Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed the former CEO of a national media company and a former state legislator to the board that governs Iowa’s three public universities.
Steve Lacy was a top executive at Des Moines-based Meredith Corp. for more than a decade before retiring in 2020. Lacy has been serving on the advisory council for the Center for Intellectual Freedom, which the Board of Regents launched earlier this month.
The other new member of the Board of Regents is Peter Cownie, a Republican from West Des Moines who served in the Iowa House for 10 years. His mother, Patricia Cownie, also previously served a term on the Board of Regents.
The governor’s nominees replace Sherry Bates, the board’s president who resigned earlier this month, and David Barker, who left the board this fall to serve in the Trump administration as U.S. assistant secretary for postsecondary education.
