North Dakota State President David Cook, Ames native, finalist for ISU presidency

AMES — The second of two finalists to succeed Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen has been identified as David Cook, an Ames native and Iowa State alum who’s been serving as the 15th president of North Dakota State University since 2022.

Cook’s name was made public Wednesday in advance of his visit to campus Thursday, when he’ll participate in a public forum at 4 p.m. in Iowa State’s Memorial Union.

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The first candidate was announced Tuesday morning as Benjamin Houlton — dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, where he also holds rank as an ecology and evolutionary biology professor.

He’ll speak at 4 p.m. today in the Iowa State Memorial Union for a public forum — which also will be livestreamed on the Board of Regents website.

Cook and Houlton are the only candidates left from an original pool of 78 applicants, which a 12-member search committee narrowed down to eight semifinalists and then four finalists last month.

Of those four, only three accepted the invitation to continue on to the public portion of the process. And then another dropped out Friday — leaving just two vying for the job to lead Iowa’s public land-grant university, established nearly 168 years ago in 1858 as the “Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm.”

Outgoing President Wintersteen — who in November 2017 became Iowa State’s 16th president and first female president — in May announced plans to retire in January.

Cook, who was born and raised in Ames, started his higher education journey nearby at Iowa State, where he earned a bachelor’s in political science and speech communication in 1992.

He went on to earn both a master’s and doctorate in organizational communication from the University of Kansas in 1995 and in 1998, respectively — penning a dissertation on “Communication strategies and Chinese organizational commitment in American firms in China,” for which he lived in Shanghai for a period.

In his curriculum vitae, Cook personalized his “leadership philosophy” to the Iowa State position — calling himself a “dedicated servant-leader and proud Iowa State alumnus with over 25 years of leadership experience at research-intensive universities.”

“Experienced in strategic planning, student success, research expansion, fundraising, government relations, extension, financial stewardship, shared governance and athletics,” Cook continued in his leadership philosophy. “Committed to advancing Iowa State’s mission as a student-centric, innovative, global land-grant leader.”

This is a developing story. Check back for more details.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com