Of note: News about center faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends

CATEGORIES: July 2022, Voices

The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is pleased to recognize the accomplishments and activities of its faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters:

Meg Grice, a 2021 graduate in public relations and international relations, has accepted a position as an assistant account executive with FleishmanHillard St. Louis as part of their corporate reputation team. She will support executive thought leadership, ESG, media pitching and social content creation. Grice was a 2020-2021 Elizabeth Hoffman and Brian R. Binger Legacy of Heroines scholar.

Elizabeth Katz, a 2016 honorable mention recipient of the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics, recently published “Sex, Suffrage, and State Constitutional Law: Women’s Legal Right to Hold Public Office” in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism.

Karen Kedrowski, center director, appeared on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” on June 1 with Iowa State political science professor Jim McCormick and on July 6 with University of Northern Iowa political scientist Chris Larimer. She was interviewed by Skylar Tallal, statehouse reporter for KGAN, on June 27 and by Dave Price, political director of WHO13, on June 29 about the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and its impacts in Iowa. On July 7, she was interviewed by Tallal about the increase in the number of registered Republican voters in Iowa and implications for the Nov. 8 general election. Kedrowski also chaired an awards committee of the American Political Science Association Civic Engagement section that selected the inaugural Outstanding Civic Engagement Project award. The award will be presented at the APSA meeting in September.

Leslie Merriman, a 2001 graduate in political science, has been promoted to HR partner for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where she will lead a team of human resources professionals that serve the college. Merriman was a member of the Catt Associates and a Catt Center intern in 2000-2001, as well as a participant in the 2011 Ready to Run Iowa campaign training program.

Mack Shelley, University Professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, received the Learning Community Advocate Award on May 16 to recognize the scholarship, reports and additional work that he has contributed to learning community efforts on campus.

Matthew Voss, a 2020 Iowa State graduate in statistics, received a master of public affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 15. At the graduation ceremony, he received the Director’s Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding academic record. Voss was a Campus Engagement Election Project intern with the Catt Center in 2018, a research intern in 2018-2019 and a Rice-Neville Legacy of Heroines scholar in 2019-2020. He is employed with the Iowa State Public Science Collaborative, a multidisciplinary group that works with state government agencies, communities and non-profits.

Lissandra Villa, a 2016 graduate in journalism and mass communication and political science, has accepted a position as a national political reporter for the Boston Globe, starting with a focus on the midterm elections but covering a wide variety of stories. Villa was the 2013-2016 Elverna Christian Legacy of Heroines scholar and an intern on the center’s Archives of Women’s Political Communication from 2014-2015. She was also on honoree on the 2016 Women Impacting ISU calendar and a participant in the 2015 Ready to Run Iowa campaign training program.

Kelly Winfrey, coordinator of research and outreach for the Catt Center, associate professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, and Ames School Board member; and Rachel Junck, graduate student in business administration, Rice-Neville Political Activism Legacy of Heroines scholar and Ames City Council member; met on May 10 with a group of women from Kosovo who were visiting the United States to study the participation of women leaders at the local, state and national levels. The women were invited through the International Visitor Leadership Program by the U.S. Department of State. On July 1, Winfrey talked with Hannah Pinski of the Cedar Rapids Gazette about Iowa’s gender balance law.