Karen Kedrowski has been named the director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and will officially begin Jan. 1, 2019.

Kedrowski succeeds Dianne Bystrom, who served 22 years as the director of the Catt Center.

Starting in 1992, the Catt Center began as a way to educate and get citizens involved in the political process. It was established by the Iowa Board of Regents and serves as the second oldest university-based center for women involved in politics.

Kedrowski currently works as a professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. There she is the executive director for the Center for Civic Learning at the university as well as the co-director of the John C. West Forum on Politics and Policy.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected by Iowa State as the next director of the Catt Center, which has thrived under Dianne Bystrom’s leadership,” Kedrowski told Iowa State in an interview. “The next few years offer a great opportunity to further raise the Catt Center’s profile, as a record number of women are running for public office nationwide and the country marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in 2020.”

Under Bystrom, the Catt Center expanded its Legacy of Heroines scholarship program and added many other programs and scholarships for women in politics. If Kedrowski plans to continue the direction of the center it could include expansions of these programs.

The center also hosts multiple workshops in Iowa and tracks the representation of women on city and county boards.

Kedrowski received a bachelor’s degree from University of Minnesota, triple majoring in political science, French and history. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science at the University of Oklahoma.

She has been the director of the Center for Civic Learning at Winthrop University since 2017 and led the university’s civic engagement events through, leading initiatives and philanthropic efforts.

Through these efforts, Winthrop gained a voter-friendly campus designation, and was able to host U.S. presidential candidates prior to the 2016 South Carolina primary. She also helped attain a major donor gift to permanently endow the West Forum, which, according to Winthrop’s website “seeks to promote leadership and educate students to become engaged and effective citizens of South Carolina.”

While working at Winthrop, Kedrowski also served within their College of Arts and Sciences as the Dean. While Dean she oversaw 19 department chairs, staff and a $16 million budget.

During her time as a professor she won the Distinguished Professor award, the highest award Winthrop offers.

Additional appointments include: serving on the board of Women’s Rights Empowerment Network and the United Way of York County.

She has authored a book called “Media Entrepreneurs and the Media Enterprise in the U.S. Congress” and co-authored books like “Cancer Activism: Gender, Media and Public Policy” and “Breastfeeding Rights in the United States.”

Kelly Winfrey, assistant professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, will be the interim director starting Aug. 13, 2018.

Editor’s note: This article previously misspelled Karen Kedrowski’s name as Kerdowski. The misspelling has now been corrected. The Daily regrets this error.