The Iowa Board of Regents and the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa have launched the search for its executive director with a job posting and salary range that could put the selected applicant on the same pay level as some university administrators.
The job description, officially posted June 19, sets the executive director’s salary range at $200,000-$450,000, depending on level of experience. According to Iowa’s state employee salary book for fiscal year 2025, UI treasurer and CFO Terry Johnson, Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz, Vice President for External Relations and senior advisor to the president Peter Matthes and other university leaders all have salaries in that range.
Responsibilities of the future director include the “sole and exclusive authority” over recruitment, hiring and firing of center staff and authority to invite guest speakers, as well as planning and implementing center operations to accommodate the future six-credit-hour requirements in government and history it will have to offer.
“The director will play a foundational role in building a nationally prominent center dedicated to free inquiry, constitutional thought, and civic education,” the job description stated.
Iowa State, UNI civic center directors will make much less than UI admin
Both the Center for Cyclone Civics at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa Center for Civic Education have already named directors, with UNI’s Allison Rank’s job title as academic director getting a base pay of $120,000.
ISU center co-director Kelly Shaw was listed as a teaching professor for fiscal year 2025 and had a base pay of just over $94,000, alongside co-director Karen Kedrowski, also director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and a political science professor, who had a base pay of more than $166,000 in fiscal year 2025. Kedrowski is listed as a director in the state salary book.
Center for Intellectual Freedom director will report to Regents
Whoever is selected for the Center for Intellectual Freedom will report directly to the Board of Regents, as the center is not under the UI’s authority. The job posting stated that applicants must hold an academic record that would qualify them for a full professor’s tenure at the UI and skills with oral and written communication, and “an uncompromising commitment to academic freedom, unfettered and rigorous intellectual inquiry, and institutional neutrality, even in the face of countervailing pressures.”
Applicants also need to have research expertise in at least one of the center’s disciplines, including classics, economics, history, law, philosophy, political thought and quantitative political science, and the ability to engage with literature from all of the others.
Applications should be submitted by Aug. 14 “to ensure best consideration,” the application stated. The center’s 26-person advisory council and executive committee will conduct the search and submit finalists to the board of regents, which will make the final selection.
Officials from the center’s advisory council and Iowa Board of Regents have discussed the search for a permanent director from the center’s inception, including Luciano de Castro, who was selected in July 2025 to serve as interim director for the new program.
Collegiate civics courses will be mandatory in 2028
The center officially launched in December 2025 with a multiday event and scheduled its first course the following semester, though its first class was canceled due to lack of student interest and an inability to hire faculty and figure out schedules.
Center leaders must also plan for the enactment of new legislation in 2028 that will place it as the only academic unit at the UI to set required general education courses in U.S. history and civic government.
While the council originally planned to hire a search firm to aid in finding a permanent director, chair of the search committee and associate professor of finance at the University of Texas Richard Lowery said at a June council meeting it didn’t work out and the council would handle the search itself.
At the meeting, Lowery said the council had identified a firm but the Regents did not reach an agreement with it, and other firms expressed interest but pulled away. He added job applications would need to be in by the end of July, a different date than the deadline listed in the job posting, and the board is “hoping to get a final decision by” its September meeting.
Regent Christine Hensley said in the meeting she believes the council will “have a lot” of applicants to parse through in its search.
Find this story at Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: kobradovich@iowacapitaldispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Regents post high-paying Center for Intellectual Freedom exec. role
Reporting by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch / Iowa City Press-Citizen
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By Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
