Des Moines Register
02/26/06
Ag college leader emphasizes biology
Her top goals are to ensure students have a good experience
and faculty opportunities.
ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
Ames, Ia. — Wendy Wintersteen has spent half of her life at Iowa State
University in Ames.
On Jan. 1, Wintersteen became dean of the College of Agriculture, the oldest
part of the oldest land grant university in the nation. Wintersteen also was named
director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. She is
the 10th person and the second female to be dean of the college, succeeding
Catherine Woteki, who resigned on July 31 to take a job in the private sector.
Wintersteen was one of five finalists for the dean's position. To many on the
Ames campus, Wintersteen was a shoo-in for the prestigious position. She had
helped execute several successive waves of budget cuts stemming from state
funding shortfalls. She had brought faculty members together to work on issues.
She had built relations with off-campus constituents.
"I think she is an excellent choice," said Labh Hira, dean of Iowa State's
College of Business and chairman of the search committee that chose the list
of ag dean finalists — a diverse group that included Richard McConnell, former
president of Des Moines' Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. "She is very
visionary. . . . She knows our strengths and our weaknesses."
But Wintersteen has had her detractors. Last fall, she sparked controversy when
she forced Fred Kirschenmann to resign as director of the Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture. Kirschenmann, a nationally known proponent of organic
farming and sustainable agriculture, said he was demoted because he had
clashed with Wintersteen, then interim dean. He wanted the center to have a
national focus. Wintersteen wanted it to focus on serving Iowa farmers.
Kirschenmann stepped aside to become a distinguished fellow at the center.
Jerry DeWitt, coordinator of ISU Extension's sustainable agriculture
program and a longtime ally of Wintersteen, became interim director of the
Leopold Center.
Like most of the students in the college she now leads, Wintersteen did not grow
up on a farm. The youngest of three daughters in a Hutchinson, Kan., family, she
was in the first generation not to live on a farm. From an early age, she loved
science, and her interests led to a career in entomology.
"I was just always interested in insects. I was always interested in nature," she
said. After graduating from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.,
Wintersteen went to work for ISU Extension in Davenport.
"I didn't know very much," she recalled, adding that she wishes she would have
sought internships as part of her undergraduate education.
As dean, she plans to encourage students to seek internships and to study
abroad.
"I think all of that needs to be viewed as part of the undergraduate experience,"
she said.
The funding outlook is not as dire as it was during Woteki's tenure. In the past
five years, ISU's ag experiment station — the single-largest budget item for the
College of Agriculture — lost 25 percent of its state funding. In addition, state
funding reductions forced program elimination and departmental mergers. But
legislators did not cut that spending for fiscal year 2006, which ends June 30,
and the state provided new funding for faculty salary increases for the first time in
five years.
At the same time, the college has lost 45 faculty positions to resignations and
retirements. Wintersteen hopes to fill some of those positions, particularly in
cutting-edge areas such as the bioeconomy, genomics, and food and nutrition.
Wintersteen cites "The Genomics Age," by Gina Smith, which explains how DNA
technology is changing the world. Biological sciences are at the heart of the
revolution, driving scientific discovery and economic activity in the 21st century,
Wintersteen said.
Biology also is at the heart of her vision for the College of Agriculture and for
Iowa: "Agriculture is about the biological sciences, and the biological sciences
are about the future."
The past quarter century has brought significant change to the agricultural
landscape, Wintersteen said, "but I think we're at a point where there couldn't be
better opportunity in agriculture."
Her top priorities focus on students and faculty.
"No. 1, we are going to be sure undergraduates have an extraordinary
experience. . . . No. 2, finding opportunities for our faculty," the dean said. "If I
can get those two things done, I'll be doing pretty good."
RODNEY WHITE/REGISTER PHOTOS
Wendy Wintersteen, in front of Curtiss Hall on the Iowa State University campus
last week, expects undergraduate students to have "an extraordinary experience"
in the College of Agriculture.
New dean's background
APPOINTED: Dean of the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University in
Ames and director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment
Station in December 2005.
HOMETOWN: Hutchinson, Kan.
AGE: 49
FAMILY: Husband, Robert Waggoner, a businessman
EDUCATION: B.S. in crop protection, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.,
1978; Ph.D. in entomology, Iowa State University, 1988.
CAREER: Integrated pest management Extension Service associate in
Davenport, Des Moines and Ames, 1979-1982; head of Extension's pesticide
education program, 1982-1988; Iowa State faculty member, 1988-present;
director of Extension to Agriculture and Natural Resources, 1997-2000; senior
associate dean of the college and associate director of the experiment station,
2000-July 2005; interim dean and director, August-December 2005; author or coauthor of more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and
articles in scientific, trade and Extension publications.
TOP PRIORITIES: Fill key faculty positions; increase students' international
experience; reach out to alumni of the college.
CONTACT INFO: agdean@iastate.edu or (515) 294-2518.