Kentucky Ag Department seeking interns for next summer

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — College students pursuing careers in agriculture or government can apply for internships in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA).

State Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said the internship program gives students a hands-on work experience that helps prepare them for future careers. In addition to agriculture, KDA interns can work in education, computer science, marketing, communications, pre-law and other fields.

Internships for the summer of 2018 will run from June-August. KDA said applicants must be currently enrolled in a college, university or vocational-technical program. Applicants can be enrolled in either undergraduate or graduate school.

Applications must be postmarked no later than Dec. 8. To learn more, visit www.kyagr.com/marketing/education-resources.html

Wintersteen named Iowa State University president

AMES, Iowa — The Board of Regents, state of Iowa, has named Dr. Wendy Wintersteen the 16th president of Iowa State University.

Her appointment concludes a nearly six-month national search. She will take office on Nov. 20. Wintersteen, endowed dean of ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, will succeed Benjamin Allen, who has served as interim president since May 8.

Steven Leath, ISU’s 15th president, assumed the presidency at Auburn University last spring.

Wintersteen, 61, has led the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences since 2006. During her 11 years as dean, she helped raise more than $247 million in donor support for students, faculty and staff. Undergraduate enrollment in the college has grown by 90 percent, and the college’s placement rate for recent graduates has consistently been 97 percent or higher.

She has been with ISU since 1979, leaving only briefly (1989-90) to serve as acting National Pesticide Education Program leader for the USDA’s Extension Service, Washington, D.C. Prior to becoming dean, she served as the college’s senior associate dean and associate director of the Experiment Station. In her career at ISU, she also has served as professor of entomology, director of extension to Agriculture and Natural Resources and coordinator of pesticide management and pesticide applicator training programs.

She serves on the board of trustees of the Farm Foundation and the board of directors of the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. She is president of the board of directors for the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation.

Wintersteen received the Carl F. Hertz Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers in 2016. She was honored as a Kansas State University Alumni Fellow for professional accomplishments and distinguished service in 2007. She also is a member of the Entomological Society of America and the American Assoc. of University Women.

She earned a bachelor of science in crop protection (1978) from K-State and her doctorate in entomology (1988) from ISU.

Her annual salary at Iowa State has been set at $525,000 in year one, $550,000 in year two and $590,000 in year three. She also will receive a three-year deferred compensation plan with an annual contribution of $125,000 in year one, $150,000 in year two and $200,000 in year three. Wintersteen’s contract is for five years.

The 21-member presidential search committee was co-chaired by College of Design Dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez and Dan Houston, chair, president and CEO of Principal Financial Group. Washington, D.C.-based AGB Search guided the recruitment process at the direction of the Board of Regents.