AMES, Iowa — Wendy Wintersteen, dean of agriculture and life sciences at Iowa State University, is the 2016 recipient of the Carl F. Hertz Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.
The award was presented Nov. 9 at the 87th annual meeting of the society at Indian Wells, Calif.
The Carl F. Hertz Distinguished Service In Agriculture Award is presented to a person or group in appreciation for service to agriculture other than directly in the farm management and rural appraisal professions. The award’s namesake, Carl F. Hertz, the founder of Hertz Farm Management of Nevada, Iowa, graduated from Iowa State with a degree in animal science in 1933.
Wintersteen, the endowed dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the director of the Agriculture Experiment Station, was honored for her “tireless efforts and commitment to agriculture and her leadership and contributions to Iowa, national and international agriculture.”
She joins a list of Hertz Award recipients that goes back more than 40 years, and includes other Iowa State honorees like agricultural economists Earl Heady, Neil Harl, William Edwards and Mike Duffy, and extension climatologist Elwynn Taylor.
Wintersteen is the tenth dean of agriculture in Iowa State’s 158-year history. She has served as dean and director since 2006, and has worked in extension, research and administration at Iowa State for more than 30 years. She represents Iowa State on many boards of agricultural organizations in Iowa and across the country. She currently serves as president of the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation, which works to contribute to the understanding of agriculture and agricultural research in society. In 2013, she was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to the board of directors of the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. Her past service includes terms on the boards of the Farm Foundation and the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. She also is past chair of the Administrative Heads Section of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Board on Agriculture Assembly.
Wintersteen earned a bachelor’s of science degree in agriculture from Kansas State University and her Ph.D. in entomology from Iowa State University. In 2007 she was honored as a Kansas State University Alumni Fellow for professional accomplishments and distinguished service.
The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, founded in 1929, is a national professional organization providing education and networking opportunities for individuals who work in the areas of farm and ranch management, rural and real estate property appraising, review appraisal and agricultural consulting services.