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NEWS RELEASE

01-07-02

Contacts:
Howard Shapiro, Provost Office, (515) 294-6365
Karen Zunkel, PWSE, (515) 294-4317
Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917

ZUNKEL NAMED DIRECTOR OF IOWA STATE'S
PROGRAM FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

AMES, Iowa -- Karen Zunkel has been named director of Iowa State's Program for Women in Science and Engineering. The appointment begins Jan. 7.

Zunkel moves to the position after serving 11 years in various capacities in the ISU College of Engineering. Zunkel takes over for Mary Ann Evans, PWSE's founder, who retired last December.

Iowa State's Program for Women in Science and Engineering recruits and helps retain Iowa women and girls in majors in science and engineering. The program works to show girls that science, engineering and technical careers are viable options for them. Since PWSE's inception 16 years ago, Iowa State's female enrollment in the sciences has grown significantly.

"Karen Zunkel has outstanding leadership skills and exceptional vision for how best to meet the needs of women in under-represented fields in science and engineering," said Howard Shapiro, vice provost for undergraduate programs.

Since 1996, Zunkel has been the manager of engineering undergraduate programs for ISU's Engineering College. In this position she has responsibility for administering Engineering's $1.5 million scholarship budget.

Zunkel also has coordinated women's and minority programs and taught a variety of engineering courses and coordinated student organization activities. One of her most successful projects was the development of "Not all Engineers Drive Trains," an educational program that is distributed statewide. Prior to joining Iowa State, Zunkel was an engineer for eight years with AT&T.

Zunkel has a B.S. from ISU and an M.S. from the University of Oklahoma, both in industrial engineering. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State.

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