The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is pleased to recognize the accomplishments and activities of its faculty, staff, students and alumni:
Kristine Anderson, 2014-15 Rice-Neville Legacy of Heroines scholar and public relations and events planning intern for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics from 2013-15, accepted a new position at Casey’s General Stores, Inc. as a marketing manager. Anderson previously served as the marketing category manager for Kum & Go in West Des Moines. She graduated from Iowa State University in 2015 with a journalism and mass communication degree, a certificate in community leadership and public service, and a minor in event management. Anderson is originally from Urbandale, Iowa.
Rachael Barnes is a recipient of the 2019 Wallace E. Barron All-University Senior Award. The Iowa State University Alumni Association established this award in 1968 to recognize outstanding seniors who display high character, outstanding achievement in academics and university/community activities, and promise for continuing these exemplary qualities as alumni. Barnes graduated from Iowa State in May 2019 with degrees in biological systems engineering and global resource systems and a certificate in leadership studies. She is from Bettendorf, Iowa, and attended Ready to Run Iowa: Campaign Training for Women in 2017 and was honored on the 2018 Women Impacting ISU calendar. She is one of seven seniors to receive this prestigious award.
Dianne Bystrom, director emerita, gave a presentation on “The Fight for the Right to Vote: It Still Matters” on Sept. 17 as part of Constitution Week at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The presentation summarized the 72-year campaign for women’s suffrage in the United States, which resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote in August 1920. She also discussed the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020 and emphasized the importance of voting at the local, state and federal levels.
Jessica Chrystal, who attended Ready to Run Iowa in 2013 as a student at Iowa State, is running for an at-large seat on the Coon Rapids-Bayard Community School District Board. The election is Nov. 5, 2019. She also was recently appointed to serve on two boards. In August, Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed Chrystal to a three-year term on the Iowa Humanities Board, which is affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her first official event as a board member will be on Sept. 28 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Soviet statesman Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to her great-great uncle’s farm in Coon Rapids and dedicating a statue that he commissioned before his death in 2000. Chrystal will also serve a one-year term on the Iowa Pork Producers Communications and Public Relations Committee beginning in October. This committee is responsible for recipes, social media, helping farmers tell their stories to the public, sponsoring the Iowa High School Athletics Association, and recommending the funding and vision of these outreaches. While at Iowa State, Chrystal majored in public service and administration in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and participated in the leadership studies certificate program.
Vivian Cook, graduate student in sustainable agriculture and community and regional planning, is directing Iowa State University Theatre’s first production of the fall semester: “Climate Change Theatre Action: Lighting the Way.” Cook graduated from Iowa State in May 2019 with degrees in performing arts and French and was the James R. and Lauri K. Young Legacy of Heroines scholar from 2015-19. She participated in the Iowa State University’s Standing Innovation pitch competition at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 10. Cook was one of twelve College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students who pitched an innovative and entrepreneurial idea. Cook’s topic was a collaborative performance model to help science communication. She is originally from Prescott, Arizona.
Amy Edwards, 2019 Ready to Run Iowa: Campaign Training for Women attendee, is running for a seat on the Ames Community School Board. Edwards has served as PTO president for Sawyer Elementary School for four years. She is originally from Wisconsin but has lived in Ames for fifteen years.
Lena Menefee-Cook, senior in performing arts and a 2019-20 Phyllis Davis Legacy of Heroines scholar, worked as a research assistant during the summer for Amanda Petefish-Schrag, an assistant professor of theatre in the Department of Music and Theatre. Menefee-Cook researched shadowing puppetry styles, techniques, design and material use for Iowa State University Theatre’s production of “Of the Deep,” an original play by Amanda Petefish-Schrag that will take place in the spring of 2020. Menefee-Cook is from Ames, Iowa.
Karen Kedrowski, director of the Catt Center, presented about the 19th Amendment Commemoration Kickoff, which is planned to take place Feb. 14, 2020, at Iowa State University, at the Iowa State Daughters of the American Revolution conference on Aug. 4 in Ames. Kedrowski conducted a training for department chairs at St. Mary’s University of California on Aug. 20, and she and Dianne Bystrom, director emerita of the Catt Center, represented the Catt Center at the annual Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Aug. 24 in Des Moines. Kedrowski also presented about the 19th Amendment Commemoration Kickoff and the Ames and Story County suffrage celebration events that are being planned for the upcoming year at the USDA in Ames on Sept. 4. Kedrowski will also serve on the Ames Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census.
Hunter Martin recently accepted a job as a reporter for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that deals with financial aid and student loans legislation and advocacy. Martin is a recent graduate of American University where she earned her master’s in global media. Martin graduated from Iowa State in May 2017 with degrees in public relations and women’s studies with a minor in psychology. She worked as the public relations and events planning intern for the center from August 2016 through May 2017. She is originally from Ceresco, Nebraska.
Sarah Moody, senior in political science and Legacy of Heroines scholar since 2018, worked as a research assistant for Mark Nieman in the Department of Political Science. There, Moody researched if there is a relationship between the type of school that a leader of a country attended, the area they studied and the policy decisions that they make. Moody is from Collins, Iowa.
Julie Snyder-Yuly, former assistant director of the Catt Center and lecturer in leadership studies at Iowa State University, was recently appointed interim director of the Digital Humanities Program at Marshall University in West Virginia. Snyder-Yuly also published a co-authored article, “Cultivating graduate writing groups as communities of practice: A call to action for the writing center,” in “Praxis: A Writing Center Journal.” She is currently an assistant professor of communication studies at Marshall University.
Kelly Winfrey, assistant professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and coordinator of research and outreach for the Catt Center, served as faculty liaison and member of the planning committee for the second annual Greenlee Summit: Communications and Civility in Our Democracy. The Summit was held Sept. 5-6, 2019, at Iowa State University.