A new interim director for Extended and Continuing Education has been named at Iowa State.

Lois Hunt, who was appointed Sunday, will fill the position for the next six months while ISU Extension begins its nationwide search for a candidate.

The position was left vacant by Marcia Bankirer, who left ISU for a position as senior academic officer with Western Governors University, a higher education project.

According to an Extension Communications press release, Hunt has served as the southeast area extension education director for ISU Extension since 1992.

Hunt, who joined ISU Extension in 1985, has worked as program assistant with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program, as an ISU coordinator for the Southern Iowa Development District and as ISU Extension community resource development specialist.

Hunt’s hiring comes as ISU’s Extension Office is working to increase enrollment in off-campus for-credit classes, according to the press release.

“Lois Hunt brings valuable skills and knowledge to this position,” said Stanley R. Johnson, vice provost for ISU Extension.

“We appreciate her experience in addressing the needs of citizens as they access ISU’s distance education and conferencing resources,” Johnson said.

Other ISU employees agreed that Hunt will be valuable to the department.

“Lois Hunt has had considerable work with distance education,” said Herb Strasser, assistant administrator for Johnson, adding that Hunt has also been very successful with that particular program.

Strasser said Hunt has the talents that make her qualified for her new position. “She has very highly-tuned people skills,” she said.

Barbara Woods of ISU Extension Communications Systems said she believes Hunt has what it takes to reform the Extended and Continuing Education department, which services both traditional and non-traditional students.

“She has a lot of experience working … in terms of what the clients say they need,” she said. “She has a sense of what the university offers and what the customers are interested in.”

Woods said it is to ISU’s advantage that Hunt has been given this position.

“She has a good track record in the organization,” Woods said. “[This is a] positive sign that someone within the system is going to reform the interim job.”