Iowa State University
College of Human Sciences and College of Agriculture College of Human Sciences College of Agriculture


During the past year, FSHN alumni continued to excel and were recognized for their efforts at university, state, national, and international levels.


Eva (Donelson) Wilson ('27, dietetics)


Eva (Donelson) Wilson of Lake Forest, CA was recently awarded the ISU Alumni Association's Alumni Merit Award. Wilson's professional career took her from the dietetics program at ISU to the Merrill Palmer School in Detroit, where she began a study of the composition of human milk in 1927 that led to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1934. From there, she held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, and The Ohio State University, teaching nutrition and authoring celebrated nutrition textbooks. In the 1960s while a faculty member at OSU, Wilson took on a unique challenge when she traveled to the University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba in Brazil to start a home economics program. Wilson mentored students and became fluent enough in Portuguese to author a textbook in the language. Following her retirement, she returned to spend an additional year as a consultant to the nutrition program at the University of Brasilia. At 100 years of age, Wilson is still organizing alumni events in southern California for Iowa Staters and individuals who share her passion for home economics. She stays connected with the many young people she has mentored over the years, and she continues to meet new people through her work as an English language tutor. Eva Donelson Wilson is both a passionate life learner and a devoted humanitarian.

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Dr. Wendell J. Kopp ('38, dairy industry)


Dr. Wendell J. Kopp from Oakridge, TN revisited the ISU campus in 2004.

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Marilyn Jordan (Frink) George ('44, food science)


Marilyn Jordan (Frink) George from Petersburg, AK is a retired writer and owner of Little Norway Press, as well as a retired salmon troller. She was featured in the January 2005 VISIONS magazine put out by ISU's Alumni Association about her life in Alaska and her book, Following the Alaskan Dream. My Salmon Trolling Adventures in the Last Frontier.

Through the years, George has been able to do freelance writing with much of it tied to her home economics training. She first worked in test kitchens, then at the Fishery Products Lab on fish recipes, and later as a home extension agent in Idaho near the Air Base and on the Nez Perce Reservation. Whenever George needed a short-term job, she went to work as a chemist - thanks to all the chemistry she had to take for her degree in experimental cookery.

George obtained her M.S. in Journalism with emphasis on public relations and photography from the University of Oregon. At the age of 83, she is still writing and photographing. She likes the motto of one Elderhostel she attended, "Learning makes the mind last longer."

On eight of the 23 Elderhostels she's attended, she has taken her grandchildren. The most recent completion being one this summer to Denali Park in Alaska. She recommends them for their great fun.

George has enjoyed coming back for Iowa State reunions. She has been back for 25, 40, 50 and the Journalism Reunion in 2000. She didn't make the 60th because her family was having a Frink reunion in CA that weekend.

She'll try to go to Juneau when the Iowa State Cruise is there. George often goes up there one week a month to sign books at the Mendenhall Glacier or the Mt. Robert's Tram.

To read more see www.alaska.net/~margeorg/

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Janet C. King ('63, dietetics)


Janet C. King, senior scientist at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, CA, was involved in the review of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced their release on January 12, 2005.

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Judith Elaine Kemper Gale ('68, dietetics)


Judith Elaine Kemper Gale from Creston, IA, shares after she graduated, she worked for social services in Iowa's Boone County for nine months. She and her husband moved to Carbonville, IL where she worked in University Food Service for four years. She has worked the last 23 years as a WIC/MCH Dietitian at MATURA Action Corporation in Creston, IA. Also, she is a Certified Breastfeeding Educator and President of the Creston Area Breastfeeding Coalition. Gale is a member of the Iowa Fit Kids Coalition. She and her husband, Frank, have three children and five grandchildren.

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Nancy Naeve Degner ('72, food science)


Nancy Naeve Degner was recently awarded the 2005 CHS Alumni Professional Achievement Award, an award recognizing superior professional accomplishments in education, extension, research, administration or business in several fields of family and consumer sciences. Executive Director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council since 1975, Degner is a familiar face to hundreds of Iowa State students. She enjoys speaking to classes in dietetics; hotel, restaurant and institution management; animal science and meat science as well as having students "job shadow" and hosting interns. While her current duties emphasize issues management, such as "mad cow" or "foot and mouth" diseases, her early years focused on food preparation, eventually evolving into production of food. In reflecting that her position has changed through the years, she notes changes in her job have tracked closely to changes in the college. Degner currently serves on the Public Relations Subcommittee of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and has in the past been active on its Youth Marketing Task Force, Healthcare Professionals Subcommittee, Foodservice State Task Force and Education Subcommittee. She is a member of the Iowa Nutrition Network; was chair of the Iowa Agricultural Awareness Coalition for two years; participates on ISU's Iowa Beef Center Advisory Committee and the Iowa State Food Safety Task Force.

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Linda Nielsen ('72, M.S., food science)


Linda Nielsen from Charleston, WV serves as Ward 13 Councilman of Charleston as well as the Elderhostel Coordinator & Assistant Director of Continuing Education at West Virginia State Community and Technical College.

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James L. Oblinger ('72, Ph.D., food technology)


James L. Oblinger, North Carolina State University Chancellor, served as a panelist alongside ISU President Gregory Geoofroy and retired Kansas State University President Duane Acker at the 20th annual conference of the National Agriculture Alumni and Development Association (NAADA) in Des Moines, IA on June 12, 2005. The conference kicked off with a two-hour forum entitled The Role of Agriculture in the 21st Century Land-Grant Institution. A welcome by Catherine Woteki, College of Agriculture Dean, led into a forum moderated by Rick Foster, vice president for programming with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The conference brought 175 members from around the country to Iowa and was organized by the College of Agriculture and the ISU Foundation. NAADA provides education and support for professionals, volunteers and student leaders who are dedicated to expanding the human resources and financial support for land-grant colleges of agricultural sciences and related programs.

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Sandy (Donato) Roberts ('82, dietetics)


Sandy (Donato) Roberts often serves as a mentor for Texas State University dietetic students. She currently works part-time as a Clinical Dietitian/Clinical Manager at McKenna Hospital in New Braunfels, TX.

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Margaret E. Hahn ('85, food science; '96, nutrition)


Margaret E. Hahn received the 2005 CHS Alumni Helen LeBaron Hilton Recognition Award, an award to recognize outstanding community leadership as well as leadership in the (former) College of Family and Consumer Sciences Alumni Association and the Iowa State University Alumni Association.

For ten years Margaret Hahn has been executive board member of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences Alumni Board, assuming a variety of leadership responsibilities including serving as president during 1998-99.

An Adult Critical Care Nutrition Specialist with Iowa Health in Des Moines, IA since 1988, colleagues consider Hahn to be one of the "cutting edge" dietitians in practice and see her as a resource for many in the profession. A true advocate of Iowa State University, she has made significant contributions to the dietetics/nutrition education programs; since 1988 she has supervised dietetic interns during their medical nutrition therapy rotations at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, IA. Those she mentors benefit from her high expectations, going beyond knowing policy and procedure to help interns grow as individuals. Recently Hahn assisted the dietetic internship at Iowa State University in developing instructional materials by identifying key concepts required for entry level practice and providing the framework to develop a case study simulation using the Internet.

A lifetime member of the Iowa State University Alumni Association and active member of the ISU AA Des Moines Breakfast Club, her photo appeared in a promotion published in Visions magazine in 1999. An avid Cyclone fan, she often travels to sporting events with other alums.

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Young-Eun Lee ('87, Ph.D., nutrition)


Young-Eun Lee served as chair of the plenary session talk FSHN Department Chair Ruth MacDonald gave to the Korean Food Science and Nutrition Society meeting in YongPyong, South Korea on October 20, 2005. The title of the talk was Protective roles of phytoestrogens in cancer: evidence from transgenic mouse models of breast, prostate and colon cancer.

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Julie Cotton ('98, food science; '00, M.S., food science)


Julie Cotton has left Sunny Fresh/Cargill to become Director of New Product Development for Waymouth Farms, Inc. This small company makes "Good Sense" branded snacks.

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Orsan Mansy ('93, food science & technology)


Orsan Mansy has been working for Quality Control at Coca-Cola since graduating from Iowa State University.

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Susan Eckert ('93, dietetics)


Susan Eckert, received the Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year Award at the November 2004 annual Iowa Dietetic Association meeting.

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Susan Kundrat ('97, M.S., nutrition)


Susan Kundrat, a sports nutritionist and dietitian from Illinois, spoke at the Iowa Dietetics Association meeting on Wednesday, November 2, 2005 and also graciously agreed to meet with students informally on November 1, 2005 from 8-9 p.m. in the LeBaron Lounge at Iowa State University to share information about her career path, give suggestions to students interested in pursuing a career in sports nutrition, and answer questions students may have on sports nutrition or clinical nutrition. She spoke on issues for athletes and optimal fuel for pre and post workouts, hydration and dietary supplement assessment. You can view information about her at www.eatnmove.com.

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Heather Christensen ('98, food science)


Heather Christensen,works as Senior Food Technologist for frozen foods of ConAgra.

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Food Science and Human Nutrition