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Iowa Soybean Research Center

in collaboration with the Iowa Soybean Association

Key Personnel Changes at ISU

Kendall Lamkey, Mary Wiedenhoeft and Jason Henderson

From left, Kendall Lamkey, Mary Wiedenhoeft and Jason Henderson.


ISU recently announced some changes to key positions within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Extension and Outreach. 

Kendall Lamkey was named associate dean for facilities and operations effective May 16, 2023. A professor of agronomy and crop breeding, Lamkey has been a faculty member at Iowa State since 2002. He has chaired the department of agronomy since 2007 after serving one year as the interim chair. As agronomy chair, Lamkey also served on the ISRC’s management team, which makes research-funding decisions based on feedback from the center’s Industry Advisory Council.

Lamkey’s new role will be to support faculty, students, staff and stakeholders by ensuring the college’s facilities and operations on and off campus, and the laboratories, farms, greenhouses and other locations enable the work and learning of students, faculty and staff.  He will also lead safety planning efforts and operations.

Mary Wiedenhoeft will serve as interim agronomy department chair, also effective on May 16, 2023. Wiedenhoeft, Morrill Professor of agronomy, is a graduate of Iowa State with a B.S. in agronomy and earned her Ph.D. in crop physiology from Washington State University. She was a faculty member at the University of Maine for 12 years before joining ISU’s department of agronomy in 1999. She currently serves as the associate chair for academics and director of the Masters in Agronomy Program. As interim department chair, Wiedenhoeft will also serve on the ISRC’s management team.

Wiedenhoeft has taught courses on the introduction to crop science, systems analysis in crop and soil management and integrated crop and livestock production systems. She has advised agronomy students and led the agronomy learning community for many years. Her research has focused on sustainable agriculture, agronomic education and the production and management of alternative cropping systems.

Jason Henderson began as vice president for ISU Extension and Outreach on April 3. Henderson comes from Purdue University, where he served as director of extension and senior associate dean for faculty development in the College of Agriculture and assistant vice-provost for engagement. From 2007 to 2013, Henderson was the vice president and Omaha branch executive for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Henderson graduated with a degree in economics from Central College and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Purdue University. He grew up on a dairy farm in Arlington, Iowa. Henderson succeeds John Lawrence, who retired on April 2.