David Yepsen to return to Iowa Press as host

CEDAR RAPIDS - Longtime Iowa political reporter David Yepsen, a regular panelist on Iowa Press for many years, is returning to the Iowa Public Television public affairs program in January as program host.

Yepsen, who earlier this year retired as director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, succeeds Dean Borg of Mount Vernon, who plans to retire in mid-January after hosting the program since 1971.

A native of Jefferson, Yepsen covered government and politics for The Des Moines Register for 32 years. He graduated in general studies from the University of Iowa in 1972 and earned his master's degree in public administration at Drake University in 1985. He was a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy in 1989 and at the Institute of Politics at Harvard in 2008. Since 2009, he has been at Southern Illinois.

Knowledgeable about Iowa politics, especially the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Yepsen has appeared on numerous network news programs including PBS NewsHour, and CNN, Fox, MSNBC and CSPAN programs.

'David's return to Iowa Public Television and specifically as host of Iowa Press continues the high level of professionalism that Iowans have come to expect from IPTV,” said Molly Phillips, IPTV executive director and general manager.

Yepsen called it a 'tremendous honor to return ‘home' to Iowa Press.”

'I have great respect for Dean Borg and for the reputation he helped build for the program,” he said. 'It is Iowa's most trusted resource for public policy evaluation and political analysis, and the best platform for civic and civil discourse on the critical issues we face as a state and nation.”

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