Joy Corning is no stranger to leadership.

Iowa’s lieutenant governor spoke at Tuesday’s “Women and Leadership — A View from the Public Sector” presentation at the Memorial Union.

To be a good leader, “I think you need to be passionate about something,” Corning said.

When she gained a seat in the Iowa Senate in 1985, Corning was the first woman to be an Iowa senator. Now there are 11 women in the senate.

According to a fact sheet from the Center for the American Woman and Politics, women hold 59 of the 535 seats in the 105th U.S. Congress and nine of the 100 seats in the Senate.

Fifty of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives are held by women.

Corning was one of six women to hold the office of lieutenant governor in the United States when she was elected.

Now there are 22 women lieutenant governors.

“Iowa has never had a woman in Congress or as governor,” Corning said.

She said she is hoping to change that by announcing her candidacy for governor in the June 1998 primary election as a republican.

The official announcement should come in two or three weeks.

Corning said she will focus on three main issues when she runs for governor.

One will be the need for more quality jobs in Iowa.

“[It is] shameful that one in six Iowa children are growing up in poverty,” Corning said.

The lack of good jobs in Iowa also means college students attend out-of-state universities after graduation, she said.

Another major area Corning will focus on is education. Since she was a teacher in Greenfield and Waterloo, Corning said she considers education very important, especially for young children.

Teaching children to read and helping them to keep up with their reading is a priority.

Corning would like to see specially trained teachers in every school to help first graders before they fall behind, she said, because reading is basic, not only in school but also in life.

Another school program Corning would like to see in every school is called Character Counts, she said, which means taking an interest in a person’s character and promoting good morals and ethics.

Corning also said she thinks the extended school year is a good idea, since every year teachers have to review what was learned before the previous summer because students forget much of what they learn during the long summer break.

Her overriding issue deals with children and the family. It would make more sense to spend tax dollars in a child’s early years on prevention programs than on prisons later, Corning said.

Bringing ethics programs to schools would be one way of intervention, she said.

“I would hope people would look at my qualifications in terms of experience in state government, experience in education. The largest part of the Iowa budget is in education,” Corning said.

Corning is part of Legacy 150, grown out of the sesquicentennial, a program to continue training leaders in ethics, morals and public discourse.

Corning is pro-choice and said she considers abortion to be a personal choice rather than a governmental choice.

Instead she urges people to be sexually responsible.

She said she is opposed to the death penalty for moral and ethical reasons.