Advisory Council
Lynne Carey
Assistant Director, Ames Public Library
Lynne Carey is currently the Assistant Director at the Ames Public Library
(APL). She began her tenure at APL as a temporary hourly worker while
attending ISU, fell in love with its mission and never left. In previous
years, Carey was heavily involved in politics, serving as campaign manager
for several candidates and working as an administrative assistant in the
Iowa Legislature. She received a BS from Iowa State University in
psychology and women's studies. Lynne is one of the rare Story County
natives who stayed put. She and her spouse, Navid Emami, love traveling,
but appreciate the small town living that Iowa offers. Carey has extensive
experience with program planning and coordinates programs for all ages at
APL. She is a successful grant writer and fundraiser and currently works
with the Ames Public Library Foundation.
Sheryl K. Hall
Director, ArtsLIVE
Sheryl Hall is a retired Iowa educator with a BA in Russian (Secondary
Education) from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Secondary
Administration from Drake University. She retired in 2004 after 33 years of
teaching in Iowa schools. She taught high school Russian and English,
coached speech and drama, traveled to Russia with students and the Iowa
Friendship Force, served as district Curriculum Coordinator, and completed
11 years as Spirit Lake High School Principal. In 2003 she was one of three
finalists for SAI Secondary Principal of the Year. Since retirement she has
taught Teacher Evaluator Approval for the Department of Educator, served as
community liaison for the Sami Bedell Center for Performing Arts building
project in Spirit Lake, and helped create two non-profit arts organizations
in the Iowa Great Lakes area: ArtsLIVE (promoting arts year round in the
Creative Corridor) and the Friends of the Sami Center (providing support for
management, operations, and maintenance of the Sami Center, scheduled to
open Dec. 15, 2007). She and her husband Hank, a retired high school art
teacher, own Art on 16th, a renovated wood-working studio in downtown Spirit
Lake offering a unique environment for art classes, studio rental space, and
original artwork for sale.
Frederick L. Kirschenmann
Distinguished Fellow for
the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, ISU
Frederick L.
Kirschenmann, a longtime leader in national and
international sustainable agriculture, is
Distinguished Fellow for the
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa
State University.
From July 2000 to November 2005, he served as the
Center's second
director since its creation in 1987.
Kirschenmann came to the Center from south central
North Dakota where he operated his family's
3,500-acre certified
organic farm. He continues to oversee management of
the farm and has
an appointment in the ISU Department of Religion and
Philosophy.
Susan Littell Koehrsen
ISU Alumnus
Susan Littell Koehrsen grew up in the Chicago area before attending college
at ISU. She and her husband, also an ISU alum, settled in Muscatine, Iowa
in 1965 where they still live. Koehrsen has had three careers. The first
was as a full-time homemaker and parent, raising three children while
actively participating in the Muscatine community. She has also worked for
the Stanley Foundation, an organization working for international peace and
justice, as a meeting planner and program administrator. In 1987, Koehrsen
and her husband opened an art gallery and custom framing business in which
she came to view the presentation and display of art as her special art
form. Koehrsen sold the business in the spring of 2007 and looks forward to
new opportunities for the future. She has recently developed a renewed
appreciation for ISU and especially the university's increased emphasis on
the arts.
Phyllis Lepke
Former Vice President, ISU Foundation
Phyllis Lepke has been an Iowa State University student, faculty member,
alumni administrator, and development professional. Lepke was on the
dance faculty at Iowa State from 1970-1977 before serving as assistant
and associate director of the Alumni Association from 1977-1982. Her
home for the next twenty-one years was the ISU Foundation, for which
she worked as the university's first arts development officer. As
the Foundation vice president Lepke manaaged the fundraising staff
for ten years, supervised publications and public relations, grant-writing,
special events, donor research, and donor relations.
Gary McKay
Meredith Publishing
Gary McKay has worked in magazine publishing for 28 years, and in many roles
including writer, editor, stylist, location scout and photo editor. He is
currently a Creative Director at Meredith Corporation in Des Moines. McKay
has a MA in creative writing from the University of Houston. For several
years McKay served as a member for Lawndale, a nonprofit organization in
Houston, Texas dedicated to giving emerging you visual and performing
artists their first public audience or exhibition space. He remains an
active volunteer for several nonprofit organizations in Central
Iowa.
Kevin Nordmeyer
Partner, RDG Planning and Design
Kevin Nordmeyer, AIA, LEED AP, is a partner at RDG Planning and Design.
Kevin's particular expertise is centered on sustainable design in Iowa.
Nordmeyer is the Chair of the United States Green Building Council-Iowa
Chapter and a board member of the Iowa Environmental Council and the Center
on Sustainable Communities. He is a lecturer at Iowa State University
focusing on sustainable design in the Department of Architecture. Nordmeyer
was the lead designer for the Center for Energy and Environmental Education
at the University of Northern Iowa in 1992 - Iowa's first modern sustainable
building. He has been recognized nationally for sustainable design with the
Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities Office Facility- one of the top ten
green buildings in the country in 2002, and is currently working on other
significant sustainable work in the area including Earthpark, The Great Ape
Trust, The Marion Arts and Environment Center, GreenWood, and the College of
Design Foundations Pavilion at Iowa State University.
Katherine Perkins
Producer, WOI Radio, Ames
Katherine Perkins is the producer and host of WOI's Talk of Iowa,
a daily call-in program produced by both public radio WUSI AM910 in
Iowa City and WOI AM640 in Ames. The program brings the voices of
Iowa to the world, with topics ranging from politics to the academic
world to the arts. Perkins is also the cohost of the midday program
on WOI and was formerly the local host of Morning Edition.
Rachelle Saltzman
Iowa Arts Council
Rachelle H. Saltzman, Ph.D. has been the Folklife
Coordinator for the Iowa Arts Council/Department of Cultural Affairs since
1995. She has been the recipient of grants from the Leopold
Center for Sustainable Agriculture to study place-based food in Iowa.
She is also manager of Iowa
Community Cultural grants and a grant administrator for the Iowa Arts
Councils grant programs. In collaboration with Seven Oaks Audio, Saltzman
produces Iowa Roots, a series of 5-minute radio programs (broadcast on Iowa
Public Radio) that explores cultures and traditions.
Saltzman, who obtained her Ph.D. in Anthropology/Folklore
from the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of numerous public
folklore publications as well as peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of
American Folklore, Anthropological Quarterly, Journal of Folklore Research,
New York Folklore, Southern Folklore, Southern Exposure, and edited
collections.
Jay Semel
Director, Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa
Jay Semel directs the University of Iowa's Obermann Center for Advanced
Studies, an interdisciplinary research center within the Office of
the Vice President for Research. He established and now administers
several Obermann Center grant programs that support interdisciplinary
and collaborative scholarship. He was educated at Temple University,
the University of Delaware, and the University of South Carolina,
was an English professor at the State University of New York-Geneseo,
and was a senior Fulbright Professor in the former Yugoslavia. Semel
is currently a member of the Humanities Iowa board of directors.
Kathy Svec
Marketing Coordinator, Iowa State University Memorial Union
Kathy Svec, marketing coordinator at the ISU Memorial Union, has a
background in art education and continues to work as an artist in
the medium of collage and bookbinding. Svec, a longtime Ames resident,
has played an active volunteer role in the community, serving as president
of the Ames Historical Society, as a board member of the Ames Community
Arts Council, and spearheading the initiative to establish the Ames
Main Street Cultural District.
Katherine Von Wald
Iowa Center for the Book
Katherine Von Wald received her BA from the University of Iowa in elementary
education and a Masters in Library Science from the University of Minnesota.
After working as a children's librarian at the Mason City Public Library,
she worked as a consultant and then administrator for the Iowa Library
Service Areas. The Library Service Areas provide consulting, continuing
education and other supportive services mainly to public library staffs,
boards and city officials. Since 2002, Von Wald has been the Coordinator of
the Iowa center for the Book, a program of the State Library of Iowa. The
Iowa Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Center of the Book in the
Library of Congress.
Sandi Yoder
Executive Director, Living History Farms
Sandi Yoder was executive director of the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island,
Nebraska, for eleven years before becoming director of Living History
Farms in Des Moines in 2000. She is the treasurer of the Iowa Museum
Association and is on the partnership panel for the Silos and Smokestacks
National Heritage Area, which includes Story County. Yoder began her
career at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia as a hands-on craftsperson
and master of the shop. She received an MBA in management and operations
and an MA in American History from the College of William and Mary.
