The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is pleased to recognize the accomplishments and activities of its alumni, students and staff:
Madeline Becker, a senior in political science and history and a Rice-Neville Legacy of Heroines scholar, is spending her summer interning in Washington, D.C., at Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit on a mission to end childhood hunger in America. Becker is working with Cooking Matters, the organization’s nutrition education program, which teaches families the skills they need to shop for and cook healthy meals on a budget.
Lauren Hughes, a Helen Jensen Howe Legacy of Heroines scholar from 2000-2002 and Catt Associate while at Iowa State, recently graduated from her family residency at the University of Washington-Seattle and has moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to begin the Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholars program fellowship at the University of Michigan. She will pursue research in primary care workforce development and innovations in primary care delivery for the next two years. Hughes plans to eventually teach in academic family medicine and public health.
Kara McDonell, who graduated in May 2013 with a certificate in community leadership and public service and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, attended the Iowa N.E.W. Leadership™ Institute May 20-24 at the University of Iowa. The intensive five-day residential institute is designed to empower women across the political spectrum and increase the participation of underrepresented groups in all sectors of public leadership. The program was developed by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in 1991. This is the sixth summer that the University of Iowa’s Women’s Resource and Action Center has offered the program for students in Iowa.
Olivia Palmer and Danielle Pohl accepted membership into Phi Beta Kappa during the spring 2013 semester. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most prestigious honorary society in the United States with a history dating back to its founding at the College of William and Mary in 1776. More than 600 students qualified for membership this year based on grade point averages and course load and are viewed as the best students in Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Palmer graduated from ISU in May 2013 with her bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in psychology. She was a Phyllis Davis Legacy of Heroines scholar from 2011-2013. Pohl will be a senior in biology with minors in psychology, Spanish and microbiology. She is a returning Helen Jensen Howe Legacy of Heroines scholar.
Clint Stephens, scholar-in-residence at the Catt Center, invested eight days at Centre College in Kentucky to facilitate The LeaderShape Institute with first-year student fellows of the James Graham Brown Foundation. He has served as a co-lead with LeaderShape, a nonprofit organization that delivers leadership development workshops to college students at more than 80 campuses each year, since 2008. Stephens also attended the Wakonse Conference on College Teaching in Michigan and the University of Minnesota’s Leadership Can Be Taught Symposium. At both functions, faculty convened to discuss best practices and to share innovative teaching techniques. Stephens was invited to present two sessions at the Wakonse conference on techniques he uses in the classroom at Iowa State. Stephens will apply what he learned at these conferences in the classes he currently teaches as well as new courses as the Catt Center expands the curriculum offerings of the leadership certificate program.
Lissandra Villa, a sophomore in journalism and mass communication and political science and an Elverna Christian Legacy of Heroines scholar, is spending her summer interning for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa in Washington, D.C. Villa is a press intern and works on a variety of projects, including press releases and social media.
Laura Wentworth, who graduated in May with her degree in journalism and mass communication with a minor in political science and the center’s public relations/events planning intern for the past two years, is spending her summer as the communications program assistant intern for the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area in Waterloo, Iowa. Wentworth will attend the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn., this fall.