Advisory Board

 

 

 

Overview

 

The Department of Political Science at Iowa has long been a program top ranked by its peers. Determined to continue this tradition of excellence, the department has established the Political Science Advisory Board to help strengthen its instructional, research, and service programs, improve its facilities, expand its financial resources, and serve its alumni. Each board member makes a significant annual gift to the University of Iowa Foundation designated for the Department of Political Science Development Fund.

 

Board members are invited by the department chair to serve three year terms. The board meets on campus annually in the spring.

2009 Spring Meeting

 

The inaugural meeting of the Advisory Board was held April 30, 2009. While on campus, board members met with faculty, students, and university administrators, and they held a series of career workshops for undergraduate students.

 

During the meeting, board members agreed to pursue several student and development initiatives.

 

  • Continue to conduct undergraduate career workshops in conjunction with the spring board meeting and at other times as convenient

  • Guest lecture in classes as convenient

  • Create the Advisory Board Undergraduate Student Paper Award with a cash prize, with the initial Award to be given during the spring 2010 board meeting

  • Work to identify internship possibilities for students

  • Assist in the planning and implementation of department development efforts

 

The next board meeting will be April 30, 2010.

advisory board Left to right: Jeff Kueter, Matt Wise, John Wehr, Pat Blume, Jason Bielawski, Tom Dutton, Neil Rains, John Baker, Allan Schimmel, and David Bonior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advisory Board Bios

 

Our current board members are profiled below. If you would like more information on the board and its activities, or if you are interested in serving on the board, please contact the department chair, Tom Rice.

 

John Baker

 

John was the first recipient of the department’s prestigious Donald Bruce Johnson Scholarship (1982-83). After earning a BA in political science at Iowa in 1983 and a law degree from Michigan in 1986, he held a federal judicial clerkship in Iowa. Later he joined a mid-sized law firm in Minneapolis and in 1993 he and several colleagues started Greene Espel, PLLP. John is an experienced advocate, author, and lecturer on constitutional law, land-use litigation, appellate practice, telecommunications law, defamation, and the law of lawyering. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at William Mitchell College of Law, teaching Land Use Management.

 

Greg Bielawski

 

Greg earned a BA from Wayne State University in 1966 and an MA in political science at Iowa in 1968. He was the Village Manager of Carol Stream, Illinois, from 1980 until he retired in 2002. During his tenure the city grew from 15,000 residents to over 40,000. Prior to serving Carol Stream he was a budget analyst for Forth Worth, Texas (1967-1969), the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Greater Hazeleton, Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce (1971-1973), and the Assistant City Manager of Naperville, Illinois (1973-1979). He is the past president of the Illinois City/County Management Association. Greg is an International City/County Management Association Range Rider and Senior Advisor.

 

Jason Bielawski

 

Jason is the Assistant Village Administrator for Roselle, IL, a Chicago suburb. He is responsible for assisting in the operations of the Village, including human resources, labor relations, information technology, and budget development. He has also served as the Assistant Village Manager for Wilmette, Illinois, and as a policy analyst for the Northwest Municipal Conference, a council of local governments in the Chicago area. Jason is on the Board of the Illinois Association of Municipal Management Assistants and served as President from 2007-2008. He earned a BA in political science at Iowa in 2000 and an MPA from Northern Illinois University in 2002.

 

Pat Blume

 

Now retired, Pat spent over 30 years in nonprofit management. She served the American Red Cross as a technical field representative, a general field representative, a district manager, and as the director of recruitment for Blood Services. Later she was the first director of donor recruitment for the newly-chartered Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. These positions involved a myriad of responsibilities, including general management, human resources, budgetary planning and execution and all facets of strategic planning and accountability, as well as daily operational oversight. Pat earned a BA in political science from Iowa in 1983 and she now lives in Estes Park, Colorado.

 

David Bonior

David is the Chairman of the Board Chair of American Rights at Work, an organization that advocates for working families. He served in the US House from 1976 to 2002, representing a district in Michigan. From 1994 to 2002 he was the Democratic Party Whip. During the 2008 presidential campaign he managed the John Edwards campaign. Most recently, David served on President-elect Obama’s economic advisory board. He has been a professor at Wayne State University and was recently appointed a visiting professor in political science at Iowa. He earned a BA in political science at Iowa in 1967 and an MA from Chapman College in 1972.

 

David Brady

 

David is one of our department’s most prestigious PhD graduates. After earning his doctorate 1970, he taught at Kansas State, Houston, and Rice before joining the faculty at Stanford in 1986. While at Stanford he has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and as Vice Provost for Distance Learning. He has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He presently holds the McCoy Professorship in Ethics at the Business School and is Deputy Director of the Hoover Institution. His research focuses on the ties between elections, institutions (especially legislatures) and public policies. David will formally join the board at the April 2010 meeting.

 

Claudia Horack Bristow

 

Claudia earned a BA in political science from Tulane University in 1962 and a law degree from the Vermont Law School in 1978. Prior to law school she worked for Vermont Congressman James Jeffords. From 1980 to 2000, she was on the staff of the Legislative Council of the Vermont General Assembly, an office that provides services to state legislators. She also served two years as Vermont’s Deputy Secretary of State. Claudia retired in 2000 and currently resides in Hilton Head Island, SC. She is the great niece of Benjamin Shambaugh, the first chair of the Department of Political Science, and she has been a Benjamin F. Shambaugh Memorial Fund Trustee since 1990. Claudia will formally join the board at the April 2010 meeting.

 

Tom Dutton

 

Tom earned a BA in political science from Iowa in 1984 and a law degree from Columbia University in 1987. After law school, he spent 18 years with Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, where he was a partner. In 2005 he joined the Chicago office of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, as a shareholder in the litigation practice. He has significant experience in complex commercial litigation, post-acquisition disputes, mass tort and toxic tort litigation, product liability claims and class action discrimination suits. Tom is also on faculty at the University of Chicago Law School, where he has lectured on trial advocacy.

 

Greg Ganske

 

Greg earned a BA in political science at Iowa in 1972 and an MD at Iowa in 1976. He received additional medical training at Harvard University. He was a successful plastic surgeon in Des Moines until he challenged and defeated incumbent US House member Neal Smith in 1994. Greg was reelected to the House in 1996, 1998, and 2000, before stepping down to challenge incumbent US Senator Tom Harkin in 2002. After that campaign he resumed his plastic surgery practice. He has volunteered his skills to help hundreds of children in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Armenia, and Vietnam by surgically correcting birth defects like cleft lips and palates.

 

Jeff Kueter

 

Jeff is president of the George C. Marshall Institute, a Washington DC based organization that works with scientists to help make complex scientific topics understandable to the public, the media, and policy makers. He manages the day-to-day operations of the Institute, authoring its policy papers and analyses and engaging the public and the policy making community. Jeff received BA degrees in political science and economics at Iowa in 1993, where he graduated with honors. He also earned to two MA degrees from George Washington University, one in political science and the other in security policy studies with an emphasis on science and technology.

 

Neal Rains

 

Neal earned a BA with honors in political science from Iowa in 1965 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa. He received a law degree from Northwestern University in 1968 and joined Ohio's oldest law firm after serving in the US Army. In 2001, he joined Frantz Ward LLP in Cleveland. Neal's practice is litigation and he has represented many individuals and business, including Fortune 500 companies, in a wide variety of trials, arbitrations and appeals. He was named by Law and Politics Magazine as an Ohio Super Lawyer and he is listed in The Best Lawyers in America.

 

Teri Rasmussen

 

Teri is a Senior Attorney in Plunkett Cooney's Columbus, Ohio office. She represents corporate clients in the areas of creditors’ rights, loan/lease documentation, commercial debt collection, business law, commercial real estate, bankruptcy, UCC law and commercial litigation. Since 2007 she has published the Ohio Practical Business Law, an online resource to assist businesses in making legally informed decisions. She is an adjunct professor of business law at Capital University and she has a long history of involvement with local service organizations. She earned a BA in political science with honors from Iowa in 1981 and a law degree (cum laude) from Michigan in 1984. Teri will formally join the board at the April 2010 meeting.

 

Allan Schimmel

 

Allan earned a BA from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, in 1962 and an MA from Iowa in political science in 1966. He worked on Capitol Hill for Iowa Congressman Fred Schwengel and a congressman from New York before moving to a senior management role with the U.S. Railway Association, an organization chartered by Congress to reorganize a set of bankrupt railroads. He later became the Director of Federal Relations for Conrail and thereafter a Vice President. Allan retired in 1996, but has remained very involved with civic activities, among them serving on boards for Northwestern College and the Community College of Philadelphia.

 

John Wehr

 

John earned a BA in political science from Iowa in 1974 and a law degree from Creighton University in 1977. He worked for the Office of the Iowa Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. He then returned to his hometown of Sigourney, Iowa, 60 miles southwest of Iowa City, to open a law practice. Thirty years later he remains the sole practitioner of this successful law office. John practices in many areas of law, with particular emphasis in estate planning, estate settlement, real estate and tax. He has four daughters, one an Iowa graduate, one an ISU graduate, one a UNI graduate, and his youngest is a student at Iowa.

 

Matt Wise

 

Matt earned a BA in political science from Iowa in 1993 and an MBA in International Marketing and Finance from DePaul University. He joined Q Interactive, an online advertising firm, in 2004 and was appointed President and CEO in 2006. Q Interactive is an industry leader in online marketing, providing services to more than 1,500 companies. The Chicago-based firm pioneered a targeting engine that combines demographic, behavioral, and transactional data to improve the productivity of online advertising. Prior to joining Q Interactive, Matt was a Senior Vice-President at Draft, the largest direct marketing agency in the country.