facilities.

My heart goes out to each of them.

But it’s been a scary, weird spring.

The week before things really started to lock down here in the U.S., Dave and I made an offer on a cozy, historic home in our favorite neighborhood in Ames – and to our great surprise, the offer was accepted. We’d been househunting for about a year, but this was maybe not the best time we could have chosen to move. Clearing out a house you’ve lived in for 23 years is sort of a monumental undertaking in normal circumstances; the pandemic added a special degree of difficulty.

I empathize with high school and college students whose spring semesters were cut short, who didn’t go to prom or walk across the stage or celebrate all those other rites of spring with their friends. I salute the faculty who were able to retrofit their regular classroom teaching into virtual classes practically overnight, and I’m in awe of how well everything seemed to work out. I know it was not easy.

I was touched by one of the students

who works for the Alumni Association, a graduating senior named Christina Do, who was near tears as she told me how hard it was to explain to her grandparents that they would not be seeing their first college-graduating grandchild walk across the stage in Hilton Coliseum. I thought you might want to hear Christina’s story, too, so I asked her to write a piece for the magazine. You can read it on page 12.

There are so many stories we could have told in this issue. More stories about innovative research, faculty and staff going the extra mile to help students, alumni helping those in need.

As one alum told me, Cyclones really are at their best right now. We reached out to a number of alumni just before commencement for their messages of hope and encouragement to our spring graduates. That turned into our “20for20” project: 20 messages for the class of 2020. We posted those on our social media channels on May 9 – the day the university held its virtual commencements – and we included messages in this issue. You may want to read more – we received dozens and dozens of wonderful messages! – so they’re available online at www.isualum.org/totheclassof2020.

I wish you all the best this summer.

Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, I hope you’ll be safe and healthy.

Take care. 

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ILLUSTRATION BY JENNY WITTE

Up in the air

COVER STORY

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A spring semester like no other As COVID-19 disrupts campus, Iowa State perseveres Plus, messages from alumni to the class of 2020

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

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On equal terms: How exceptional women shaped Iowa State University

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Meet the 2020 class of Iowa STATEment Makers

2 4 6 36

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Chrystal Brandenburgh remembers the women

Getting Started Letters to the Editor Around Campus Cyclones Everywhere Featuring Cyclone stories, newsmaker, and more 44 Sports 46 Calendar

On the Cover: Starting in mid-March, Iowa State provided classroom instruction online only, and many employees began working remotely.

Illustration by Jenny Witte

Thanh Nguyen joyfully celebrates a new doctoral degree in computer engineering on central campus May 6. An estimated 5,094 students completed their Iowa State degrees in May. Although the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from celebrating in person, university leaders invited graduates and their families to enjoy one of three commencement ceremonies prerecorded to honor them. The three events, for undergraduates, graduate students, and doctor of veterinary medicine recipients, took place on Saturday, May 9. Photo by Christopher Gannon.

SUMMER 2020 / VOLUME 33 / NO. 2 EDITOR: Carole Gieseke PHOTOGRAPHY: Jim Heemstra, Matt Van Winkle DESIGN: Scott Thornton LOCAL PHONE 294-6525 TOLL-FREE 1-877-ISU-ALUM (478-2586) WEBSITE isualum.org

VISIONS (ISSN 1071-5886) is published quarterly for members of the Iowa State University Alumni Association by the ISU Alumni Association, 429 Alumni Lane, Ames, IA 5001 1-1403, (515) 294-6525, FAX (515) 294-9402. Periodicals postage paid at Ames, Iowa, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VISIONS, ISU Alumni Center, 429 Alumni Lane, Ames, IA 50011-1403.

For ad rates please call 515-294-6560. Copyright 2020 by the ISU Alumni Association, Jeffery W. Johnson, Lora and Russ Talbot Endowed President and CEO and publisher.

The ISU Alumni Association mission: To facilitate the lifetime connection of alumni, students, and friends with the university and each other.

Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance, 3280 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.

Printed with soy ink on recycled and recyclable paper.

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2020-2021 ISU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Kathy A. (Sullivan) Peterson**^ Chair ’95 Speech Comm.

Aurelia, Iowa Timothy R. Quick**# Chair-elect ’01 Marketing, Intl. Business Clive, Iowa Thomas A. Connop**# Immediate Past Chair ’76 History Dallas, Texas Marc Mores**# Vice Chair of Finance ’95 Exercise & Sport Science Parker, Colo.

Dana (Willig) Wilkinson** Vice Chair of Records ’78 Interior Design Bettendorf, Iowa Joan Piscitello**# University Treasurer ’98 MBA Ex-officio/voting West Des Moines, Iowa Jeffery W. Johnson**# Lora and Russ Talbot ISUAA Endowed President & CEO PhD ’14 Education Ex-officio/non-voting Ames, Iowa ELECTED DIRECTORS Scott Bauer** ’85 Business Mgmt.

Ames, Iowa Kelli Ann Cameron**# ’02 Ag. Education Janesville, Wis. Taylor Davis** ’17 Supply Chain Mgmt.

Las Vegas, Nev. Marvin DeJear** ’00 Business Mgmt., MBA ’03, PhD ’16 Ed. Leadership Des Moines, Iowa Heather L. (Reid) Duncan**# ’06 Public Service & Admin. in Ag. Kansas City, Mo. Chad Harris** ‘01 Political Science Kansas City, Mo. Donald A. Hoy**# ’63 Ag. Business Weatherby Lake, Mo. Anthony Jones* ’98 Exercise & Sport Science, PhD ’10 Ed. Leadership Ames, Iowa 4

Larry Pithan** ’73 Mech. Engr.

Andalusia, Ill. Darius Potts* ’89 Telecommunication Arts Ankeny, Iowa Dawn Refsell** ’01 Agronomy, MS ’03 Crop Production & Physiology Runnells, Iowa Cathy Schmidt**# ’88 Marketing Plymouth, Minn.

Gregory Smith**# ’91 Occ. Safety, MPA ’10 Marion, Iowa Martha Smith**# ’04 Ag. Business St. Louis, Mo. Amy Burrough Tetmeyer**# ’91 Accounting Johnston, Iowa Eric Wittrock**# ’92 Mech. Engr.

Urbandale, Iowa Suzanne J. Wyckoff**# ’70 English Riverside, Mo. APPOINTED DIRECTORS Sophia Magill** Office of the President Representative ’05 Pol. Sci. Ames, Iowa Michele Appelgate* College Representative ’88 Journ. & Mass Comm.

Ames, Iowa Brad Lewis** Non-alumni Representative Bondurant, Iowa Lauren Sincebaugh*** Senior, Hospitality Mgmt./ Business Mgmt.

Student Alumni Leadership Council Representative Plymouth, Minn.

Membership Key: *Annual member **Life member ***Student member ^Business member # 2019 Sustaining Life donor To apply for the Board of Directors, go to isualum.org/ board. The deadline is Nov. 1.

Meet the Board: isualum.org/about/board

Letters 

WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU Let us know what you think about stories in this issue – or about other topics of interest to VISIONS readers. Email your letters to: cgieseke@iastate.edu.

CARDINAL & GOLD IN WASHINGTON, D.C. I am writing this note while we are still in the escalation stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In these anxiety-laden times, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the spring issue of VISIONS, and particularly the features on the Iowa Staters doing such great work in Washington, D.C. It provided a nice respite from the seemingly endless worries about the pandemic.

I was in D.C. last September to give a presentation at the 2019 Power Plant Chemistry Forum USA, and during a few spare hours one morning had the chance to walk by and stop in front of Ford’s Theatre.

Thus, I really enjoyed the piece about Joshua Drew Bryner and the theatre, in large measure because Springfield, Ill., is my hometown and is where Abraham Lincoln lived for 25 years and owned his only home. Glad to see an ISU alum be an integral part of another historical Lincoln site. I also very much enjoyed Samantha Clark’s comments about John McCain, and Jamile Shirley’s description of being all alone at times on the dome of the U.S. Capitol.

Brad Buecker * ’77 chemistry Lawrence, Kan. I enjoyed the stories on ISU’s connection to Washington, D.C. My daughter lived there, and I spent a lot of time visiting the museums.

Last fall I finally got to visit the African American museum. I went through the sports section but did not see anything about Jack Trice.

I have always been proud of the ISU nation naming the football stadium after him.

Chuck Cummings** ’69 applied art Lenoir, N.C. I received the spring 2020 issue of VISIONS as I was reading American Dreamer, the excellent biography of Henry A. Wallace by former Iowa congressman John Culver and former Des Moines Register Washington correspondent John Hyde. While VISIONS pointed out Wallace’s role as secretary of

agriculture and vice president during F.D. Roosevelt’s terms, it failed to note Wallace’s most valuable contribution to Iowa and the nation: the foundation of the hybrid seed corn business and the founding of Pioneer Hi-Bred Company. Wallace was a true Renaissance man with many interests. Deep down, he was an Iowa farmer at heart.

James Moon** ’66 chemistry Marietta, Ohio I am a Gamma Phi Beta, class of 1955, so I was thrilled to see the class of 1956 featured in the magazine. I still recognized one of the women, Kathy Arnold, after all these years!

Also, the range and depth of the Washington leaders you featured was amazing. I especially enjoyed knowing about Luis DeBaca and his law work. But...they all looked so young considering their backgrounds and their responsibilities!

Ann Burckhardt ** ’55 home econ journ Edina, Minn.

CREATIVE SUCCESS When I opened my copy of VISIONS, I knew I was looking at a creative success, and it really took me back. Back in the glory days of the Maytag Company, as marketing director, I had the great good fortune of working with some of the most successful creative marketing people in the U.S. – men and women who created the Jolly Green Giant, The Friendly Skies of United, the Marlboro Man, who were a huge help to me in developing the marketing role and strategy for Maytag’s iconic Lonely Repairman.

That’s why with my VISIONS copy I again recognized creative success. Friendly, newsy, involving, and clearly a sense of community for members of the Alumni Association. I am sure it is a major contributor to the success of the Association.

Congratulations. Job well done.

Einar Larsen* ’49 indust admin Ames, Iowa

Read VISIONS online We hope you enjoy receiving VISIONS magazine as a benefit of your ISU Alumni Association membership.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your membership!

Do you prefer to read your magazine on a smartphone or tablet? Want to cut down on paper waste and have a copy of VISIONS magazine that’s Throughout this magazine: (L) indicates life member of the ISU Alumni Association

easier to read on the go? Now you can say YES to receiving VISIONS online ONLY! Simply let us know if you prefer the digital option for future issues, and you’ll start receiving a special email alerting you each time a new issue is ready to read online or through the Iowa State Alumni app. Fill out the form at isualum.org/visionsonline.

(A) indicates annual member of the ISU Alumni Association S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

CYCLONES EVERYWHERE I grew up near Kalona, Iowa, and became a Cyclone in the fall of 1963. In 1995 I moved to Willmar, Minn., for a job, and I’m now retired in Apple Valley, Minn. I drive a bus part-time.

I have met many Cyclones in [this area].

In January, my wife and daughter and I were on vacation on Hilton Head Island. It was not game day, but I had decided to wear my Cyclone shirt. We were standing on a very foggy beach, visibility maybe 100 yards, when out of the fog came a lady whose first words were, “Go, Cyclones.” She was a graphic design major from ISU, originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, now living and working in South Carolina! Yes, there are Cyclones everywhere!

Gene Troyer * ’66 Poultry Science Apple Valley, Minn.

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Thank you for the wonderful tribute and history of the Iowa State Library in the winter 2020 VISIONS. It brought back memories of 1947-51 for me, when I aspired to be a librarian and attended ISC. My counselor and I planned my four years of courses with at least 15 hours a week working at the library, where Robert Orr was director. Pay was 50 cents an hour, and I started out retrieving books in the seven tiers of closed stacks. I worked in periodicals later, learned to repair books, and helped index satellite library collections. Finally, I purchased library supplies weekly (pay raised to 70 cents), and the big question was, “Where did all the pencils go?"

My plan was to attend Columbia University for my library science degree. Alas! My boyfriend graduated, went back to the farm, and decided to join the Navy when the Korean War intervened. I decided that a teaching degree fit better with all that. So, I have never been a librarian, but I hold the Iowa State Library in highest esteem.

Dorothy (Moellering) Russell** ’51 history Mechanicsville, Iowa Ah, nothing like turning in an assignment late! Here are a few of my ISU Library memories: • Studying in the library on a Friday night, late fall 1979, when all of sudden there was a horde of students descending upon the card index ... and then, just as suddenly, they were all gone.

That was my introduction to Kaleidoquiz.

• The smell and the well-worn marble steps of the central stacks and their wrought-iron cages.

• Sitting on the staircase that faced Gilman Hall on a summer morning. Not really paying attention to what I was reading – just taking in the quiet that is ISU during the summer session.

• Late July 1983, a week before graduation, V I S I O N S W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG S U M M E R 2 0 2 0

walking across campus near the library on a Sunday, near sunset. There, walking in front of the entrance were three deer. I had been at ISU for nearly four years, and I had no idea there were deer on campus.

Mel Coleman** ’83 mech engr Ferndale, Wash.

THE SIXTIES The letters to the editor responding to “The Sixties” article really caught my attention, especially by David L. Garin [about the Student Committee on Racial Equality, or SCORE]. My participation in that group enriched my life, eventually leading to my activism in Chicago during the protests of the Vietnam War during the Democratic Convention and teaching home economics in Chicago Public Schools. I have written a memoir entitled Casualties of Peacemaking: A Memoir, which I dedicated to “everyone who lived through the years 1968 to 1970 and still wonders...”

Beverly Johnson Biehr * ’61 home econ ed Valparaiso, Ind.

MY STORY I recently received the spring edition of VISIONS. I read with interest all the stories of ISU grads who had gone on to enjoy interesting careers after graduation. I, too, am a proud ISU graduate. I had many interesting twists and turns in my career, and I thought my experiences might be of interest to your readers.

As I sit here in my retirement and look back, I realize my life had a fairytale flavor to it, and most of it is the result of my time at Iowa State. I was raised on a farm in southeast Iowa, where my life had a “Little House on the Prairie” beginning. During my senior year in high school, our county extension agent sent out an announcement about an upcoming field trip to Iowa State. I signed up and went with our 4-H leader. The activities were provided by the Agricultural Engineering Department. I had a great time and made up my mind right then that I wanted to be an agricultural engineer.

So, in September 1959, I headed to Ames.

College life was fun. I had never attended a football game before, and the Cyclone games on Saturday were thrilling. The team was winning, and the marching band in their

cardinal and gold uniforms were fabulous.

I lived in Westgate Dormitory initially. Later I pledged FarmHouse Fraternity. During my junior year, I was elected president of FarmHouse. That experience provided valuable lessons in leadership.

I continued on to graduate school in agricultural engineering, and I enjoyed it very much. As I approached graduation I started watching for opportunities to interview for employment. I found there were many. An Iowa State degree was a license to the future.

I accepted an offer from John Deere and began work in Moline, Ill. My responsibilities changed several times as the focus within the company changed. I took several trips, along with representatives from the marketing area of Deere, to Russia and China.

After retirement, I moved back to the farm where I was raised. I was asked by Deere personnel to help with a summer farm show in Pennsylvania. I particularly liked meeting the people attending the show. That job led to another show in New York and more in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and California, and finally a large international construction equipment show in Las Vegas.

All these exciting activities came because of my experiences and the degrees from Iowa State University. I am eternally grateful!

Vic Pierrot ** ’63 ag engineering, MS ’64 Wever, Iowa Editor’s note: Our apologies for the headline error in the Samantha Clark feature in the spring issue of VISIONS. It should have read, “You hoped for no snow days,” but the headline was inadvertently changed to “You hoped for snow days.”

We sincerely regret the error.

Iowa State University values communication with alumni and other audiences, and VISIONS welcomes letters from readers about topics in the magazine. Letters must be signed and include address and daytime phone number.

Letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity. The editor may decide to publish a representative sample of letters on a subject or limit the number of issues devoted to a particular topic. While universities are places of open discussion, letters deemed potentially libelous or that malign a person or group will not be published.

Letters express the views of the readers and not Iowa State University nor the ISU Alumni Association. Send letters to VISIONS Editor, ISU Alumni Center, 429 Alumni Lane, Ames, IA 50011-1403 or email cgieseke@iastate. edu. *Annual member of the ISU Alumni Association **Life member of the ISU Alumni Association

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InBrief

Around Campus

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VP Martino Harmon leaving Iowa State

Senior vice president for student affairs Martino Harmon has accepted the position of vice president for student life at the University of Michigan. He has been with Iowa State since 2013, first serving as associate vice president for student affairs before being promoted to his current role in 2016. Erin Baldwin, assistant vice president for student health and wellness and the director of the Thielen Student Health Center, will serve as interim senior vice president.

▲

Oak-Elm will close for 2020 school year

A decision was made in early March to close the Oak-Elm women’s residence hall for the upcoming school year.

The 82-year-old building had seen an increasing number of vacancies. A new all-female community will be created in Helser Hall. Savings from the closing are

expected to be around $750,000. ▲

Fighting foodborne illnesses

Nearly half – 46 percent – of the nation’s foodborne illness outbreaks are linked to eating fruits, vegetables or nuts. An Iowa State University team of researchers and Extension and Outreach professionals is working with Midwest fruit and vegetable growers to reduce that percentage.

For the past three years, Angela Shaw, associate professor of food science and human nutrition and Extension specialist (pictured above), leads the team. Funding for the training has come from grants totaling more than $3 million.

“If we can identify why people are getting sick, we can get the affected products off the shelf faster,” Shaw said. n Athletics Hall of Fame announces 2020 class

The Iowa State Letterwinners Club announced in March the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2020. The

Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 1997, and 193 Cyclone legends have been enshrined. Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed upon by the Iowa State Athletics Department and decided by a selection committee comprised of Iowa State administrators and athletics alumni.

2020 Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees • Janet Anson (2004-07) – Gymnastics • Lisa Koll Uhl (2007-10) – Track & Field/ Cross Country • Kaylee Manns (2006-09) – Volleyball • Ward Meythaler (1966-69) – Gymnastics • Jake Varner (2007-10) – Wrestling n Researchers explore plant-microbe relationship for drought resiliency

Iowa State researchers are working to better understand how soybeans interact with the community of microbes living around their roots, and how these relationships may enhance the crop’s resiliency in the face of drought and other stresses. The project, funded by a three-year, $750,000 grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, is led by Gwyn Beattie of ISU’s Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology.

“Tragedies like this must end.”

– ISU President Wendy Wintersteen, from a May 29 letter to the Iowa State community, following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers

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CHRISTOPHER GANNON

Chemists use mass spectrometry tools to determine age of fingerprints

Chemists at Iowa State may have solved a puzzle of forensic science: How do you determine the age of a fingerprint? The chemists used mass spectrometry tools to analyze fingerprints and found clues in the fatty oils within the prints. More study is needed, but they believe they’re on the path to developing a fingerprint-aging technique that could poten-

tially tie a suspect to a crime scene.

“We’ve studied the mechanisms and proved what’s happening. By measuring how fast it’s decaying, we can come up with an idea of how old it is,” Young-Jin Lee, professor of chemistry, said.

Paige Hinners, who completed her PhD in analytical chemistry at ISU and now works as

a senior chemist for Ames-based Renewable Energy Group, worked on the fingerprint project while she was a graduate student.

“When we reproduced this with each person, it was fairly consistent,” Hinners said.

“And so we learned this might tell us how old a fingerprint actually is. This might be the way – that’s exciting.”

FIVE COOL THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW AND SHARE ABOUT ISU 1. AWARD SEASON BEGINS: Toni Sleugh, a junior in biology and environmental studies from Carmel, Ind., was one of 55 students from across the U.S. selected for the prestigious Udall Scholarship. She plans to have a career in marine science and conservation.

2. TRUMAN SCHOLAR: An ISU student is one of 62 students nationwide to be named a 2020 Truman Scholar. Juan BibiloniRivera, a senior in mechanical engineering, is Iowa State’s first Truman Scholar since 2006.

3. ED LEADER: Maria Alcívar-Zúñiga (’11 women’s studies/ international studies, MS family & consumer sciences), a doctoral candidate at Iowa State, received the K. Patricia Cross Future

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Leaders Award – one of just seven nationwide – which honors graduate students who show exemplary promise in higher education leadership.

4. I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY: Paul Canfield, a distinguished professor in liberal arts and sciences and the Robert Allen Wright professor of physics and astronomy, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Canfield is also a senior scientist at the Ames Laboratory.

5. WE’RE RANKED: ISU’s graduate program in agricultural and biosystems engineering is ranked No. 1; the College of Veterinary Medicine is ranked in the top 10; and the full-time MBA program in the Ivy College of Business is ranked in the top 11 percent in the U.S.

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A SPRING SEMESTER LIKE NO OTHER As COVID-19 disrupts campus, Iowa State perseveres

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How do you flip the switch and put 6,000 lectures, labs, and hands-on learning sessions online?

It wasn’t easy. Iowa State instructors had a little more than a week to figure out how to move all of their spring course sections online. It took innovation, creativity, and hard work.

“The switch to virtual instruction has been the fastest and most challenging teaching effort ever at Iowa State University,” senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert (A) said.

“Today over 6,000 courses are being taught virtually. Frankly, this kind of work has never been done before.”

“It was a mammoth undertaking,” said Abram Anders, associate professor of English. “It was all hands on deck, and we were working 24/7.”

Sara Marcketti (A)(PhD ’05 text & cloth), director of the Center for Excellence

in Learning and Teaching (CELT), said the Center provided resources and plans for online instruction. A CELT Response Team was established to staff a call center and help faculty with their move online.

Faculty uploaded lectures on video, prepared tutorials, and used a platform called Canvas to allow peer conferencing and reviews of draft work through discussion boards and collaborative writing apps.

Some faculty chose to use Zoom for their courses. One instructor – Raluca Iancu, an assistant professor of art and visual culture – made miniature printing presses with a 3-D printer for each of her students so they could continue their printmaking projects at home.

“Departments have been incredible sharing resources online,” Marcketti said.

“It’s a nice unintended consequence that people are really talking about teaching and how to do it effectively.”

Mike Lyons, associate teaching professor of biomedical sciences, teaches to an empty classroom in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

DAVE GIESEKE

The ultimate flip

Online classes. Remote work. Zoom meetings.

Essential employees. Social/physical distance. Virtual commencement.

This semester, Iowa State, along with the rest of the country and the world, learned new terms and practiced new procedures for teaching, working, collaborating, and learning in this unprecedented time of global pandemic.

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A CAMPUS DISRUPTED

Mobile milestone

Iowa State’s COVID-19 response timeline Faye Draper

PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER GANNON, ISU NEWS SERVICE

 Disappointed they had to cancel a campus reception to honor her 50th anniversary at Iowa State, Faye Draper’s colleagues in the Admissions Office decided to not take it lying down.

“We couldn’t let April 6 pass by without doing something special for Faye,” said admissions associate director Phil Caffrey. “She’s an amazing employee, and she’s been the backbone of our operations team for decades.”

So, that day around noon, about 50 current and former officemates decorated their vehicles and surprised Draper with a parade outside her south Ames home, complete with horns, lights, balloons, hollering, Silly String, and even a police siren.

Draper said she never imagined on April 6, 1970, when she was hired as an 18-year-old that she’d still be on the admissions team 50 years later.

“It’s been a great place to work and an awesome group of people to work with throughout the years,” she said.

“Our faculty are adapting more than 6,000 courses … our researchers are reconfiguring processes and goals ... our health and safety staff, public safety officers, and facilities personnel are working on the front line of our preparedness and response efforts… our administrators are dealing with unimagined challenges. Still, every day the Campanile bells continue to ring. The swans still glide across Lake LaVerne. And central campus expresses its beauty as the first buds of spring emerge – as if to remind us that some things have not changed.

That Iowa State will endure.”

– ISU PRESIDENT WENDY WINTERSTEEN, IN A MARCH 26 MESSAGE TO FACULTY AND STAFF

“We’re thinking about you. We’re worried about you.

We want to make the process easier for you.”

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– KATHARINE JOHNSON SUSKI, DIRECTOR OF IOWA STATE ADMISSIONS, IN A LETTER TO PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

Jan. 28, 2020: ISU President Wendy Wintersteen (L)(PhD ’88 entomology) sends a message to the university community prohibiting student and employee business travel to China, and to practice infection control strategies by washing hands and covering coughs. At that time, five cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the U.S., none in Iowa.

Feb. 28: University restricts travel to South Korea. A Coronavirus response web page and campus workgroup have been created. Individuals are cautioned to stay home if they are ill.

Feb. 29: Students studying abroad in Italy are set to return home sooner than planned.

March 4: Spring break study-abroad programs in Africa, Asia, and Europe are suspended.

March 5: All university-sponsored international travel is suspended for 30 days.

March 8: Three cases of COVID-19 are reported in Iowa.

March 10: The university prepares for potential impacts on campus operations; students are cautioned to take steps to prevent the spread of illness while on spring break.

March 11: The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a global pandemic. Wintersteen announces that all classes will be moved online beginning March 23 and continuing CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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through April 3 (the two weeks following spring break). The university would remain open during this time.

March 13: All university events, on and off campus, are canceled, postponed, or virtualized through April 4. This includes third-party events held on campus. All Big 12 spring sports are canceled.

March 14: All university-related, non-essential, out-ofstate domestic travel is prohibited until further notice.

March 17: All divisions, colleges, departments, and units of the university are asked to accommodate flexible work arrangements to maintain university operations while maximizing social distancing.

March 18: President Wintersteen announces that virtual instruction will be extended through the end of spring semester. The state of Iowa is under a Public Health Disaster Emergency; gatherings of more than 10 people must be canceled or moved online.

The essentials  Much of the campus workforce began working remotely following the March 18 announcement that classes would be held online only and that students should not plan to return from spring break. But some employees simply changed direction.

ISU Dining transitioned to pickup service. Custodians launched deep cleanings in mostly empty residence halls. Maintenance crews kept campus buildings running. Here’s a look at some essential campus workers on one day: April 6, 2020.

Darcie Buerer wipes down tile while deep cleaning a restroom inside a Larch Residence Hall.

Mike Cleaveland, an environmental systems mechanic, checks a valve on one of two boilers that serve Wilson and Wallace residence halls.

The ISU Department of Residence restricts students’ ability to live in the residence halls. ISU Dining announces limited carryout food service only. All meetings and events are canceled or moved online through the end of the semester, May 9. The Memorial Union, Parks Library, and Reiman Gardens are closed to the public.

Spring commencement is canceled. A plan to live-stream graduation will be developed.

March 22: Anyone returning from spring break outside the state of Iowa is strongly encouraged to self-isolate for 14 days.

March 23: Spring semester resumes with virtual instruction; more than 6,000 courses are converted to online teaching. A temporary pass/not pass policy is put into place for undergraduate courses.

All study abroad programs starting before Aug. 15 are canceled. Summer courses will be virtual.

March 24: Iowa records its first COVID-19 related death.

March 30: Refunds are offered for students holding residence hall and ISU Dining contracts.

CONTINUED

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Custodian Maria Hall vacuums inside Friley Hall.

System control technician Pete Crow checks functionality of the fire alarm control panel inside Helser Hall.

LOOKING FORWARD The outlook for fall semester

With summer classes being delivered virtually and new-student orientation visits online, the Iowa State campus is focusing its attention on what’s next: fall semester.

The Iowa Board of Regents announced during its April 1 meeting that it “plans on a full, normal operation for our universities for the fall 2020 semester. This includes in-person classes, reopening of residence halls, food service, and other campus services.”

Regents emphasized that this intention will be met only if it is supported by guidance from the CDC, Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Governor’s Office.

In response to the directive, ISU President Wendy Wintersteen established an Executive Committee for Fall Planning, chaired by vice president for extension and outreach John Lawrence, to lead the effort.

The committee will focus on classroom teaching, academic support, residence halls and dining, health and safety, and research support. Given the unpredictable nature of COVID-19, the committee will consider a full range of scenarios.

On June 10, Wintersteen announced that the fall semester would begin on Aug. 17 (a week earlier than planned) and end on Nov. 25.

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PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER GANNON, ISU NEWS SERVICE

March 12: The Big 12 basketball tournament is suspended; the NCAA announces that all remaining winter tournaments are canceled.

Signs posted for students moving out of the residence halls.

CONTINUED

Innovation at work During this unprecedented public health crisis, Iowa State faculty, staff, and students are demonstrating how they apply innovation, collaboration, and creativity to solve problems that help the community, the state, and beyond.

• Iowa 4-H asked members, leaders, alumni, judges, and friends to create 10,000 face masks to benefit their communities.

Instructions help guide participants through the process to aid communities through the coronavirus pandemic.

• Unable to take hands-on learning to classrooms around Iowa, Ginny Mitchell, education program coordinator for the Entomology Department’s Insect Zoo, began doing live shows March 23 on the zoo’s Facebook page.

• The ISU Foundation created an emergency fund to support students adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cyclone Strong Fund is providing emergency aid for students with unexpected financial obstacles to staying in school, such as paying for rent, food and technology expenses for online learning.

• ISU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, in a collaboration with the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, helped expand testing capacity to expedite COVID-19 test results. The collaboration significantly increased the hygienic lab’s ability to run more tests simultaneously. The Veterinary Diagnostic Lab also provides diagnostic services critical to the continuity of agricultural businesses, food safety, and public health.

• ISU Extension and Outreach is helping farmers, families and communities deal with increasing financial, relationship, nutrition, and wellness stresses. The Iowa Concern Hotline (800-447-1985) offers free, confidential support on legal issues, stress relief, referral services, and more. In March, hotline calls were up more than 2,400 from a year ago.

• ISU – using ISU Dining refrigerated trucks – is partnering with Story County and the Food Bank of Iowa to deliver supplies to Ames and Nevada school districts during the COVID-19 crisis. Recently, nearly three tons of food was delivered to help feed more than 120 families in need.

• IT experts at Iowa State beefed up wireless service in selected parking lots around Jack Trice Stadium, and spread the word to students in need of a strong connection.

• Iowa State statisticians developed mathematical models that track and forecast COVID-19 in Iowa and the United States – answering the questions, “How contagious is the virus, and how rapidly is it spreading?”

• Iowa State students, faculty and staff can

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now have library resources delivered right to their front doors. The new services – Tech Lending Delivery and Library Material Delivery – were created to increase access to essential technology and resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• In order to meet its financial challenges caused by the pandemic, the ISU Athletics Department implemented a one-year, temporary pay reduction for coaches and other select staff, and it suspended all bonuses and incentives for coaches this year, among other budget strategies, saving more than $4 million.

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the seed health experts at ISU’s Seed Science Center are working diligently to provide stability to help protect $1.6 billion in annual seed exports by the U.S. seed industry.

• The College of Veterinary Medicine and Ivy College of Business collaborated with S&B Farms to supply Vet Med facilities with hand sanitizer, one of the first products that became difficult to find during the coronavirus crisis.

• In the College of Design’s Computation and Construction Lab, architecture students (below) are operating 3-D printers to manufacture face shields to assist with the health care industry’s pandemic response.

Course fees and prorated refunds will be given for student parking permits.

March 31: New employee leave policies are put into place.

April 3: University leaders unveil a plan to further reduce on-campus operations, including closing more campus buildings and limiting CyRide bus service.

April 8: All university events are canceled, postponed, or moved online through May 31. Many campus employees are allowed continue to work remotely until that time. A “Recovery Working Group” is convened. Summer orientation is moved online.

April 10: Wintersteen sends a letter to graduating students announcing the details of spring 2020 virtual commencement ceremonies. Students may also choose to participate in fall 2020 or spring 2021 commencement ceremonies.

April 20: The university estimates its losses and additional expenses from the start of the pandemic through the summer will be more than $80 million. Units are asked to implement a 5 percent budget reduction for FY21 and another 5 percent reduction for FY22.

The CARES Act will provide $21.6 million in emergency aid to Iowa State, half of which will go to emergency student financial aid.

Bryan Dellett, third-year architecture student, looks over a pair of finished visor frames.

• Iowa State computer scientists have developed a data science infrastructure that will drastically improve research efficiencies for scientists who study the novel coronavirus. This first-of-its-kind infrastructure galvanizes 60 years of coronavirus research onto a single, searchable platform. In addition to saving time and reducing costs, this tool may lead to quicker research breakthroughs and also accelerate the time-to-market of effective antiviral therapies and life-saving vaccines.

• Student Health and Wellness, in partnership with ISU Wellbeing, launched the “Keep Community, Stay Informed, and Be Well” campaign to assist students, faculty and staff as they work and study remotely and navigate other changes in their daily lives.

April 24: Wintersteen shares Board of Regents directive that full, normal operations are expected for regent universities for the fall 2020 semester, if supported with guidance from the CDC, Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Iowa Governor’s Office. Given the unpredictable nature of COVID-19, a full range of scenarios will be considered.

April 28: An Executive Committee for Fall Planning is established, led by John Lawrence, VP for Extension and Outreach.

May 8: Wintersteen announces that a phased approach will be put into place for the campus to gear back up during the summer, beginning June 1.

The first member of the Iowa State community tests positive for COVID-19.

June 2: In the state of Iowa, 20,017 have tested positive for the virus, and 560 have died. n

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Senior year, interrupted

Essay by Christina Do

 Graduating from ISU was an anticipated day not only for me but for my family. Growing up as an only child, my parents always talked about the day they would get to see me walk across the stage to receive my college diploma. On the night of my high school graduation, my parents told me that this was only the beginning. As my college years began, I knew I would be challenged and potentially face hardships, but I never thought one of those hardships was having my senior year be taken away by a pandemic.

As the first grandchild to graduate from a university, my grandparents always made jokes that I was their pride and joy since I was going to be the first. When news first broke of the coronavirus with allegations that the elderly were most susceptible, my grandparents decided to self-quarantine to ensure that they would be able to attend my commencement. For two whole months, my grandparents never stepped foot out of the house. Day by day they watched the news and gave me words of encouragement, but as the announcement of commencement being canceled was released, the only thought in my head was, “How do I tell my grandparents?”

Breaking the news to my family that my

“There are a lot of things this pandemic took away from me, but it cannot take away my accomplishments.” commencement was canceled resulted in a lot of hugs, tears, and words of support. But there was one thing my grandfather told me when I broke the news to him that I will carry with me forever. He said, “For the sky has not called for me yet, so I will continue being your number-one fan.”

Growing up, my grandfather and I were very close. He was the first person to hear that I got an academic scholarship to ISU and the first to hear of my college decision.

As painful as it has been to be a senior during this pandemic, I am reminded every day of those who have helped me during my time at ISU and the sacrifices that have been made on my behalf.

Before all of this, I had made a list of all the things I wanted to do before I graduated. The list included eating in the dining hall one last time, visiting my old dorm, going campaniling with my high school sweetheart, studying in Parks Library during dead week, and saying thank you to all of the professors who helped me along the way.

Coming to ISU, I started with a completely different degree in mind. It took a lot for me to admit that my original degree of choice was not best suited for me, and it took a lot of courage to tell my parents I would be taking on an additional year. But the amazing

professors at ISU truly helped me to learn my strengths and weaknesses and made me even more passionate about my area of study. The support at ISU is unmatched; we truly have some of the best professors a university could offer. They are the backbone of our institution, and I will truly miss them.

As scary as the unknown is, that is what I am looking forward to the most. I have always been one to follow a strict routine and always made sure that no minute of my day went unplanned. But in light of all this, I am looking forward to how my schedule and life will be as I start my new chapter of adulthood. Sometimes it is important to take things day by day or week by week rather than planning everything out. Shifting from being a college student to a working adult will have its challenges, but I truly believe ISU has prepared me for what is yet to come.

I am still reminded almost every day of what would have been an amazing senior year for me.

I wrote down in my planner all the senior activities I wanted to participate in, the day my graduation dress was arriving, and the graduation photoshoot I had planned. Although I could not do everything I had planned, I still went through with taking graduation pictures, and I am slowly going through my graduation check-off list. There are a lot of things this pandemic took away from me, but it cannot take away my accomplishments. Things are changing every day because of this pandemic, but if we let it get the best of us it will leave us empty-handed.

At the end of the day, I am proud to be a Cyclone and forever thankful for my amazing adventure at ISU. Christina Do graduated on May 9, 2020 with a degree in public relations. She was one of 5,094 students to complete their degrees this spring.

“My chemistry professor, Dr. [David] Appy …truly knows how to make the sweetest lemonade out of the sourest lemons. I have always struggled with chemistry, but now I look forward to his online lectures because of how happy they make me.”

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– PEYTON HAMEL, AN ISU SOPHOMORE IN GENETICS, IN AN IOWA STATE DAILY “HAPPY JOURNAL,” APRIL 7, 2020

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A virtual ending Commencement goes online

Andrew Larson, a senior in forestry from LeRoy, Ill., capped off his senior year in a photo with the bronze Cy sculpture at the ISU Alumni Center.

Larson served as the 2019-20 president of the Student Alumni Association and as the student representative to the ISUAA Board of Directors

“ This [COVID-19]…truly is one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me. It’s like I’m a kid and I’ve woken up to a blizzard.

There’s snow up to the window sill and I’m scanning the bar at the bottom of the newscast, waiting to see the list of closures: [My school is] not just closed, it’s closed indefinitely, like time has just…broken.”

– TAYLOR TOMLINSON, AN ISU SOPHOMORE, IN AN APRIL 8, 2020 POST TITLED “THE CORONAVIRUS AND ITS EFFECT ON MY LIFE,” PART OF THE CARDINAL TALES BLOG OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AT IOWA STATE

 Graduating seniors, graduate students, and their families celebrated their achievements with three virtual commencements on May 9.

“While we can’t be together in person, we are developing creative ways to honor you and your momentous achievement,” ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said in an April 10 letter to students graduating in spring 2020.

“We know this is not the ending you imagined to your Iowa State adventure, but the spring 2020 graduating class will forever share a special place in history,” she said. “This pandemic has challenged you in unprecedented ways, and I am so very proud of the strength of your Cyclone spirit.”

In addition to the online ceremonies – for undergraduates, graduates, and veterinary medicine – the university packaged and mailed a “Cylebration” gift to each grad, including a diploma cover, streamers, and a tassel (below).

Students were encouraged to wear academic attire and to send photos to be shared.

The virtual commencements included many of the usual traditions:

remarks by President Wintersteen; the national anthem sung by Simon Estes, F. Wendell Miller Distinguished artist in residence; music by the Iowa State Singers and ISU Brass Ensemble; recognition of students and conferring of degrees, and other speakers, including Jeff Johnson, Lora and Russ Talbot ISU Alumni Association endowed president and CEO. “You are now forever a part of Cyclone Nation, as you now hold a degree from this very special university,” Johnson told the graduates.

“Today, you join more than 260,000 other Iowa State alumni living in all 99 counties of Iowa, all 50 states of the U.S. and more than 152 countries.

You will soon find that Cyclones really are everywhere! Congratulations, class of 2020, and always remember, you are Cyclones for life!”

Colleges offered virtual convocations, and in videos for each undergraduate college, students could hear their names being read one at a time.

Approximately 9,400 people tuned in for the virtual commencement ceremonies.

DAILY CONNECTION

Iowa State Daily continues to publish online throughout spring semester In a March 29 editorial titled “We are here for you,” Iowa State Daily editors told students: “Socializing and daily life as we knew it have been turned upside down. It seems like every day we wake up and the situation in our country is different.

“With all this change, the ISD Editorial Board wants to emphasize that we are still here for you. Our content will still be coming out daily on social media and in your email inbox, just like it has all year long. We are and want to continue to be a constant in your life throughout these rough times.

“Our staff is working harder than ever to cover this pandemic safely and remotely but also with the utmost care and dedication.

“We won’t be printing a physical copy of the Iowa State Daily for the remainder of the semester…. We are dedicated to telling your stories and keeping you up-to-date on the issues and news that will impact you most as a member of this community.”

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20FOR20

“You will never forget

means to be

For the class of 2020, whose senior year was nothing like they expected, 20 messages of hope from Cyclones everywhere

“We will continue to remain loyal, forever, true to each student in the class of 2020.”

“We are so very, very proud – and honored – to welcome you as fellow Iowa State alumni.

GO, CYCLONES!!”

Thomas A. Connop Class of ’76 2019-20 ISUAA Board of Directors chair

Brooke (Almasi) Noack Iowa State University class of 2018

Jacqui (Becker) Fatka Graduate 2003

“Take a minute to FIND THE JOY in your accomplishments.”

Janelle Buxton Agricultural Communications class of 2005

“Welcome to the ISU alumni family, class of 2020. Commencement exercises were different this year, but I was happy to see so many of you on campus Saturday afternoon, all dressed up in your caps and gowns. When I left my office to go home at 5 p.m., there were still clusters of families taking pictures, trying to hold on to graduation day as long as they could.” Connie Tapps Ringlee

“IT’S NOT FAIR. This isn’t what you expected. This isn’t what you paid for. This isn’t what you wanted. Yet, here we are. In a world so foreign, it sometimes doesn’t feel like reality. Today’s events and circumstances are shaping who you are.

It’s OK to feel sad. It’s OK to feel disappointed. But if you also feel acceptance, this detour will make you stronger and more resilient.”

Carrie (Tett) Truesdell Class of 2001

Class of 1970 Speech Communication Textiles and Clothing

 “Don’t think of your party as cancelled.

“You guys make me proud to be a Cyclone.”

Jayadev Athreya Class of 2000

“Welcome to life after ISU. You have a huge, welcoming alumni community to support you.”

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Nupur Ghoshal, MD, PhD (1995) Associate Professor, Depts. of Neurology and Psychiatry Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Washington University School of Medicine

“COVID-19 may slow your start, but it won’t stop your future. I know you got this.

Go get ’em, Cyclones!!”

Jacqui Jeras Outstanding Young Alumnus 2006 On-camera meteorologist at The Weather Channel

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what it a Cyclone.”

“Instead of worrying about what you did not receive, be thankful for all of the opportunities that come your way. BE A LEADER IN A WORLD OF FOLLOWERS.” Debbie Owen Thompson Home economics education class of 1983 Outstanding Young Alum 1996

“It hurts not to be able to celebrate and say goodbye to friends on campus. But believe me, you’ve already earned your most important graduation gift: those friendships.”

“This is a special moment, and it belongs to you.”

Carlie C Tartakov, PhD ’95 Emerita professor, Iowa State University (former board member)

“There are truly #CyclonesEverywhere, so I hope that wherever your journey takes you, you will find a little bit of ISU to make it feel like home.”

Allison Engel Home economics journalism class of 1973

“The virus can’t take away the value of your Iowa State University degree.

It can’t erase the memories. The best is yet to come.” Merrill Oster

Allison Pitz Marketing/management class of 2017

Ag journalism 1961

“Your adventure is just beginning. Keep your eyes open, find comfort in the uncomfortable, and go forward with the spirit of adventure you kicked off at ISU!”

“You have the passion, the training, and the skills… Now, start writing your future and go change the world.”

Elizabeth Burns-Thompson Ag business class of 2011

Pete Kostelnick Class of 2009, who made headlines running across America – twice

 Thanks to many, many alumni who responded to our request to offer messages of hope, support, and encouragement to the class of 2020. Read more messages at www.isualum.org/tothe classof2020

Think of it as postponed. We will gather again. We will celebrate!”

Dan Winters Journalism & mass comm class of 2003 WHO-13 News Anchor/reporter

“EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK. Be safe, be well, and be proud as you represent ISU to the world.”

Krista L. Klocke, M.A. PhD Student | Rhetoric & Professional Communication Graduate Instructor | SpCm 212 Iowa State University

“Education is a journey, not a destination.”

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Carol Anderson PhD ’76 home econ ed

“The Campanile will always ring out for you. Cyclone Alley will always be exuberant for you. The Parks Library will always have a chair with your name on it. Our Cyclone family is large and inclusive. Even though you are graduating, we will always hold a seat at our Cyclone table for you. We stand with you in strength and love.”

Patricia Tice Class of 1975 & 1983 15

The virus hunter

CDC scientist Steve Monroe is on the front line of this viral ‘beast’

By Benjamin Gleisser

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OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

 When a traveler presenting flu-like symptoms arrived in the U.S. from China in January 2020, Stephan Monroe (’76 biochemistry), the associate director for laboratory science and safety at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ramped up action in the public health laboratories.

Monroe, who has been studying viruses for more than 35 years, and his CDC colleagues suspected the passenger was carrying the new coronavirus they had learned about, based on a troubling cluster of pneumonia cases in China. The CDC researchers had recently developed a diagnostic test for the virus, based on a genetic sequence shared online by Chinese scientists. Once the respiratory sample from the passenger was tested, the first case of coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) was confirmed in the United States.

“At the CDC, we’re always watching out for virus sources,” Monroe says. “We heard about the unusual pneumonias in China at the end of December 2019 and shortly thereafter it was identified as a coronavirus, the same group of viruses as the common cold. But we also believed something about this virus strain was different.”

Monroe oversees safety and quality for the hundreds of researchers working in the more than 200 CDC labs in the U.S. and its territories, and its personnel are constantly investigating new ways to rapidly test for infectious diseases while monitoring the health of communities throughout the U.S. Previously, his research staff had investigated SARS, Zika, and Ebola viruses.

But trying to penetrate the genetic secrets of this new strain of virus – later designated SARS-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and nicknamed “the beast” by frontline healthcare providers – presented a complex challenge. Samples taken from other infected people in the U.S. were compared to those taken in China.

“There are nearly 4,000 different sequence variants of SARS-CoV-2, and each one is about 29,000 base pairs long,” Monroe says. “We’re still studying the virus, so we don’t yet know which of the small changes we see in the virus sequences are significant.”

says. “I was studying the protein structure of sickle cell anemia, and Dr. Graves always took time to work with me. He was very enthusiastic all the time. That really encouraged my interest in science.”

And Iowa State is where he met his wife, Martha Cramer (’75 zoology), while working together at The Green Pepper, a pizza restaurant near the campus. Though The Green Pepper no longer exists, Monroe reports that the marriage is still going strong.

Monroe earned his PhD in molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1983, then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in virology at the University of Wisconsin. He joined the CDC in 1987 and was later named the deputy director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases before being appointed to his current post. In addition, he has co-authored more than 130 scientific manuscripts and book chapters, and he holds President Donald J. Trump, joined by Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of two patents that deal with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (center), and Dr. Stephan genetic sequencing of viruses.

Monroe, associate director of the CDC (right), tours the Centers for In 1998, he received the Pekka Disease Control and Prevention on March 6, 2020, in Atlanta.

Halonen Award in diagnostic virology for developing a test for a virus that strains of influenza around the world,” causes diarrhea on cruise ships.

Monroe explains. “The flu tends to make Not all of Monroe’s time at the CDC small changes over time, so we provide was spent in a lab. In 2015, he traveled to pharmaceutical companies with seed Liberia to investigate the Ebola outbreak materials so they can create the yearly firsthand. flu shot.”

Looking back on his 33 years at the Growing up, Monroe was fascinated by agency, Monroe says he’s most proud of science and began his academic career helping his colleagues fight some of the at the University of Rhode Island, with the dream of studying marine biology and becom- world’s deadliest disease outbreaks.

“Everything we do at the CDC is a team ing the next Jacques Cousteau. But the field was relatively small at the time, and realizing effort,” he says. “Sure, I’ve made individual contributions, but I’m most proud of being the name “Monroe” didn’t open doors like part of a team, as well as helping a number “Cousteau” did, he turned his attention of people I’ve been able to mentor along to molecular biology and biochemistry. the way. Some of them have become very He transferred to Iowa State University, capable leaders in the agency. It’s like living one of the few schools offering a degree vicariously through your children. I’m very in biochemistry. proud of their success.”

Monroe credits Iowa State for growth in both his intellectual and personal life.

Benjamin Gleisser is a freelance writer living “What got me really going was working in Ontario, Canada on my undergraduate project with [former life sciences] professor Donald Graves,” he While CDC scientists investigate COVID-19, the researchers are not developing a vaccine; CDC labs are public health research facilities. What the labs discover is shared with other government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as private companies working on vaccines.

“We advise companies like those that make influenza vaccines by investigating

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From China, with hope

“Our world hungers now more than ever for bright minds and determined work ethics developed by ISU Cyclones.”

In early April, Bill Diesslin (A)(’97 civil & construction engineering) experienced how Cyclones are truly everywhere when he received an email from alumnus Luqiao Yu (’12 finance and accounting), forwarded from the ISU Alumni Association.

Diesslin is the associate director of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) at Iowa State. He’s been working seven days a week to help campus and surrounding communities combat COVID-19.

Along with fellow alumni living in China, Yu was organizing supplies to send to ISU for COVID-19 relief.

“After I saw the news about COVID-19 in the USA, I knew that the ISU community was suffering the same way I had just experienced a couple of weeks ago,” Yu says. “So I decided to donate.”

Yu lives in Ningbo, a city in east China’s Zhejiang province. Along with

– TIMOTHY C. BECKER, (’94 CONST ENGR)

17 friends and Iowa State alumni from different areas of China, he organized a shipment of masks and protective equipment to campus.

“There are a lot of people putting in very long hours to respond to COVID-19,” Diesslin says. “We are physically and mentally exhausted. To hear that alumni on the other side of the planet care enough about ISU to ask to help means a lot. Should I ever find myself in China, I will look Luqiao up and thank him in person.”

Within four hours of reaching Ames, Diesslin was able to put the entire shipment of supplies to use. Among the organizations to receive protective equipment were: • Thielen Student Health Center at ISU received 800 masks • Mary Greeley Medical Center received 1,500 masks and 200 face shields

• Story County Medical Center received 1,500 masks • The Ames Fire Department received 1,000 masks • The ISU Emergency Operations Center received 200 masks The actions of Yu and his friends have started a chain reaction. More alumni from China and other parts of the world are coming forward to offer aid, with Iowa State University EH&S, the Iowa State University Alumni Association, and more offices working with those interested in donating.

“It was a wonderful experience to study in Ames,” Yu says, on behalf of himself and his friends. “It is always our honor to help the ISU community.”

– Kate Tindall

“There is no stack of money high enough to buy surgical masks right now. This donation is precious.”

– BILL DIESSLIN, ON MARCH 26, 2020, IN RESPONSE TO A DONATION OF MASKS AND OTHER PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FROM ISU ALUMNUS LUQIAO LU (’12 FINANCE/ACCT) AND FRIENDS IN CHINA

ISU grad in the ICU Jonathan Knedler (’08 kinesiology) is working as an ICU critical care nurse practitioner in Omaha.

“There are Cyclones on the front lines against COVID,” he writes. “I’m ready for another shift in the ICU … I work in ICUs in both Omaha, Neb., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, as well as provide ICU tele-health to rural areas in Nebraska. Proud ISU grad ‘08!”

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CYCLONES TEAM UP TO CREATE MODULAR TREATMENT FACILITIES Two men leading the charge in the development of “strategic, temporary, acuity-adaptable treatment modules” (STAAT Mods) – a unique, pre-fabricated, modular intensive care unit facility that can be constructed in a matter of weeks – are both Iowa State grads working in Wisconsin. Ben Bruns (L)(’01 construction engr) is executive vice president and northern operations general manager for The Boldt Company; Kurt Spiering (’84 arch) is vice president of HGA Architects. Bruns said the idea

Ben Bruns

came out of the desire in mid-March to increase the number of hospital beds to help care for COVID-19 patients. The STAAT Mod units come in 16-bed and 24-bed versions.

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All the privileges and honors: A brief history of women at Iowa State

On

equal

terms

I

owa State opened its doors to women in higher education at its founding, the first land-grant institution to be co-educational from the beginning.

But it would be 149 years between when the first college president took office until a woman would hold the highest office at the university, when Wendy Wintersteen became president in 2017. Over the years, women students, faculty, and staff would be forced to navigate a not-quite-equal system of hiring and educational opportunities and often

How exceptional women shaped Iowa State University In this, the 100th anniversary of a woman’s right to vote, we celebrate the contributions of the women who have made Iowa State University a vibrant, innovative, academically rigorous, and welcoming place.

Compiled by Carole Gieseke

Information for this feature was gleaned from Special Collections/University Archives of the University, Iowa State’s Biographical Dictionary, VISIONS archives, and other historical documents.

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experience a confounding “bump” when they hit the glass ceiling, especially in traditionally male-dominated fields.

But women persisted. They pushed forward. They blazed trails. They fought for equal access and equitable rules.

They stood on the shoulders of the women who came before them.

In his inaugural address, Iowa State’s first president, Adonijah Welch, expounded on the new approach to education the Iowa Agricultural College was taking – leaving behind classical education to combine “learning and labor” and focus on the “branches of natural science which underlie the industries of this beautiful state.”

Welch also commented on the progressive nature of the new institution of learning, which admitted women “on equal terms with young men, to all the

A timeline of women at Iowa State

privileges and honors which the institution can bestow.”

Indeed, President Welch’s spouse, Mary Welch, made her own indelible mark on Iowa State. She was active on campus, organizing the Department of Domestic Economy that included classes in the sciences. Her classes in domestic economy were the first in the nation offered for college credit. She also initiated the first extension work at a land-grant institution and managed to even write a cookbook.

Twenty-six students graduated in Iowa State’s first graduating class (1872), and two of them were women. You can contrast that with today’s numbers: In fall 2019, 44 percent of the student body of 33,391 were women.

Women have made history at Iowa State in engineering, food science, chemistry, and the arts. They organized

1868 Seventy men and women are received for preparatory training on Oct. 21, making Iowa State the first land-grant institution to be co-educational from the beginning.

1869 The first class consists of 173 students: 136 men and 37 women.

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1871 The College Herbarium, a library containing dried and pressed plants, is established. By 2006, the renamed Ada Hayden Herbarium grew to include 640,000 specimens of flowering plants, conifers, ferns, mosses and liverworts, algae and lichen, grasses, and legumes.

1872 The first courses are given in domestic economy (later called

the Ladies Military Company in 1878 and trained as war assistants through the Curtiss-Wright Cadettes Program during World War II. They carved out their place in the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity and the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, and through programs like Women in Science and Engineering and the Women and Gender Studies major. They made their voices heard.

From the beginning, thousands upon thousands of women have celebrated their success at Iowa State. In this 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, we look back at some of the milestones of women’s influence at Iowa State and at some of the most colorful, beloved, and groundbreaking women who together have truly made history.

home economics and then family and consumer sciences) and are taught by Mary B. Welch, the president’s wife.

Iowa State is the first land-grant college in the nation to offer training in domestic economy for college credit.

Twenty-six students graduate in the first class: 24 men and two women.

1876 The Board of Trustees funds an experimental kitchen for domestic economy. The kitchen includes a range, cooking utensils, a supply of hot and cold water, a sink, cupboard, and towel rack. A Century of Home Economics (1971) notes it as the first in any college.

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VISIONARY women • Katharine Abraham (’76 econ)(L) served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

• Julia Faltinson Anderson (’41 home econ ed) (L) worked as a county home demonstration agent before serving in naval intelligence during WWII. After the war, she returned to Iowa State to work in the 4-H Club office, later becoming associate dean and professor in the College of Home Economics.

• Jane Armstrong-Byrne (’57 hotel, restaurant & instit mgmt)(A) was one of the first female vice presidents of a U.S. Fortune 500 Company. She contributed significantly to the field of dietetics/ nutrition, beginning at the American Dairy Association and later at Jewel Foods.

• Dorothy Severin Kehlenbeck Bean was a library curator, the founder of the Iowa State History Collection, and the university archivist in Special Collections. She edited the first 100-year chronology of important events at Iowa State.

• Elizabeth (Liz) Beck served as director of the ISU University Honors Program from 1977 to 2004.

• Stephanie Burns (PhD ’82 organic chem) was president and CEO of Dow Corning; she appeared on Forbes.com’s list of “Most Powerful Women.”

• Theressa Cooper is the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences assistant dean for diversity, director of the George Washington Carver Summer Internship Program, and director of agriculture diversity programs.

• Gertrude Cox (’29 math, MS ’31 statistics) was an influential American statistician, founder of the Department of Experimental Statistics at North Carolina State University, and president of the American Statistical Association.

• Jane Cox (’63 English and speech)(A) spent more than 20 years as a theatre professor and stage director at Iowa State. She is best known as author and performer of a one-woman show, “The Yellow Rose of Suffrage,” on the life of Carrie Chapman Catt.

• Nancy Cox (’70 bacteriology)(L) was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza Division and director of CDC’s World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Control of Influenza.

In 2006, she was named U.S. Federal Employee of the Year.

• Janice Beran (PhD ’76 education)(A) taught women’s physical education at Iowa State and wrote the book From Six on Six to Full Court Press: A Century of Girls Basketball.

• Dianne Bystrom (A) was director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics for 22 years. She taught courses on leadership, women and politics, and political campaigns and was a frequent commentator on political and women’s issues for state, national, and international media.

• Beverly Crabtree (PhD ’65 home econ ed) served 10 years as dean of Iowa State’s College of Family and Human Sciences, beginning in 1987.

• Diane Birt (A), a distinguished professor of food science and human nutrition, was named to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. She made numerous contributions to human nutrition during her 40-year career.

• Susan Carlson was a professor of English and associate provost at Iowa State. She was a member of the Women’s Leadership Consortium and ISU ADVANCE, both programs designed to support and mentor women and minorities.

• Laura Dailey (‘35 home ec journ) worked from 1953 until her retirement in 1980 for the ISU Alumni Association and the Development Office. She served as editor of the Iowa State Alumnus magazine and was the author of the 1975 book, Green Hills: A Pictorial History of Iowa State.

• Etta Budd was responsible for George Washington Carver coming to Iowa State from Simpson College, where she had been his art teacher. She also convinced him to pursue a career in scientific agriculture.

• Susan E. Carlson (PhD ’75 food & nutrition)(A) pioneered research that has made a global impact on human infant feeding practices and the neural development of the very young.

Continued 1878 Carrie Chapman Catt helps organize the Ladies Military Company G (standing for “girls.”)

1882 Mary Welch gives a course of lectures to a class of women in Des Moines, the earliest home economics extension work in the United States.

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Nawal El Moutawakel-Bennis Nawal El Moutawakel (’88 phys ed) became the first Arab woman, first African woman, and first Muslim woman to win Olympic gold when she won the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Born in Casablanca in 1962, El Moutawakel was also the first track and field gold medalist from Iowa State and fourth-ever Cyclone to win a gold medal. She broke even more new Olympic ground when in 2016 she became the first woman ever to chair the Olympics Coordination Commission.

1895 Margaret Hall, the first dormitory for women students and named for Margaret Stanton, is opened.

1907 The first May Day Festival is sponsored by the Women’s Athletic Association, in honor of senior women.

1899 A carillon of ten bells is installed in the Campanile (erected in 1898). Professor Edgar Stanton (class of 1872) donates the bells in memory of his first wife, Margaret MacDonald Stanton.

1911 The Domestic Technology Building (part of MacKay Hall), started in 1910, is completed.

The new classrooms, kitchens, sewing and fitting rooms, demonstration laboratories, and offices are for the Home

• Carole Custer (’71 tech journ) (L) has led Iowa State’s marketing and branding operations since 1988.

• Mary Ann Evans (A) was a path-builder for girls and women interested in nontraditional careers and a voice for international women in science and engineering.

Economics Department and its 250 students.

cream of wheat, stuffed olives, and stollen.

1918 Ada Hayden is the first woman to receive a PhD from Iowa State in the Department of Botany.

1924 The first nursery school at Iowa State is founded in the Child Development Department, primarily to give home economics students practical experience with young children. The program expands in the 1950s to include older children.

The first White Breakfast for women students is held on Dec. 18, a holiday tradition of hot chocolate, white dresses, and candles. The menu includes

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A selection of curious, distinguished, trailblazing, and fascinating women who chose to spend time on the Iowa State campus • Willa J. Ewing (’26 horticulture, MS ’35) is the earliest-recorded woman of color graduating from Iowa State.

• Judi Eyles (’93 marketing)(L), director of the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, has been in the trenches with entrepreneurship at Iowa State for 20-plus years. Her work within the Ivy College of Business and beyond has impacted thousands of students and alumni across all disciplines.

• Genevieve Fisher became dean of the Home Economics Division in 1927. She reorganized the Department of Household Administration into three departments and helped to draft the first federal plan for vocational education in Iowa.

• Barbara Forker (MS ’50 vocational ed)(L) was head of women’s physical education. When the men’s and women’s physical education departments were combined in 1974, she was the first to lead the department.

• Willie Lee Campbell Glass (MSEd ’95) was an educator and home economist whose career spanned almost four decades, from 1933 to the 1970s. She was a leader in the development of programs that prepared classroom teachers for desegregation.

• Ada Hayden (1908 botany, PhD 1918) was the first woman (and only the fourth person, male or female) to earn a PhD at Iowa State. She became assistant professor of botany, a researcher in the Agriculture Experiment Station, and curator of the college’s herbarium. She added more than 40,000 specimens to the herbarium that is now named in her honor.

• J. Elaine Hieber (L) joined ISU athletics in 1979.

She served as senior associate athletics director, senior women’s administrator, and interim director of athletics.

and conducted research related to home and family life. She served under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy on national committees on education and youth.

• Tahira Hira (L) was professor of personal finance and consumer economics at Iowa State and was assistant to the president. She is a national expert in the field of consumer economics and financial literacy.

• Christina Hixson, in 1980, became the sole trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust. Her special fondness for hard-working young people who, like her, came from challenging family backgrounds, resulted in the establishment of the Hixson Opportunity Awards Program at Iowa State in 1995.

Darleane C. Christian Hoffman Darleane Hoffman (’48 chemistry, PhD ’51 nuclear chemistry) (L) was a chemist and leader at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, a professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, and director of the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Among her many career accomplishments are her discovery of Plutonium-244 in nature, confirming the existence of element 106 seaborgium, and conducting the first aqueous chemistry on element 105. She received the President’s National Medal of Science in 1997 and the Priestley Medal (the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society) in 2000.

• Helen LeBaron Hilton (L) served as dean of the College of Home Economics from 1952-1975 Sarah Passig becomes the first woman to lead the ISU Alumni Association board.

1943 The Curtiss-Wright Cadettes Program is established at Iowa State during World War II, to train college women to function during the war as assistants in the Engineering Department. Sponsored by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the course consisted of work in

methods, mechanics, drafting, and processing.

Fraternity houses are used as girls’ dormitories while service men occupy some of the girls’ dormitories.

1962 The women’s curfew is relaxed, allowing them to be away from the residence halls or sororities until midnight Sunday through Thursday, 1 a.m. on Friday and

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Saturday. Freshmen, however, must still be inside by 10:30 p.m. on week nights.

1966 A no-hours policy for senior women and women over 21 goes into effect.

1973 A proposal for a women’s center is submitted to the vice president for academic affairs. The purpose for the center was to provide

• Elizabeth (Betsy) Hoffman came to Iowa State in 1993 as the first woman dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. After serving at other institutions, she returned to Iowa State in 2007 as the first female executive vice president and provost.

• Lorraine Hoffman (MS ’68 bacteriology, PhD ’74) (L) was the first female non-DVM faculty member in the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State.

• Elizabeth Ellis Hoyt was an Iowa State professor of economics from 1925-1980. She is best known for her efforts that led to the creation of the Consumer Price Index.

• Mary Evelyn Victoria Hunter (MS ’31) was the first African American woman to receive a master's degree from Iowa State in home economics. She became a professor and department head of home economics at Virginia State.

• Agatha Huepenbecker Burnet (MS ’52 textiles & clothing) joined the faculty in textiles & clothing at Iowa State in 1956. From 1973 through 1993 she was head of the department; she also served as president of the American Home Economics Association.

• DeAnne Julius (’70 econ)(L) is known for her distinguished service in economics, business, international relations, government, policy making, and academia in her work in key positions with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the World Bank, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, British Airways, and the Bank of England.

• Karen Kedrowski has been director for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics since Jan. 1, 2019.

• Isabelle Kelley (MS ’40 econ) was a little-known economist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But over six presidential administrations, from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s to Richard M. Nixon’s, she played a central role in shaping federal food assistance and

coordinated programs of special interest to women and to contribute to the integration of women into the economic, educational, socio/cultural, and political life of the state.

1974 The Departments of Physical Education for Men and Women are combined, and Barbara Forker is named the first department head.

1981 The Margaret Sloss Women’s Center opens in Sloss House, named for Thomas Sloss, superintendent of buildings and grounds. The center is named for his daughter, Margaret Sloss, ISU’s first woman graduate in veterinary medicine.

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nutrition programs. She directed the food stamp program now known as SNAP. • Lisa Koll Uhl (’08 biology, DVM ’18)(A) is a four-time NCAA Div. I champion, current NCAA record holder in the 10,000 meters, the sixth fastest American woman to ever run 10,000 meters, and one of the university’s most decorated athletes of all time.

Department. Her course, Household Science 355: Meal Planning, became an experimental laboratory in table service. She wrote a book, Meal Planning and Table Service in the American Home that was widely used in college courses.

• Patricia “Pat” Miller (’80 psychology)(L) served for 37 years as director of Iowa State’s Lectures Program, a centrally-organized program of approximately 150 visiting speakers each year.

• Susan Lamont (L) has served the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for 37 years.

She’s been equity adviser since 2010 and served as department chair in animal science.

M.K. Hurd Mary Krumboltz Hurd (’47 civil engr) wrote the “green bible” of the concrete formwork industry. Following graduation from Iowa State, Hurd went to work for the American Concrete Institute in Detroit. In the early 1960s, the institute decided to publish a book on concrete formwork. Hurd’s resulting book, Framework for Concrete, was first published in 1963. The book is used as a textbook at universities, colleges, and professional schools and as a reference book throughout the industry. When the book was being published, Hurd believed that it would be a disadvantage to have a female name on it. She used her initials “M.K.”

• Belle Lowe came to Iowa State in 1918 after serving as an emergency home demonstration agent in Story County, Iowa, during World War I. She published Experimental Cookery, which was used as a textbook at many universities.

• Ruth MacDonald (A), professor and chair of food science and human nutrition, was involved through the Dean’s Global Leadership Program, accompanying students to Rome and working with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization on food waste and food value chain projects.

• Bev Madden (’60 home econ, MS ’70 family environ) was a College of Family and Consumer Sciences faculty member, teaching food science for 15 years prior to coordinating the college’s career services office. She later served as the director of Iowa State’s Career Services Office.

• Beth Bailey McLean came to Iowa State in 1919 as an associate professor in the Household Science

Continued 1992 ISU English professor Jane Smiley wins the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her Iowa-based novel, A Thousand Acres.

The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is established.

1995 The Christina Hixson Opportunity

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• Sarah “Sadie” Hook Passig (1898 home econ) was a political leader and the first woman to head the Iowa State Alumni Association board (1924-27).

Passig was active in state affairs and organized suffrage clubs on campus.

• Sally Pederson (’73 hotel, restaurant & instit mgmt) is the former lieutenant governor for the state of Iowa.

• Neva Petersen (’30 applied art, MA ’48)(L) was a professor of applied art at Iowa State. She worked to establish the Brunnier Art Museum and the Farm House Museum.

• Lynette Pohlman (’72, MA ’76 applied art)(L) is an associate professor of art and visual culture and the director and chief curator of ISU’s University Museums, which includes one of the largest campus public art collections in the nation.

• Gayle Roberts (’81 chem engr)(L) was president, CEO, and chair of the board for the engineering firm Stanley Consultants.

• Catherine MacKay was the first dean of home economics. Under her leadership, the Division of Home Economics and Extension Service grew, and “practice houses” were put in place, simulating real-life situations for students.

• Barbara Mack (’74 journ) started at the Des Moines Register & Tribune in 1969 as a news assistant, became a reporter, and eventually served as general counsel. She joined the ISU faculty and was widely known among journalism students as the toughest teacher they ever loved.

• Precious Mabel Nelson was director of research in food and nutrition and dean of home economics. From the 1920s through the 1950s, she pioneered the development of cooperative research among home economists of land-grant colleges and universities.

• Maria Roberts graduated from Iowa State in 1890 and became a member of the mathematics faculty. She served as vice-dean and later dean of the Junior College.

• Lenora Moragne (’54 dietetics, MS ’59 food & nutrition) (L) earned a doctorate at Cornell University, where her dissertation was “Influence of Household Differentiation on Food Habits Among Low-Income Urban Negro Families.” Her career was in higher education and in nutrition education for the USDA. • Olive Mugenda (MS ’83 family environ, PhD ’88) was the first woman vice chancellor of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Scholarships are introduced, providing financial support for students in every county in Iowa.

The Plaza of Heroines is dedicated in front of Catt Hall to honor Carrie Chapman Catt and other women who have made an impact on families, communities, and society.

1996 The Legacy of Heroines scholarship is established.

1997 More than 60% of Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine graduates are women, up from 15% in 1979. The percentage would continue to grow.

1999 The women’s basketball team reaches the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

• Charlotte Roderuck, a professor of food and nutrition at Iowa State, was named a distinguished professor in 1972 and became director of the World Food Institute at Iowa State.

• Dorothy Schwieder (MA ’68 history)(A) started as a part-time history instructor at Iowa State. She developed a popular course on Iowa history, the first of its kind at the university. She became a full professor and Iowa State’s leading historian.

• Fredrica Shattuck was the librarian for the browsing library in the Memorial Union. She created

national awards, including first place for the best student outreach program in the nation.

2005 Melinda Cerney is the first Iowa State University student to graduate with a doctorate in human computer interaction (one of three programs in the U.S.)

2006 Elizabeth Hoffman, former ISU liberal arts and sciences dean and former president of the University of Colorado, is named ISU’s first female provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Wendy Wintersteen becomes Iowa State’s first endowed dean.

Iowa State’s Society of Women Engineers chapter wins five

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The Little Country Theatre as an Iowa State Fair exhibit and founded the Iowa State Players.

• Angela Shaw (’03 animal science, MS ’06)(A) is an associate professor and extension specialist in food microbiology and safety. She is an expert in foodborne illness, and she leads ISU-based research with the mission of helping fruit and vegetable growers improve the safety of their operations.

• Margaret MacDonald Stanton was hired

by Iowa State as the first dean of women and an instructor in English and French in 1871. She married Edgar Stanton in 1877, and the couple lived on campus. Margaret died after a brief illness in 1895, and Edgar created the memorial carillon on central campus in her honor.

• Rowena Edson Stevens (BS 1873) became socially and politically active, founding and supporting charitable organizations as well as playing a prominent role in the women’s suffrage movement.

She organized the first women’s suffrage parade in the U.S. for the Annual Convention of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association in Boone, Iowa; she was honored by the League of Women Voters in 1931.

• Edith Sunderlin (’24 home econ)(L) joined the child development staff in 1934 as a teacher in the laboratory nursery school. An impromptu reading of a children’s book on the radio led to Edith’s role as the Storybook Lady on WOI Radio.

• Tin-shi Tam is the Cownie Professor of Music and Iowa State University carillonneur. For more than 25 years, she has played daily concerts on central campus.

• Patricia Thiel is a distinguished professor in the Department of Chemistry and scientist at Ames Laboratory. Her research is in surface chemistry on an atomic scale. Thiel was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.

• Ann Thompson received the international Upton Sinclair Award in 2011. She is a university professor who specializes in instructional technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

• Winifred Tilden was “directress” of physical

Lois Hattery Tiffany Lois Tiffany (’45 botany, MS ’47, PhD ’50) was an accomplished botanist, mycologist, field ecologist, and distinguished professor of botany. Tiffany was well known for her expertise in fungi. She was “The Mushroom Lady” to the public and “Dr. T” to students, colleagues, and friends. She taught in the ISU Botany Department for more than a half century and spent many summers teaching at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. Two species of Iowa fungi were named in her honor: Temperantia tiffanyae in 2001 and Mattirolomyces tiffanyae in 2003. culture for women at Iowa State from 1904 to 1944.

She was a strong leader of physical education for women on campus and was nationally recognized for her efforts.

• Betty Toman (MS ’57 vocational ed)(L) was an instructor of dance who was named a distinguished professor in 1984. She created a dance option major in the Department of Physical Education, established the modern dance concert Barjche, and directed the ISU Dance Tour Company.

• Deborah Turner (’73 distributed studies)(L) served as director of gynecologic oncology and vice president of international outreach programs for Iowa’s Mercy Cancer Center.

• Martha Ellen Tye, a Marshalltown woman who died in 1998, was committed to the arts and arts education. Her $1.1 million in gifts established a performing arts scholarship and the Martha-Ellen Tye Performing Arts Institute, and renovated the recital hall, which was named in her honor.

• Betty Lou Varnum was a TV personality at WOI-TV in central Iowa, hosting a program for children, “The Magic Window.”

2007 Women Impacting ISU calendar is created by the Catt Associates student leadership organization as a tribute to current students, faculty, and staff who distinguish themselves through their accomplishments at Iowa State.

elected office. The program is offered through the Catt Center for Women and Politics.

Ready to Run® Iowa is established as a nonpartisan campaign training program to encourage women to run for

2014 Five of Iowa State’s seven academic colleges are led by female deans (Agriculture

2010 Lisa Koll shatters the collegiate record in the 10,000-meter run, becoming the sixth-fastest American ever in the event.

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and Life Sciences, Human Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, and Liberal Arts and Sciences).

2017 Wendy Wintersteen (PhD entomology), former dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Science, is named the 16th (and first female) president of Iowa State University.

• Nellie Verne Walker is an Iowa-born sculptor whose bas relief panels can be seen in the upper corners of the east facade of the original library building.

• Elmina Wilson (1892 civil engr, MS 1894) was the first woman to receive a civil engineering degree at Iowa State. She taught civil engineering at Iowa State from 1892 to 1904, when she moved to New York City to work as a structural engineer. She was also active in the women’s suffrage movement.

• Wendy Wintersteen (PhD ’88 entomology)(L) became the 16th president of Iowa State University on Nov. 20, 2017. The first woman to hold the university’s highest office, she has served Iowa State for more than 40 years. She was one of the first female ISU Extension associates in integrated pest management and became a professor of entomology.

She held administrative roles in Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, serving 11 years as the first endowed dean of the college and as director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station.

• Meron Wondwosen (’98 pol sci / French) was editor of Uhuru magazine, president of the Black Student Alliance, and a leader of the Sept. 29 Movement. She holds a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. • Catherine Woteki was the ISU College of Agriculture’s ninth dean and the first woman to hold the position. She served concurrently as director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station from 2002-2005. She then served six years as undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, before returning to the faculty of ISU’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

• Elizabeth Dargamo Yetley (’63 human nutrition; MS ’70, PhD ’74)(L) joined the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health in 2004 as a senior nutrition research scientist. She was previously employed by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration, where she was the lead scientist for nutrition.

2019 ISU Theatre’s 2019-20 season features six shows written by women, schedules two female Tony Award winners to appear on campus, and plans a yearlong symposium series on gender in the arts.

The Margaret Sloss Women’s Center changes its name to the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity to better represent its mission and vision.

2020 The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics celebrates 100 years of women’s suffrage with “Hard Won. Not Done,” a statewide kickoff of the 19th Amendment centennial commemoration on Friday, Feb. 14, with performances and lectures.

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Going

after the cow How Margaret Sloss became the first graduate of Iowa State’s veterinary program By Jane Cox

M

argaret Wrang Sloss was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Oct. 3, 1901, the sixth of what would become eight children – five girls and three boys. Her older brother called her “Jum” for Jumbo since she was, in Margaret’s own words, “a sturdy child.”

All the family moved to Ames when Margaret was nine and her father, Thomas, was appointed superintendent of buildings, grounds, and construction at Iowa State College. One of the reasons he accepted the position was because he had eight children to educate. Six, including Margaret, graduated from Iowa State, so the decision was correct.

Margaret was considered the “tomboy” in the family and would lead her two younger sisters through all sorts of adventures. They would romp through the museum in Morrill Hall, crawl through the underground tunnel from Curtiss to Morrill, and slide down a mail chute at the back of Curtiss Hall. She even opened the stairway door leading up to the dome in Beardshear – and up she climbed.

In 1909, $150,000 was appropriated 24

for a new Veterinary Clinic. This was the first building to fall under the purview of Tom Sloss. It was badly needed, for operations on the animals often had to be performed out of doors. At that time Dr. Charles Henry Stange, dean of the Veterinary Division, was 28 years old.

The new building was directly opposite the street from where the Sloss family then lived, and Margaret would peek through the glass door and watch the doctors strap the animals on the operating table and begin their work. Although others might come and go, she would watch until the very end.

Following the example of her older brothers and sisters, Margaret entered Iowa State College in 1919 and graduated four years later. Immediately after her graduation. E.A. Benbrook, who was the head of veterinary pathology, hired her as a technician in the pathology laboratory. She was the first female staff member and was paid 35 cents an hour.

Permission to take her annual two-week vacation had to be granted by the president of the college.

After a time, Margaret requested seven hours of time off each week (that she would make up) to take Physics 208, which was required to enter the medical

school at Iowa City. A letter of support from the dean of veterinary medicine was sent to the president, who denied it on the grounds that “a new precedent then would be formed.” After four months of negotiating, the president relented, and Margaret was allowed to take the course. However, after the end of her first year of medical school, there was a required physical exam, which she passed, but failed the eye exam and was not allowed to continue. Margaret, when speaking of this later would say, “You can’t sit down in the meadow and wait for the cow to back up and be milked.

You have to go after the cow!” She had to be self-supporting and missed her colleagues in pathology. She returned to Ames, and life fell into the same pattern that it had before, except that now she had the title of assistant in veterinary pathology (but still was paid 35 cents an hour).

Margaret decided to work for a master’s degree; it took five years to accomplish because she was working at the same time. But in 1932, when she was 31, she achieved that goal and immediately applied for admission to the College of Veterinary Medicine with Dean Stange’s full approval and support. However, the S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

college was the last “men only” curriculum, and the president of Iowa State denied her request.

Margaret wasn’t the kind of woman to quit. She and Dean Stange worked on an argument they felt had merit. Iowa State College was a land-grant institution, open to all, regardless of wealth, race, or gender. The president of Iowa State could think of no reasonable or legal argument to keep her out. Margaret was admitted.

She knew it would be a slow process since she was also employed as a full-time staff member and was a supervisor in the clinical laboratory for junior and senior veterinary students, but as she said, “Victories that are easy are cheap – those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.”

Margaret admitted there were instructors who were biased, but she said, “Perhaps I wasn’t a very good judge of how prejudiced people were as far as women in the profession. I went on the assumption that I was medically and

by while Margaret was at work.

A year after her father’s death, in August of 1938 when she was 37, she achieved her academic goal. Some 930 men had graduated from the veterinary school at Iowa State. She became the first woman. When she was asked about her accomplishment, she said, “It’s really nothing at all.” She reasoned, “Two ears and one mouth suggest that you should listen twice as much as you talk.” She took the veterinary examinations for her license to practice and received a letter with the results: Her grade was 93.4%; the grade to qualify to practice in Iowa was 70%.

As far as the department was concerned, the only difference in Margaret’s work after acquiring the degree and the veterinary certificate was the addition of even more responsibility and detail than before. Margaret knew it would have been different if Dean Stange had lived.

She did a great deal of the photo-microphotography work, prepared for sopho-

Women’s expanding presence in veterinary medicine Margaret Sloss was the first female graduate in Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The second was Mary Lois Calhoun (’39). But neither Sloss nor Calhoun was considered an “official” member of their classes, even though they took all the required classes and earned their degrees. The first official female DVM recipients graduated in 1967. Today, women outnumber men in the veterinary program.

By the numbers Class of 1967

3%

Approximate percentage of female graduates in the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine

Class of 1979

15%

scientifically minded and I had a right to be there. And besides, the 99 percent of male veterinarians make the unpleasant one percent insignificant (which they usually are anyway).”

In 1936, Dean Stange died unexpectedly. He had been a great comfort and help to Margaret; she knew that after his death her prospects would completely change, and they did. Then her father died the following year. After that, Margaret was the decision-maker for the family; she felt her father’s sense of responsibility. Since the family could then no longer live on campus, Margaret bought a small house on Lincoln Way so that her mother, who was in Margaret’s care, could watch the people and cars go V I S I O N S W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG S U M M E R 2 0 2 0

Class of 1997

60%

Class of 2022

86%

more and junior classes in parasitology and special pathology, and took care of the men’s classes when they were absent.

She also had one assignment that she enjoyed very much: She was in charge of the clinical laboratory each forenoon for three hours during the students’ clinic hours. Margaret felt highly repaid for all efforts extended as she noted the constantly increasing interest of the students in this portion of the work. During the summer, she practiced veterinary medicine in the clinic; she never worked harder and never enjoyed work so much.

As the result of her three degrees and over a span of 16 years from 1923 to 1939, Margaret increased her earning power 100 percent, from 35 cents an hour to 70

cents an hour. In 1941 she was promoted to instructor and two years later to assistant professor.

In 1944, something very unexpected happened. An envelope arrived from the White House. Inside, embossed on thick, thick paper, was an invitation: “Mrs. Roosevelt requests the pleasure of the company of Dr. Sloss at luncheon on Friday, Oct. 6, 1944 at one o’clock.”

Margaret could hardly believe her eyes, and couldn’t hide her excitement. A few days later, a certain individual called her into his office and told her that she had a choice to make. She could go to the White House or she could keep her job. If she went, he said, he would see to it that she was fired for dereliction of duty. Margaret was too afraid to go since she was only an assistant professor and was supporting her mother. She sent her regrets and was at work, as usual, on Friday, Oct. 6, 1944.

She remained an assistant professor for 15 years. In 1947, she helped found the Women’s Veterinary Medical Association and served two terms as its president. She was the only member of the Iowa Chapter and told those around her that if she was seen talking to herself, they should not worry. She was holding a meeting.

Margaret often said that her life changed when Dr. Frank Ramsey was appointed the head of the Pathology Department and he began to fight to bring her the recognition he felt she was due. That very year she was made an associate professor, and in 1965, when she was 64, she became a full professor.

Dr. Ramsey often called her “The Queen of Veterinary Medicine.”

Margaret worked until she was 70, which was then the mandatory retirement age at Iowa State. She retired in 1972 and lived in Ames for the rest of her life.

Jane Cox (’63 English and speech) is professor emerita of Iowa State theatre. She is best known as author and performer of a one-woman show, “The Yellow Rose of Suffrage,” on the life of Carrie Chapman Catt.

To read an excerpt from the commencement address Margaret Sloss gave to Iowa State graduates in 1972, go to www.isualum.org/visions.

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A winning plan Carrie Chapman Catt’s crusade to get women the vote

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ne of Iowa State’s most esteemed women graduates was Carrie Lane Chapman Catt.

Catt entered what was then the Iowa Agricultural College in 1877 and completed a bachelor’s degree in general science in 1880, the only woman in her graduating class. During her years at Iowa State, Catt established military drills for women and became the first female student to give an oration before a debating society. She helped organize the Ladies Military Company G (standing for Girls); the group was later divided into two companies, G and L (for Ladies).

Catt served as a library assistant and was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity.

Following graduation, Catt returned to her childhood home near Charles City, Iowa, to work as a law clerk, and, in nearby Mason City as a school teacher and principal. In 1883, she became one of the first women to hold the position as school superintendent.

In 1887, Catt began her crusade for women’s right to vote. She joined the Iowa Women Suffrage Association, organizing suffrage events throughout the state. She also became active in the newly

Buildings on campus named for women  CATT HALL is named for Carrie Chapman Catt (BS 1880), a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and founder of the League of Women Voters.

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formed National American Woman Suffrage Association; she was a delegate to its national convention, became head of field organizing, and was elected to succeed Susan B. Anthony as president in 1900.

Catt was a leader in the formation of the International Women Suffrage Alliance, serving as its president from 1904 to 1923 and as an honorary chair until her death.

In 1916, Catt proposed her “Winning Plan” to campaign simultaneously for suffrage at both the state and federal levels. Under Catt’s leadership, several key states approved women’s suffrage, and on Aug. 26, 1920, Congress and state legislatures produced a ratified 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote.

Catt also founded the national League

of Women Voters, promoted international peace, and worked for child labor protection laws. In 1921, Catt was the first woman to deliver a commencement address at Iowa State. And in 2013 Catt was one of the first four women to be honored in downtown Des Moines’ Women of Achievement Bridge.

• BARBARA E. FORKER BUILDING is named in honor of Professor Barbara E. Forker, distinguished professor emeritus of physical education.

• LEBARON HALL: This west addition to MacKay Hall honors Helen LeBaron Hilton, dean of home economics from 19521975.

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Carrie Chapman Catt and race

By Karen M. Kedrowski

Iowa State alumna Carrie Chapman Catt led the largest women’s suffrage organization, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), from 1900-1904 and 1915-1920. Her leadership resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the enfranchisement of 20 million women.

While Catt’s historic achievements crowned a 70-year struggle for women’s suffrage, some have asserted that some of her words and actions were racist. Were they? The answer is not a simple yes or no.

The suffrage debate was always intertwined with the politics of race. The first suffragists were also abolitionists. In 1870, the movement split over the 15th Amendment, which enfranchised African American men but not women.

When Catt became active in NAWSA in the 1890s, belief in the superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants was commonplace, and white supremacy was ensconced in the South. Reflecting the biases of the time, Catt made public speeches that referred to the “ignorant foreign vote,” pointed to Native American men’s lack of knowledge of representative government, or noted that the votes of illiterate men in the South were “purchasable.”

Yet, in the same speeches, Catt blamed, variously, political corruption, a lack of education, or the tragic vestiges of slavery for these groups’ shortcomings as voters. Her solutions were education and reform, not disenfranchisement. Moreover, after a decade of international travel and suffrage work, Catt repudiated her earlier nativist speeches, calling her past self, “a regular jingoist.”

When Catt became NAWSA President in 1915, the suffrage movement was an uncomfortable coalition between those who favored a Constitutional amendment and others, especially in the South, who supported suffrage by state action only, which would allow states to limit suffrage to white women.

In 1916, Catt introduced her “Winning Plan,” which involved advocating for suffrage through both a federal amendment and state action. During this final campaign, NAWSA did not invest funds in the South, where the region was steadfastly opposed

 HIXSON-LIED STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER and HIXSONLIED SMALL ANIMAL HOSPITAL are both named for philanthropist Christina Hixson and the Lied Foundation Trust.

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to suffrage because of the widespread belief that it would undermine white supremacy.

In 1917, Catt refuted the white supremacy argument in Woman Suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment. Here she wrote, “White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage.” Context, of course, is key. Using 1910 census data, Catt argued this is the case because white women voters will outnumber African American women voters in almost all Southern states.

This argument was first articulated by abolitionist and suffragist Henry B. Blackwell in 1867, when Catt was eight years old, and it was used by suffragists for decades. They may have sought to refute the white supremacy argument without endorsing the practice, a rhetorical strategy known as refutation.

On the other hand, the suffragists may simply have sought to confuse the issue rather than conceding the point. No matter the motivation, the underlying assumption is that African American women will be enfranchised by the 19th Amendment.

In any case, Catt concluded by calling the argument “ridiculous” and stated, “Government by ‘the people’ is expedient or it is not. If it is expedient then obviously all the people must be included.”

Also in 1917, Catt made a full-throated call for voting rights for African Americans. Writing in The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP, Catt said, “… there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color, or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchaseable voice in the government.” Catt also denounced racism she observed In the Tennessee ratification debate as a “cave man prejudice” in a letter to fellow suffragist, Mary Garrett Hay.

Upon Catt’s death in 1947, Mary Church Terrell, a prominent African American suffragist, wrote, “The whole world has lost a great, good, and gifted woman who for many years pleaded with it to deal justly with all human beings without regard to sex, race, or religion.”

So, was Carrie Chapman Catt a racist? Certainly if we look at some of her statements with 21st century eyes and values, we would have to conclude that yes, she was. Yet, importantly, Catt did not live in the 21st century and had no way to anticipate today’s mores. However, by her own admission, Catt matured and her opinions evolved. I give Catt a lot of credit for this, and I think it speaks well of her character that she repudiated some of her own statements. Moreover, her maturation and evolution speaks well for humanity, indicating that we as people can grow, learn, and become better people during our lifetimes.

From my perspective, Carrie Chapman Catt changed the world through her successful advocacy of voting rights and her devotion to improving the human condition throughout her adult life.

FOR FURTHER READING: Carrie Chapman Catt, editor. Woman Suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment. 1917. Available online from the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/ rbnawsa.n4988/ Robert Booth Fowler. Carrie Catt: Feminist Politician.

Northeastern. 1986.

Mary Gray Peck. Carrie Chapman Catt: A Biography. Literary Licensing. 2011 (re-release) Jacqueline Van Voris. Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life.

The Feminist Press. 1987.

Elaine Weiss. The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote. Penguin. 2018.

Many of Carrie Chapman Catt’s speeches and several key publications are available online in the Catt Center’s Archives of Women’s Political Communication: https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/.

Karen Kedrowski is the director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

 MACKAY HALL is named in honor of Catharine MacKay, Iowa State’s first dean of home economics, who served from 1912-1921.

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Former firsts

The public and private lives of Iowa State’s ‘first ladies’

N

ot much is known about some of the wives of Iowa State’s first 15 (all male) presidents.

But many of these women stand out in the historic record.

Iowa State’s very first “first lady” was Mary Beaumont Dudley Welch, and she was a star in her own right. Mary Welch was born July 3, 1841, in Lyons, N.Y. She married George E. Dudley and bore two children – Winifred and George Evans, Jr. – before her husband died of typhoid fever in 1860. She married Adonijah Welch, the first president of Iowa State College, on Feb. 3, 1868, and the couple had two children, Lily and Witter Welch.

According to University Archives, Mary was the organizer and head of the Department of Domestic Economy at Iowa State from 1875 to 1883. She set forth a course centered around the properties of chemistry, botany, physiology, geology, and physics, teaching from her life experiences and self-study, as well as from her study of cosmetic science at various East Coast institutions.

Her domestic science teachings were not reserved for only the women that attended Iowa State. In 1881, Mary taught a class to women in Des Moines, giving her the distinction of initiating the first extension work in home economics at a land-grant institution.

Besides teaching, Mary also wrote a cookbook titled Mrs. Welch’s Cookbook.

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In 1883, Mary resigned from her position at Iowa State, but she continued to give lectures to various clubs, colleges, and the YWCA. In 1992, Mary B. Welch was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame.

 . 

Iowa State’s much-beloved fifth president, William Beardshear, was married to Josephine Beardshear. The popular president died of a heart attack in 1902, but Josephine and their children remained at the Knoll for more than a year after her husband’s death.

Their stay at the president’s house on campus was the first time Iowa State’s sixth president, Albert Storms, a former Methodist minister, his wife, Lovie, and their three daughters had lived in anything besides a parsonage. Lovie was an

• PALMER BUILDING: Named for Barbara Raeder Palmer (’46 family & cons sci) and her husband, whose gift to Iowa State initiated the project.

• FREEMAN HALL: Named to honor Alice Freeman, a University of Michigan alumna and one-time president of Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

RESIDENCE HALLS NAMED FOR WOMEN • BARTON HALL: Named for Clara Barton, founder and first president of the American Red Cross.

• LYON HALL: Named to honor Mary B. Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the first school of higher education for women.

• ROBERTS HALL: Named in honor of Maria Roberts (BS 1890), who served in many capacities as a member of the ISU staff for 52 years, including professor of mathematics and dean of the Junior College.

• WELCH HALL: Named for Mary B. Welch, Iowa State’s first “first lady,” who founded

avid reader, and she named the house the “Knole” after one of England’s finest castles. But upon their arrival, the seventh president, Raymond Pearson, and his wife, Fanny Alice, changed the spelling of their new home to “Knoll.”

James H. Hilton (1953-65) met his wife, Lois Baker, at Iowa State in the 1920s. They married, had three children, and moved into the Knoll. As Iowa State’s tenth first lady, Lois (1922 home economics) gained a reputation for being a great cook and hostess. She was known for her southern cooking: ham, sweet potatoes, and coconut cake. Because she wanted more people to see the Knoll, Lois gave frequent teas and asked friends to bring guests who had not yet seen the house. (As a side note, Lois died in 1969, and Hilton married Helen LeBaron, retired dean of the College of Home Economics.)

In 1940, W. Robert Parks (1965-86) married Ellen Sorge, the first woman to graduate with a PhD (1940) in political science from the University of Wisconsin. They had two daughters, Andrea (Van Howeling) and Cynthia (Hamilton). Throughout her lifetime, Ellen continued her scholarly interests in political science and British history.

An avid user of the Iowa State University Library, she once described the library as “the essence of the university,” and the university library was named in honor of Ellen and her husband. Ellen was also famous for her “Knoll hot chocolate,”

the home economics program at Iowa State.

Hayden House in Maple Hall also is named in her honor.

ALSO: • ADA HAYDEN HERBARIUM: This collection of plant specimens in Bessey Hall is named for the botany professor and first woman to earn the Ph.D. degree from Iowa State.

• MARTHA-ELLEN TYE RECITAL HALL: The recital hall, located in ISU’s Simon Estes Music Hall, was named for Marshalltown philanthropist Martha-Ellen Tye shortly after her death in 1998. She left the university a $1.1 million gift to create a

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BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING

 

a rich combination of chocolate cream and steamed vanilla milk. Cindy Parks Hamilton told VISIONS in 2002, “My mother was a very warm person, and the house reflected her personality.”

When Martin and Patricia Fowler Jischke arrived in 1991, their children, Charles and Marian, were still young.

The Jischkes made the Knoll their home from 1991-2000, and Patty’s work had a huge impact on the university. She was highly visible on campus as a volunteer and in the community, working with youth development, the campus landscape and gardens, the library, and other projects. But, first and foremost, she said, she provided support to her husband.

“One of the things I learned right away about university presidents is that you don’t get those jobs unless you have strong support at home,” Patty told VISIONS in 2000. “When you are putting everything you have into the job, you need to have the extra energy of another person intensely involved and interested in what you’re doing. I have always been interested in what Martin’s doing.”

Patty, who held a law degree, was co-organizer of the President’s Leadership

performing arts scholarship endowment, establish a performing arts institute, and renovate the recital hall.

• MERCHANT HOUSE in Elm Hall is named for Iza A. Merchant (MS ’28 English), who taught English, served as Iowa State’s first director of social life, and

Class, president of Reiman Gardens Co-Horts, a member of the Gardens’ advisory committee, and chair of the ISU Library Development Council.

Iowa State’s next president, Gregory Geoffroy (2001-2012), spent the first year on campus differently than his predecessors: without the graceful presence of his wife. Kathleen Carothers Geoffroy remained in Maryland with their youngest son, who was a senior in high school (the Geoffroys have three older children). Her official move to Ames was in June 2002.

Steven and Janet Leath had been married 30 years when they came to campus in 2012. Janet had been the owner of a successful State Farm insurance agency in Garner, N.C., before they moved to Iowa, and she had a degree in plant science. Her avocations, which continued at Iowa State, were landscape architecture and gardening. The Leaths have two sons, Eric and Scott.

When Wendy Wintersteen was named Iowa State’s 16th president in 2017, it was the first time there would be no official “first lady” on campus. There was some speculation about what her husband, Robert Waggoner, would be called. In the end? “The president’s spouse.”

Thanks to Karol Crosbie for her storytelling in the fall 2002 VISIONS feature “Presidents and their families at the Knoll” and to University Archives/Special Collections for its historic information and photos.

helped organize various university and community groups during her 35-year tenure.

• TILDEN HOUSE in Eaton Hall is named for Winifred R. Tilden, the first professionally trained director of Iowa State’s physical education program for women.

• MARGARET SLOSS CENTER FOR WOMEN AND GENDER EQUITY is named for the first woman veterinary medicine graduate of Iowa State and long-time member of the veterinary medicine faculty.

Three Iowa State alumnae are the first to hold top leadership spots for the state of Iowa

Wendy Wintersteen (PhD ’88 entomology), first woman to serve as Iowa State University president (2017) •••••

Joni Ernst (’92 psychology), first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Iowa (2014); first female combat veteran from any state to serve in the Senate •••••

Kim Reynolds (’16 liberal studies), first woman elected as governor of the state of Iowa (2018) •••••

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12 ways Iowa State women have changed the world 2

1

The butter cow The Iowa State Fair would be incomplete were it not for the requisite butter cow, created for 46 years by Norma “Duffy” Lyon (’51 animal science).

Women’s suffrage movement/ League of Women Voters Carrie Chapman Catt (BS 1880) was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, campaigning for the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. She also founded the League of Women Voters.

Plutonium discovery Darleane Hoffman (PhD ’51 chemistry) was one of the researchers who produced the element 106 seaborgium at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

4 Rice Krispies Treats What would life be without crispy squares of rice cereal, chewy marshmallows, and creamy butter? Thanks to Mildred Day (’28 home economics), who helped create the prototype for Rice Krispies Treats while employed at Kellogg, we’ll never have to know.

3

7

6

Teaching Amelia Earhart to fly The first woman aviator in Iowa, Neta Snook served as Amelia Earhart’s first flight instructor. Snook attended Iowa State in the early 1920s.

9

Protecting journalists Once a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, Ann Cooper (’71 home economics journalism) later served as the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization whose mission is defending and protecting journalists and press freedoms worldwide.

10

Microwave ovens Helen Van Zante (MS ’42, PhD ’46), an ISU home economics professor in the ’50s, didn’t invent the microwave oven, but her research was instrumental in paving the way for the new kitchen technology. She helped test the product for Tappan, and after leaving Iowa State she taught the country’s first microwave class and wrote the first scientific microwave text.

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Groundbreaking chimp research Former ISU anthropology professor Jill Pruetz made headlines for her groundbreaking research on savanna chimpanzee behavior. Pruetz was the first researcher to document the chimps’ creation and use of tools to hunt other vertebrates.

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Nutritional research Bernice Kunerth Watt (’32 chemistry / food and nutrition) devoted her career to nutritional research. Over a long career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she compiled data on nutrients in 3,000 foods, and she led the USDA Nutrient Data Research Center.

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Quantity cooking The Quantity Recipe File, first published in 1937 by ISU institution management professor Lenore Sullivan (MS ’29 institution management), was a revolutionary idea to food service operations, helping deliver a consistent food product and reducing costs.

12 Weight gain during pregnancy The research of Janet King (’63 dietetics) demonstrated that calcium and zinc metabolism adapt during pregnancy, leading to a change in nationally accepted weight gain standards for pregnant women.

Airline food Ella “Pat” McMullen O’Donnell (’33 home economics) was hired by United Airlines, the first airline in the country to launch full-fledged food service, to design and implement in-flight meals.

Excerpted from “150 contributions: How Iowa State has changed the world,” summer 2008 VISIONS sesquicentennial coverage

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STATEMENT MAKERS 2020 Meet the 2020 class of Iowa STATEment Makers: Ten young alumni who are spearheading change in education and health and working toward social good. The STATEment Makers award is sponsored by the ISU Alumni Association and recognizes the early personal and professional achievements of alumni age 32 years and under.

Haitham Alabsi

Haitham Alabsi (’08 biochemistry) is a clinical fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital whose research focuses on leveraging automated bedside data to provide more accurate prognostication and data-driven clinical decision-making. Alabsi has a degree in osteopathic medicine from Des Moines University.

Heidi Becker

Heidi Becker’s life came to a standstill on Jan. 19, 2017. On that day, Becker (’08 meteorology) and her husband Josh lost their 2-year-old son Drew to a year-long battle with neuroblastoma. In memory of their son, the couple founded Warrior Wagons, Inc., a nonprofit organization that gives newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients and their families a wagon filled with practical and comfort items.

Marquis Hamilton

Marquis Hamilton (’09 com studies) is a learning specialist at Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, Ill., where he provides one-to-one instruction of students with disabilities and collaborates with teachers and parents to implement support for overall success. He also founded the nonprofit UP.Mentoring, which provides opportunities to youth from underserved communities in Chicago.

“[My favorite college memory was] skipping class to cover the 2016 election, which really confirmed for me that, yes, this is actually what I wanted to do with my life.”

Kayla Flyckt

Kayla Flyckt (’14 biology, MS ’16) feels most at home in her research lab. She began working for Corteva Agriscience in Johnston, Iowa, after completing her master’s degree research on plant lipids. Since joining the trait discovery department at Corteva as a senior research associate, Kayla has continued to specialize in plant lipids – specifically soybean oil.

Kelly Howard

Kelly Howard (A)(’08 journalism) is the CEO of Los Angeles-based EightSixtySouth, an agency that focuses on strategic communications for a diverse roster of clients in the lifestyle and wellness space.

She was named communicator of the year during PR Couture’s 2018 Bespoke Communication Awards and has presented at WWDMagic, Simply Stylist, BOSS Talks, and NerdyGirl Academy.

“Being an international student at ISU inspired cultural humility within me.”

– AKSHI MOHL A

– LISSANDRA VILL A

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“Iowa State will always feel like home. I grew so much personally and professionally during my time at ISU, and I am forever grateful for those experiences.”

– K AY L A F LY C K T

Meredith McKean

Meredith McKean (L)(’07 biochemistry) is a medical oncologist and hematologist with Tennessee Oncology, PLLC and a clinical investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville. She has published multiple academic articles – primarily on immune therapy and melanoma.

Goran Micevic

Goran Micevic (’10 biochemistry), a resident physician at Yale New Haven Hospital and West Haven Veteran Affairs Hospital, grew up in war-torn former-Yugoslavia. His goal to become a physician and researcher brought him to Iowa State. At Yale University, Micevic and a team of researchers have discovered new treatments that could improve the care of melanoma patients.

Lissandra Villa

Think of a national news story, and chances are Lissandra Villa (’16 journalism & political science) has covered it. Villa is a staff writer for TIME magazine, where she covers national politics. She has reported on topics ranging from allegations of sexual harassment and abuse of power in Congress to the shooting at the Republican Party baseball practice in 2017.

READ MORE Read more about this year’s STATEment Makers at www.isualum.org/statementmakers2020.

NOMINATE Nominate young alumni for the 2021 awards at www.isualum.org/statementmakers.

Nomination deadline is Dec. 1.

Akshi Mohla

Akshi Mohla (’13 aerospace engineering) is a procurement solutions consultant at the cloud software juggernaut SAP. As an engineer, she has the drive to make good systems better. Outside of her work, Mohla serves as a teaching volunteer for Black Girls CODE, a nonprofit devoted to providing computer coding lessons to girls from underrepresented communities.

Kelsey (Upah) Wigans

Kelsey (Upah) Wigans (’14 dietetics) is the Seed to Table manager at Gilmore City-Bradgate Community School District in Gilmore City, Iowa.

She has spearheaded the creation of a school greenhouse, introduced chickens to the school grounds, initiated a food backpack program, created a learning kitchen, and started honey bee and monarch projects for students.

“I’m passionate about helping others and being recognized for doing good work in my community.”

“I will spend the rest of my days striving to imitate these qualities [my son] displayed in the 1,024 days of his life.”

– M A RQ U IS H A M ILT ON

– HEIDI BECKER

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Crystal Brandenburgh remembers the women

By Lindsey Giardino

C

rystal Brandenburgh recalled first coming to understand female empowerment through her grandmother, a Mary Kay saleswoman for 30-some years who used to joke that her retired husband “worked for her” – a sentiment Brandenburgh took seriously. She saw her grandmother as a boss, a powerhouse.

“Having women like my nana in my life embedded in me the value of being a strong woman and the desire to mentor and foster strength in other women, particularly those younger than me,” said Brandenburgh, a May 2020 graduate in history from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Inspired by her nana, Brandenburgh became enamored with women’s rights, which morphed into a deep curiosity about women’s history. She began participating in national history competitions as a high schooler and focused on topics such as the career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and women spies. When she came to Iowa State, Brandenburgh knew she needed to learn how to turn her love for history into a career.

In summer 2019, she interned for the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University, and she served as an archival intern in Iowa State’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics for two years. There, Brandenburgh helped collect and transcribe historical speeches from women politicians and activists, most of which were handwritten.

“I quickly became an expert in deciphering 19th century handwriting, which is harder than you might think,” Brandenburgh said.

She also received the Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s High Impact Award for Undergraduate Research. The award enabled her to travel to New York City to conduct research on Carrie Chapman Catt in the public library, where there was a cache of nearly 100 speeches by Catt that had not been digitized. Brandenburgh scanned them and brought them back to the Catt Center to add to its archive and use in her own research efforts.

“It was a really wonderful experience because 34

most of the time undergrads don’t get to do primary source, archival research, and I’ve had a bunch of opportunities to do that,” Brandenburgh said.

“It’s been great for my career development.”

Brandenburgh is the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree. As she paves this new way, she looks to her grandmother, who did the same in her own career, acting as her own boss, guiding her own destiny.

Brandenburgh’s next step is to attend graduate school. She has been accepted into Carnegie Mellon University’s history doctoral program, where she’s excited to study the history of women in politics. Her journey at Iowa State helped her collect a series of incredibly valuable experiences, and she’s thankful for the support of such scholarships as the Sue and John Lawson Scholarship for allowing her to attend a four-year university.

“I wouldn’t be here without scholarships.

I really wouldn’t. My mom is a single mom, and scholarships are the only thing that make this whole thing possible for me. I’m incredibly grateful for all the support I’ve received over the past four

“I wouldn’t be here without scholarships. I really wouldn’t.

My mom is a single mom, and scholarships are the only thing that make this whole thing possible for me. I’m incredibly grateful for all the support I’ve received over the past four years.”

— Crystal Brandenburgh

years. It’s the reason I’ve gotten to do internships and archival research, and the whole reason why I’m going to grad school is because I have the financial support to pursue different opportunities and experiences that are incredibly valuable for my chosen career path.”  Lindsey Giardino (’17 journ/mass comm & English) is a writer for donor relations and communications at the Iowa State University Foundation

S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

Be a part of history.

Invest in the future.

Make history by joining thousands of alumni and friends who’ve contributed to the Forever True, For Iowa State campaign. Together, we can achieve a historic goal to raise $1.5 billion by July 2021 – ensuring a bright future for Iowa State.

Be forever true to Iowa State, visit ForeverTrueISU.com.

 FROM THE PRESIDENT

The 19 women who influenced my life The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity for many of us, I believe, to be reflective.

It has also caused me to be grateful for the many positive influencers I’ve been blessed to encounter during my 57-year journey. So, in recognition of the celebration of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, I thought I’d share a bit about the 19 women who’ve helped shape me into the person I have become and am continuing to become.

Paring this list down was not hard, as I have tried to express my gratitude to these individuals every chance I get. But I’ve never done so collectively or so publicly. Plus, to do it justice, I elected to share it with you as a two-part series. I hope you enjoy Part I. May it inspire you to explore and acknowledge the women who have helped guide and shape your life. Here are the first 10.

Without a doubt, at the very top of my list is my wonderful, thoughtful and beautiful mom, Odell Clark Johnson. I lost her and my dad in April 2017, but not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and thank God for choosing her to give birth to me and my nine siblings. Mom taught me the importance of dreaming. My mom waited many years for a house with indoor plumbing. It didn’t happen until 1981, my senior year of high school. She talked about it, but never complained about it. I can remember the day it was completed. I purchased her a regal red three-piece living room set, end tables, a coffee table, lamps, and a gold-leaf painted mirror. Miss ya, mom!

Mom and Dad made sure that faith was central to our development. Two church ladies, Mrs. Nezzie Edison and Mrs. Clara Square, further nurtured me in religious education. In doing so, they really ended up developing my comfort in public speaking. I can’t count the number of the times I provided the Sunday morning welcomes at church, spoke around the state, and joined them at convention meetings. I was only four years old when they took me under their tutelage.

And then there was Mrs. Ruth McCann, my elementary school English teacher. She taught me to love education. She actually made me and my classmates, all black kids from the rural part of our Mississippi town, believe we were as smart as our white counterparts, whom we had never 36

met or competed against. As we transitioned from Hopewell Elementary School to Collins Jr. High School, the economics, race issues, and dynamics would be different, but she told us we were ready. And guess what? We believed her. None of us failed. We were too afraid to. It would have disappointed Mrs. McCann.

Some folks see your calling long before you do.

The person I give credit to for helping me find my calling in life is Mrs. Jessie Allred. She believed everyone should have a job. I was honored to do yard work for her when I was eight years old. I had many other jobs from that time through my senior year, but I worked for her continuously that whole time. For whatever reason, this older, widowed, wealthy Caucasian lady took a deep interest in me and my future. She convinced my father to not confuse his dreams for me with what she, as a retired teacher, saw in me. Mrs. Allred told my dad to let me love school and general work, but I would not remain on the farm. She was convinced I would take a non-conventional path to my future line of work. Okay, Mrs. Jessie, you were right.

My seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Sarah Barnes, was also my God mom and church organist.

She knew my family and our values. She is responsible for teaching me accountability.

Be where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing. She didn’t just teach these things, she lived them. What an example!

In eighth grade (yes, eighth grade!) I met and fell in love with Peggy Wolfe, a sixth grader.

And the rest is history – still in the making. She’s taught me commitment. I know many of you are saying she’s modeled long suffering! I wasn’t the athlete. I was a drum major in the band. She was the head cheerleader – smart, quiet, beautiful, mature, and a rule follower. You know her. She hasn’t changed. If you look up the definition for “commitment” in the dictionary, it has Peggy’s photo by it!

Barbara “Bobbie” Lockhart, Peggy’s mom, taught me not to complain. For most of her adult life, she suffered with bronchitis. It eventually took her life at the age of 54. This issue did not define her life, purpose, or attitude. She worked sick most of her life. Peggy and her six siblings model this same toughness in their own lives today. And while Peggy and I both have had our own health challenges, you’ll never find us complaining or asking for sympathy. Bobbie would not be happy with us.

My first professional boss happened to be Dr. Becky Askew. She was the director of admissions at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM).

She taught me the value of taking risks. She convinced the university president at the time to hire a student intern to do high-level recruiting to help the institution build the enrollment for its honors college. I happened to be that student.

I served on the university’s ambassador team and had a great rapport with faculty, staff, families, student peers, prospective students, and families. This job was my entrée to what has cemented my professional work in higher education and my graduate degrees. Thanks, Becky!

Wow! This beauty is teaching me about second chances. Krystal Martin, my daughter, graduated from Iowa State. In doing so, she created the first collegiate legacy in our family, as Peggy and I are both first-generation college graduates. Among my greatest joys are in May 2014 when Krystal and I graduated on the same weekend, and July 12, 2015, when she and my son-in-law Cole gave Peggy and me our first grandchild, Tony! While raising Krystal and her brother Kristopher, I was a worker. I included the kids in my work life, but I could have done a better job of being home more. Cole and Krystal are awesome parents. They’re allowing Peggy and me to spend wonderful time with the grandkids.

I know I’m not getting a do-over, but I do feel she and I are closer. She understands me better, and our conversations have been enriched as we now have this shared journey.

In part two, I look forward to sharing information with you about Tara Odom, Mrs. Bobbie Anderson, Dru Sampson, Mary Liay, Ann Jennings, Jamie Stensland, Martha Gleason, Carole Gieseke, and Emmy Martin.

Continue to stay safe and healthy. The staff and I can’t wait to see you at future events, on campus, and in the Alumni Center.

Yours for Iowa State,

Jeff Johnson Lora and Russ Talbot ISUAA Endowed President and CEO PhD ’14 education S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

Student Leadership Programs Endowment Goal:

 I S U A A C A M PA I G N P R I O R I T I E S

$1 million

ISU launched its $1.1 billion campaign, Forever True, For Iowa State, in fall 2016. For the ISU Alumni Association, the campaign will help position the Association to better serve and showcase Iowa State and Cyclones everywhere.

The Association has identified 10 campaign priorities: student leadership, VISIONS magazine, awards, staff development, LegaCY programs, young alumni, clubs, technology, diversity and inclusion, and CEO endowment.

Students are the future ambassadors, advocates, leaders, and donors to our university. The Alumni Association is creatively re-imagining how it will engage with them during their time on campus.

ALUMNI SUPPORT IS NEEDED to help sustain the Student Alumni Leadership Council (SALC). Each year, 70 students serve on the SALC, where they gain leadership skills and practical experience while planning unique and engaging programming that builds Cyclone spirit, such as Homecoming, Cyclone Alley/Hilton Magic, and Senior Week, in addition to promoting membership in the Future Alumni Network, one of the largest student membership programs of its type in the country.

As students begin their path of engagement with the ISUAA and the university, these events are extremely important to establishing a sense of belonging and instilling pride in the traditions of Iowa State for all students. Additional student engagement leads to increased post-graduation engagement through membership, volunteer opportunities, and philanthropy.

Impact of private gifts on the student leadership program • Inspire innovative ideas for student engagement • Expand efforts to make SALC programming more diverse and inclusive • Enhance career resources • Improve the quality of SALC-sponsored programs • Offer student leadership opportunities to a greater number of students • Cover travel and registration costs for students to attend leadership TO MAKE A GIFT: conferences

Please consider making a gift to the Student Leadership Programs Endowment and help us reach our goal, which we are close to achieving.

We are two-thirds of the way there!

Contact Jamie Stowe, director of development for the ISU Alumni Association, 877-ISU-ALUM (toll-free), 515-294-7441 (locally), or jstowe@foundation.iastate.edu Learn more about the ISUAA’s Forever True, For Iowa State campaign priorities at isualum.org/giving

Staying Cyclone Strong In March, the ISU Foundation launched the Cyclone Strong Fund to enable Iowa State alumni and friends to support Cyclones in need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this fund has provided crucial financial support for students, and it will continue to fill various needs for on campus. Examples include:

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• Created a temporary food pantry on campus for students facing food insecurity • Granted emergency aid to students experiencing financial hardship that may keep them from remaining enrolled, paying their bills or rent, or buying groceries • Purchased laptops and equipment for students and staff to borrow as face-to-face classes were replaced by online courses • Served additional, unforeseen priorities as they arise during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in any future crises

Since the #CycloneStrong project was launched, more than 270 alumni, faculty, staff, and friends have made gifts totaling over $61,000 to help members of the campus community who are in need during this challenging time.

Make your gift today at: www.foundation.iastate.edu.

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 NEWSMAKERS

ALUMNI BOOKSHELF Dorothy (Bunting) Montgomery (’84 business mgmt) has written Stone Fruit, a historical-fiction novel inspired by the painter Grant Wood, his sister Nan Wood Graham, and the Jones County, Iowa, community.

Theresa Exum-Lucas (’14 child, adult & fam svcs) has published a poetic memoir, With These Words.

In the book, she brings readers on her journey of learning to overcome trauma by transparently writing about her life experiences.

Scott Olson (L)(’69 arch) has been re-elected to his third term on the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, City Council. He is also chair of the Linn County Solid Waste Agency and the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. Olson is a retired licensed architect.

Service with a smile

TOP JOBS David Schejbal (A)(’82 philosophy) has been named president of Excelsior College, located in Albany, N.Y. He was previously a vice president at Marquette University.

Al Ruechel (’75 journ & mass comm) has retired from Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay, Fla., after nearly three decades as a television news anchor.

ALUMNI HONORS Don Zuck (L)(’60 mech engr) was named Ankeny, Iowa’s, 2019 Outstanding Citizen of the Year.

Jeffrey W. Coleman (’76 civ engr, MS ’77) has been elected to serve as president of the American Concrete Institute for 2020-21. Coleman is a licensed professional engineer, attorney, and principal partner of the Coleman Law Firm in Minneapolis.

Mickey Waschkat (L)(’85 psychology) joins AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising as people and culture coordinator. Waschkat manages critical human resource tasks and employee and company development.

Michael Stebbins (’88 architecture) has been promoted from senior associate to associate principal at CO Architects in Los Angeles.

Mary Kate Misak, the ISUAA’s manager of student programs, was named the 2020 ISU Outstanding Student Adviser. This honor is given to an adviser of a student organization who demonstrates strong advising skills, is readily available to students, and takes great strides to help the organization’s student leaders. Misak advises the ISUAA Student Alumni Leadership Council.

Kyle Herbert: From books to battlefield

K

yle Herbert (’20 marketing) has become adept at handling challenging situations.

A deployment to Afghanistan his freshman year, having his

KYLE HERBERT West Des Moines, Iowa #CyclonesEverywhere

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final semester and graduation altered by a pandemic … he has taken it all in stride.

The West Des Moines native enlisted right out of high school in the Iowa Army National Guard. From there, he trained to become an intelligence analyst. After he finished training, Herbert began classes in Ames – when he received word that his National Guard unit was called up to deploy to Afghanistan. So, he finished up fall semester and prepared for an assignment much bigger than any that he had received in class.

“I gained tremendous experiences during my year-long deployment, and it has really shaped me into who I am,” he said. “I am proud to have done it.”

Herbert says going online during the spring semester forced him to be disciplined.

“I tried to maximize the free time I had this semester by reading and learning a bit more about the subjects I am most interested in. I was absolutely amazed at how Iowa State University handled the unique circumstances.”  READ MORE CYCLONE STORIES AT ISUALUM.ORG/CYCLONESEVERYWHERE

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SWEET SUMMER TIME

ISU Walking Cy T-Shirt Item: 2042528 $28.00

Cy Pennant Deluxe 3' x 5' Flag Item: 03208508223 $47.99 Iowa State Lapel Pins 4 pack Item: 76722312552 $18.99

Women's Cardinal Long Sleeve sm-3xl Item: 2041055 $30.00

Stainless Steel Woodtone 16oz Water Bottles Item: 2044118 & 2044119 $29.99

I-State Face Mask (Cardinal)l Item: 19416615513 $8.99

I-State Stronger Together Cyclone Nation Yard Sign Item: 2044742 $24.99

College Specific T-Shirts Item: 2044541 & 2044538 $19.99 All colleges available

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 A S S O C I AT I O N N E W S A N D E V E N T S

Free class of 2020 digital membership This spring, graduates of the class of 2020 were offered a six-month, opt-in, digital membership to the ISU Alumni Association. The membership gives the new grads access to the online directory, career resources and networking, discounts, and more.

Supporting Cyclone businesses Looking for Cyclone-friendly businesses? The ISUAA is creating an online business directory for alumni to find businesses owned or managed

by Iowa State alumni and friends. To search the directory, go to www.isualum.org/business directory. If you have a business and would like your information shared, fill out the form at www.isualum.org/businessdirectory signup. Thanks for coming together to support fellow Cyclones!

Cheers to 50 years The ISUAA will celebrate the class of 1970 in a virtual reunion this fall. Go to www.isualum. org/events for details.

Celebrating the class of 2020 The ISU Alumni Association, along with campus partners and ISU Athletics, has begun conversations and initial planning to host a special fall event around a Cyclone football game to engage, celebrate, and recognize the class of 2020 and their families.

Details will be at www.isualum.org/events.

Class of 2020, update your contact info now (www.isualum.org/update) so you don’t miss out on the continuing celebration and engagement opportunities that the ISU Alumni Association and campus partners are planning for your class this fall!

Find a gamewatch near you Connect with Cyclones everywhere to watch the big game on TV! For game details, go to www.cyclones.com.

For gamewatch locations: www.isualum.org/gamewatch

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Homecoming 2020: Anticipation

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• • • • •

e can’t tell you how excited we are to see you at Homecoming this fall! The theme is “Cardinal & Bold,” and students and staff are optimistically moving forward with plans to hold this annual tradition in person Oct. 11-17.

Homecoming Parade (Sunday, Oct. 11) Honors & Awards (Friday, Oct. 16) ExCYtement in the Streets, Mass Campaniling, pancakes & fireworks Homecoming Cyclone Central Tailgate (Saturday, Oct. 17) Cyclone football vs Oklahoma

Events are subject to change. Watch for details and event updates at www.isualum.org/homecoming

CALLING ALL SWEETHEARTS Did you meet your special someone at Iowa State? Are you sweet on Cardinal & Gold? Let us call YOU “sweetheart”! Cyclone Sweethearts was created by ISU’s Homecoming Central Committee to collect Cyclone love stories and recognize special couples who were brought together by Iowa State. Applications to honor the third-annual Homecoming Cyclone Sweethearts are due in September. Don’t miss this opportunity to win a prize package including local Ames treats and riding in the parade during Homecoming week Oct. 11-17. www.isualum.org/sweethearts

S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

Exclusive savings for your love of rewards side.

As part of Iowa State University Alumni Association, you may be eligible for a discount on your insurance.

We appreciate groups that bring people together over common values and interests. That’s why we’re proud to offer you exclusive discounts on your insurance. Plus, we offer up to 20% savings when you bundle your home and auto insurance.* With more than 90 years of experience and expertise, Nationwide can help you protect what matters today and plan for what comes tomorrow.

See how we can help protect your life’s many sides.

Visit nationwide.com/ISU or call 1-855-550-9215 for more information.

*Savings compared to stand-alone price of each policy, based on national sample customer data from 2017. Discount amounts do not apply to all coverage or premium elements; actual savings will vary based on policy coverage selections and rating factors.

Nationwide has made a financial contribution to this organization in return for the opportunity to market products and services to its members. Products are underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates, Columbus, Ohio. Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle and Nationwide is on your side are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. © 2019 Nationwide AFO-1106AO (06/18) 9731213

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 A S S O C I AT I O N E V E N T S

Fall Cyclone Central Tailgates at the ISU Alumni Center The ISU Alumni Association has been providing Cyclone Central Tailgates for Iowa State alumni and friends for more than 10 years. The Alumni Center provides a family-friendly event in a temperature-controlled environment where Cyclones everywhere can celebrate Cyclone football and enjoy giveaways, kids’ games, shopping, food and drink, and entertainment for all ages.

This fall, the ISUAA will be navigating new territory in regards to hosting events in the Center. We are working our way through meeting university guidelines to solidify how Cyclone Central Tailgates will look this fall. Cyclone Central Tailgates are an important part of connecting with our ISU alumni and friends, but we need to ensure we are doing our part to protect the health and safety of Cyclones everywhere.

Please continue to watch our Facebook page and visit our website at www.isualum.org/cyclonecentral for updates about the details of Cyclone Central Tailgates this fall. Go, Cyclones!

WE WILL TRAVEL AGAIN

T

hese past few months will go down in history for the Traveling Cyclones program, as it will for the entire world-wide travel industry. We rapidly went from tourism at an all-time high to a complete standstill within a matter of weeks. Many of you have reached out to ask questions, defer travel to next year, cancel your reservation, or take a wait-and-see approach. I can’t thank you enough for the ways that you have made thoughtful decisions and considered what’s best for you and your loved ones.

We are trying to navigate this together, with our travel operators, so that our programs come out stronger on the other side. As I think about the future of travel, it’s hard for us to know when we’ll be free to come and go again. It’s even harder to know how comfortable our travelers feel about traveling again. Would you be willing to share your thoughts with me by taking a two-question survey at www.isualum.org/travelsurvey?

We will travel again. It may be some time, but I will wait patiently for it to arrive. I hope you will join me.

– Heather Botine, director of ISUAA travel

SHOW YOUR CYCLONE SPIRIT – SUPPORT THESE CYCLONE-FRIENDLY ISUAA BUSINESS MEMBERS Hunziker & Associates Hy-Vee Food Store of Ames Hy-Vee Inc. Insomnia Cookies

Lidderdale Country Store Life Choices of Bethany Nationwide Neumann Brothers, Inc.

Iowa State Center

Northcrest Inc.

Iowa State Daily

Northridge Village

Iowa State University Research Park

PeopleWorks, Inc.

ISU Catering Josephs Jewelers KASI-KCCQ Radio Center of Ames

Kingland

R. Friedrich & Sons, Inc. Radisson Hotel Ames Conference Center at ISU REG Marketing & Logistics Group, LLC Reiman Gardens

Iowa Corn Growers Association

Kelly Cattle Company

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Lac Seul Evergreen Lodge Inc.

Pierce Education Properties, LP Pizza Ranch Precision Garage Door of Des Moines Pyfferoen Pediatric Dentistry PLLC

For more information on these businesses or to become a business member, go to www.isualum.org/ business

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DES MOINES, IOWA

PLACE. PASSION. PURPOSE. It’s no secret these are unprecedented times. While many of us have altered our lifestyle in the short-term, what better time to reflect on and take action toward your future, longterm goals — both personally and professionally.

#DSMUSA #DSMstrong

Whether your interests are career-driven, family-minded or experience-based, Greater Des Moines (DSM) is a place where you can pursue your passions: Find a job you love without sacrificing time with the ones you love; own a home that is affordable and nestled within a safe, friendly neighborhood; spend time outdoors utilizing the hundreds of miles of walking and biking trails and enjoying the beauty of nature.

Discover your place. Pursue your passion.

Find your purpose.

Find a list of open opportunities at careersDSMUSA.com.

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Sports BITTERSWEET ENDING

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From Madness to sadness and back again, ISU women’s basketball navigates the 2020 postseason that wasn’t

BY K AT E BRUNS

ia Washington was in the locker room lacing up for her first-ever Big 12 tournament practice at Municipal Auditorium when her four-year Iowa State basketball career came to an abrupt end.

“Coach Fennelly came in,” she remembers.

“All the coaches were trailing behind him. He cleared his throat…”

Bill Fennelly (L) had been fielding calls from ISU administrator Calli Sanders (A) for two days, including on the bus to Kansas City, about the potential impact of COVID-19 on the college basketball season. Just before his team was to take the court for its much-anticipated return to “Hilton South” after years playing the league tournament in Oklahoma City, he received news of the Big 12’s final decision. The tournament wouldn’t happen, and Fennelly had to face one of the toughest challenges of his 32-year head coaching career: breaking 14 hearts with the news that their season was over before the most exciting part had even begun.

“I felt my heart drop,” Washington says. “I knew at that point that, if there was no Big 12 tournament, they probably were going to cancel the NCAA tournament, too. It felt surreal – like a dream.

I just thought, ‘My career is over.’”

Senior team captain Adriana Camber can’t remember what was said in the locker room that day.

“I know there was a lot of crying,” she says.

“There was silence and hugging. I kind of blacked out, honestly.”

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After the cancellation, the team remained in Kansas City one more night and bonded over team dinner.

“Then on Friday morning we came back to Ames, and I hugged them all as they got off the bus,” Fennelly says. “And that was the last time we were all together.”

If Fennelly is known for one saying, it might be this: Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.

With a sense of perspective that comes only with the passage of time, Camber sits at home in Sweden on an April evening and smiles about the happenings of the 2019-2020 Iowa State women’s basketball season. One, she says, stands out.

The Cyclones played host to No. 2 Baylor on March 8 in what was the country’s final regular-season women’s basketball game, televised nationally. The defending national champs had already secured the regular-season conference title – in fact, the Lady Bears hadn’t lost a regular-season Big 12 contest in more than three years. Their 58-game winning streak was the sixth longest in NCAA history. When Iowa State visited Waco at the end of January, the game wasn’t close, and now for the rematch Cyclone superstar Kristin Scott was out with an injury. The challenge before the Cyclones that day was formidable. But, Washington says, they had a good game plan and nothing to lose.

Senior Day is a big deal to Fennelly. March 8 was a day to leave it all on the court for Camber, Washington, Inès Nezerwa, and Jade Thurmon.

“Leave it all on the court” and “play each game like

it’s your last” might be coaching clichés, but they exist for a reason – even if a global pandemic isn’t the first one that comes to mind.

In what no one knew at the time would be the last game of the 2019-2020 Cyclone basketball season, the seniors showed swagger. True to tradition, Fennelly started all four seniors in the game – including Washington and Thurmon, who both normally came off the bench.

“I told them they were going to play the first five minutes, and we’re not going to take you out,” Fennelly says. “And as a coach you say to yourself, this could get bad early. It’s Baylor.”

“I looked up and we were ahead,” Washington remembers of her first scoreboard check-in after the Cyclones’ great start. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we’re beating Baylor.’ Then the subs came in and started feeding off our energy.”

It was clear to everyone watching: The Cyclones were in the game to win and not backing down.

Baylor fought back, of course, and grabbed a lead in the second half. But the Cyclones showed up with some big-time baskets, none perhaps bigger than a 3-pointer by Nezerwa – only the fourth of her career – that practically blew the roof off Hilton.

“It reminded me so much of the three that Monica Huelman hit against Connecticut [in the 1999 NCAA Sweet 16],” Fennelly says. “Someone you don’t expect, from almost the exact same spot on the court, in a huge situation.”

Late in a knotted-up game, Ashley Joens drew a foul and sank the game-winning free throw with a tenth of a tick on the clock. The 57-56 Senior Day victory was a handsome reward for a team that had fought through months of adversity.

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“If beating Baylor was my last game, I’ll take that.”

– ADRIANA CAMBER

better and overcome a lot of stuff – we had injuries, personal tragedy,” Fennelly says. “As a coach or as a parent you always say ‘do this and good things will happen’ and a lot of times in sports it doesn’t turn out that way. But for this group it did, and I couldn’t be happier for that.”

For all but a handful of basketball teams, the season usually ends with a loss. Fennelly urged his team to take solace in the fact that this wasn’t the case for them in 2020.

“In basketball you are so consumed by March Madness and Selection Monday,” he says. “It’s everything you talk about; it’s why you do what you do in June and July. And when I think of this team I don’t think anybody thought [the NCAA tournament] was possible – with Maddie [Wise] being hurt, Kristin [Scott] being hurt. To be in a position where you actually did earn it, really played your way in, and have it taken away…you’re numb. I just kept telling them, ‘Just because on March 16 you don’t V I S I O N S W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG S U M M E R 2 0 2 0

hear your name announced, it doesn’t take away from what you did and the respect you have from the basketball community. Everyone knows they would have been in the tournament.”

“It’s bittersweet,” Camber admits. “If somebody had told me my last game would be a win against Baylor I would think it was the national championship, so that’s something that will carry us through the rest of our lives. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched that game or the highlights of that game. I can’t stop smiling every time I think about it.

But absolutely, once you’ve done that you want to see how far you can go.”

And while the Cyclones were denied the postseason they had fought so hard to earn, they know they aren’t alone. No one played basketball this March. No college seniors tossed their caps at commencement.

“It’s like the whole world stopped,” says Fennelly, who admits that before 2020 he thought maybe he had pretty much seen it all. “You build so much of your team in basketball from May to August, and now we have to try to figure out how to

do that when we’re not together. If I go five months without seeing our returning players, that’s hard to fathom. But the whole country is going through this.

You feel bad saying it because so many people are more affected, but sports is such a huge part of the fabric of our country, and I do worry. When this is all done, there’s going to be things we have to get through as a university.”

Camber, who started a business analyst job in Chicago after graduation, says nothing would be more gratifying than seeing Iowa State back at its best and making the drive to cheer on the team at Hilton Coliseum and in Kansas City. It’s a simple pleasure of life that Camber – and all of us – have learned not to take for granted.

“Just learn to cherish the moments,” Camber says of her advice to next year’s squad. “Playing basketball at Iowa State was a great opportunity.

“And if beating Baylor was my last game, I’ll take that.” 

PHOTO ISU ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT

The Iowa State women’s basketball team celebrates a win over Baylor.

Kate Bruns (L)(’99 journalism & mass comm) is a freelance writer living in Neenah, Wis.

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Calendar NOTE: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all listings are subject to change, postponement, or cancellation.

 Cyclones Everywhere:

Greater Des Moines July 24: ISU Night at the I-Cubs

 At the ISU Alumni Center Aug. 21: ISUAA Board of Directors annual retreat Aug. 22: ISUAA Board of Directors summer meeting Sept. 5: Cyclone Central Tailgate Sept. 19: Cyclone Central Tailgate Sept. 26: Cyclone Central Tailgate Oct. 15: ISUAA Board of Directors fall meeting Oct. 17: Cyclone Central Tailgate Oct. 29: Cyclone Central Tailgate

Sept. 19: Fall Wearables Design Show Sept. 25-26: Cyclone baseball alumni reunion Oct. 10-11: Reiman Gardens Bonsai Show Oct. 15: Construction Engineering Reunion Oct. 16: Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame Oct. 17: ISU Letterwinners Club all-sport reunion Oct. 17: CCEE Tailgate Oct. 24-25: Spirits in the Gardens, Reiman Garden

 Cyclone Athletics Sept. 5: Football vs. South Dakota Sept. 12: Football at Iowa Sept. 19: Football vs. UNLV Sept. 26: Football vs. Texas Tech Oct. 3: Football at Kansas Oct. 10: Football at Oklahoma State Oct. 17: Football vs. Oklahoma Oct. 29: Football vs. Kansas State For all Cyclone sports schedules, go to www.cyclones.com

 Alumni Travel  Homecoming 2020 Oct. 11: Homecoming Parade, downtown Ames Oct. 16: Honors & Awards Lunch & Ceremony Oct. 16: ExCYtement in the Streets, Mass Campaniling, pancakes & fireworks Oct. 16: Scholarship CYlent Auction Oct. 17: Homecoming Cyclone Central Tailgate, Alumni Center

 On campus &

around Ames

Aug. 7: Summer session ends Aug. 17: Fall semester classwork begins Sept. 2: Ivy Women in Business Awards Sept. 4-6: Cyclone men’s & women’s swimming & diving reunion Sept. 5: CALS barbecue Sept. 5-6: Cyclone soccer alumnae reunion Sept. 7: Labor Day, University holiday Sept. 11-13: Reiman Gardens Quilt Show Sept. 18-20: Black College Reunion Sept. 18: CCEE 150th Anniversary Golf Tournament 46

July 17-27: Great Journey Through Europe July 17-23: Canadian Rockies Aug. 2-10: Great Pacific Northwest Aug. 5-13: Swiss Alps: Interlaken Aug. 28 – Sept. 8: Baltic & Scandinavian Emperors Sept. 7-18: Scotland: Highlands & Islands Sept. 12-20: Italian Riviera Sept. 12-26: Northern Italy Sept. 17-29: Enchanting Ireland Sept. 20 – Oct. 5: Journey to Southern Africa Sept. 23 – Oct. 4: European Connoisseur Sept. 28 – Oct. 3: Northern Lights Oct. 2-10: Verona Oct. 6-16: Seaside Harbors of Canada & New England Oct. 9-14: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Oct. 27 – Nov. 11: Machu Picchu to the Galapagos Say YES to new adventures with the Traveling Cyclones! For more information on 2021 trips, go to www.isualum.org/travel

 Arts & Entertainment

Sept. 9: “Contemplate Japan,” Brunnier (through 12/20) Sept. 14: “FOCUS: Critical Conversations with Art,” Christian Petersen Art Museum (through 10/9) Sept. 29: Russian String Orchestra, Stephens Oct. 3: The Fab Four, Stephens Oct. 9: Whose Live Anyway, Stephens Oct. 11: Acrobats of Tianjin, Stephens Oct. 18: Fiddler on the Roof, Stephens Oct. 19: Capitol Steps, Stephens Oct. 26: reACT Exhibition, Christian Petersen Art Museum (through 11/20)

 Awards Aug. 1: Nomination deadline for ISUAA distinguished alumni and honorary alumni awards Oct. 16: Honors & Awards Lunch & Ceremony For criteria and to submit a nomination for ISUAA awards: www.isualum.org/awards

 Lifelong learning Aug. 12: Virtual OLLI fall open house Sept. 14: First day of fall OLLI classes

 Careers Sept. 16 & 22: Engineering Fall Career Fairs Sept. 23: Fall Business, Industry & Technology Career Fair Sept. 23: People to People Fall Career Fair Oct. 13: CALS Fall Career Day

 Find more events online Campus Calendar: http://event.iastate.edu/ ISU Alumni Association: www.isualum.org/calendar Cyclone Athletics: www.cyclones.com Reiman Gardens: www.reimangardens.com Iowa State Center: www.center.iastate.edu University Museums: www.museums.iastate.edu Lectures: www.lectures.iastate.edu/ Homecoming: www.isualum.org/homecoming

Aug. 1: “Farm House 160,” Farm House Museum (through 11/3) Sept. 9: “A Day in 100 BCE” exhibit, Brunnier Art Museum (through 12/20) S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . I S U A LUM . ORG V I S I O N S

DOES YOUR HEART BEAT A LITTLE FASTER WHEN THE

FIGHT SONG PLAYS? JOIN THE CLUB. Your pride runs deeper. Your spirit shines brighter. And with your support, the future of Cyclone athletics has never looked better. It’s with your membership that Iowa State Athletics can enable student-athletes to succeed in competition and in the classroom, stay competitive by attracting and retaining the best coaches and staff, and invest in improvements including construction of state-of-the-art facilities. Show the Nation your loyalty by signing up – or increasing your contribution to the club – today at

CYCLONECLUB.ORG.

Iowa State University Alumni Center 429 Alumni Lane Ames, Iowa 50011-1403

VISIONS magazine is published four times a year by the Iowa State University Alumni Association, which serves more than 268,000 living alumni as well as ISU students and friends. VISIONS reaches nearly 46,000 Alumni Association members and is just one benefi t of membership; details can be found at isualum.org/join.

THESE ARE UNSETTLING TIMES. But your ISU Alumni Association is working hard to fulfill our mission of communications, member engagement, and institutional advocacy.

Your membership helps us carry out our work.

• Your dues help support programming for the class of 2020 and generations of alumni to come.

• It’s important for you to know exactly what your membership dues are supporting. Here’s a breakdown of how annual ($57) dues are allocated:

– Program support (i.e., awards, events, clubs), scholarships, career services, and student leadership programs – $14 – Support for member benefits (i.e., online directory, discount program, app) – $12.50 – Four issues of VISIONS magazine and the annual events calendar – $10 – Support of not-for-profit organizational overhead and staffing to fulfill our mission – $20 – Membership decals – 50¢

THANK YOU.

Your membership makes a visible statement that you support Iowa State University.