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Good morning, Fearless readers:
I hope you had a restful Labor Day holiday weekend. In today’s e-newsletter, you will find:
- A news story about the child care crisis in Iowa: The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines recently held a panel discussion to address challenges and solutions.
- A Closer Look at Julie Iskow, the president and chief executive officer of Workiva.
- Career pathways and advancement: Dress for Success announced the keynote speaker for its 2023 Success Luncheon.
- In the headlines: Following Polk County’s lead, more Iowa counties are poised to pay for sexual assault victims’ emergency contraceptives after the state attorney general’s pause on payments for those services.
- A break from the news: Simone Biles wore a purple leotard with Maya
Angelou’s words “But still I rise” at the U.S. national championships. I haven’t recovered yet. Read about the challenges that Biles has smashed that extend far beyond vaulting. The first: ageism.
- Lots more!
– Nicole Grundmeier, Business Record staff
writer
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| SAVE THE
DATE: Reserve your table now
FEARLESS ANNUAL CELEBRATION
Wednesday, Nov. 1 | 10 a.m. to noon | Des Moines Marriott
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 Ready to be more and fear less?
On Nov. 1, the Business Record will host our Fearless event at the Des Moines Marriott.
To celebrate Fearless, a lineup of inspiring women will
share their stories of fearlessness and courage. Attendees will be seated at a table with female leaders, including some of our past Women of Influence honorees, who will lead powerful discussions to share perspectives and insights on succeeding in work and life. Attendees will build additional connections with leaders and other participants as they rotate to different tables throughout the event. See videos from 2022.
General admission ticket sales will be limited and won't begin until October, but as a Fearless Supporter, your business can secure a reserved table at the event, ensure your team can interact with other community leaders, and position itself as an industry leader with an advertisement in the printed Fearless edition of the Business Record.
This package is a way to elevate your company as a supporter of both women in the community and in your workforce, as you position your organization to compete for top talent as an employer of choice.
Interested in being a Fearless Supporter?
If you are interested in purchasing a Fearless Supporter sponsorship for the event,
please fill out the form and you will be contacted by a representative on our team.
There are a limited number of reserved table sponsorships available on a first-come, first-served basis. Sponsorships must be reserved by Oct 6. If you have questions, please contact Chris Conetzkey at chrisconetzkey@bpcdm.com.
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Iowa’s lack of child care is a problem for everybody, not just parents, panelists say
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| BY NICOLE GRUNDMEIER, BUSINESS RECORD STAFF
WRITER
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| From left: Deann Cook, president and CEO of the Iowa Women's Foundation; Ryan Page, director of child care for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services; Dave Stone, advocacy officer at United Way of Central Iowa; Angie Dethlefs-Trettin, chief community
impact officer for the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines; Robert Burnett, vice president of science learning at the Science Center of Iowa; Mu Da Paw, community resource navigator at Lutheran Services in Iowa; and Dena Lewerke, economic development coordinator at Lutheran Services in Iowa, participated in a forum about the state of child care in Iowa on Aug. 24 at the Science Center of Iowa. Submitted photo.
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When an Iowa family cannot find suitable child care, it’s bad news for the family. But the ripple effects of that unmet need stretch much further.
Panelists discussing Iowa’s child care crisis emphasized the issue’s broad relevance at an Aug. 24 forum, held at the Science Center of Iowa and organized by the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines.
“Child care is the most fundamental barrier,” said Deann Cook, president and CEO of the Iowa Women’s Foundation. “Without child care, nothing else matters.”
The Iowa Women’s Foundation has conducted research to better define the scope of the shortfall in Iowa. One of the findings: The state has about 175,000 child care spaces – about 350,000 fewer than the number of young children in Iowa.
Here are five takeaways from the forum:
Inadequate child care is everybody’s problem.
Parents, more often women, leave the workforce because they can’t find quality, affordable and accessible child care. That turnover is undesirable at any time, but recently in Iowa, it contributes to and exacerbates a statewide worker shortage. Even when those departing parents can be
replaced, finding and training new workers is an extra cost, in both money and time, for employers. Convincing people to apply for and take open positions is not a matter solely of connecting people outside the workforce with the vacancies; parents won’t take jobs if they can’t ensure their children will thrive while they’re on the job. Local and regional economies suffer because of barriers of cost and availability in child care – Iowa families pay 14% of their income for child care, which is double the rate considered affordable nationally, said Dave Stone, advocacy officer with United Way of Central Iowa.
The pandemic helped lift the veil from the difficulty in finding providers.
The importance of child care was not as obvious before the workplace upheaval caused by COVID-19, panelists said. During various stages of the recovery, it became clear to everybody that the demand for care outstripped the supply, especially outside urban areas. Child care is a business problem, an economic problem and a community problem, Cook argued.
We need to care for the child care workforce.
Money is a problem on the provider side, too. At too many facilities, child care providers make so little that they often leave for better opportunities that often have less stress to boot. While references to a gap in child care spaces can give an impression that physical infrastructure is a problem, it really is largely an issue of staffing and retention in Iowa, panelists said. “If we can support our child care workforce, we will solve a lot of these issues,” Cook said. The Iowa Women’s Foundation said over half of people not currently working in child care who responded to a survey said they would like to return, but only if compensation was better.
Innovative
ideas are helping to make a dent in Iowa.
Iowa is dotted with success stories of mitigating child care gaps in specific communities. Some businesses set up formal child care on site. Others collaborate with school districts. Manufacturers and other businesses have set up flexible schedules. Although solutions that address specific circumstances in one community or at one business are important, an important next step is figuring out which ideas can be replicated most effectively elsewhere.
Lots of work remains to do,
and Iowans can help by speaking out.
Movement toward a more robust and consistent and healthy child care system has only just begun, the panelists said. Parents who have difficulty finding before- and after-school care should say so, and say it loudly, said Ryan Page, director of child care for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. That’s one of the best ways to encourage local and state decision-makers to focus on policies that will make a lasting difference in the child care industry, on the outlook for families, and with the economy overall.
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A Closer Look: Julie Iskow, president and CEO, Workiva Inc.
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| BY SARAH DIEHN, STAFF WRITER & DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR, BUSINESS RECORD
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Julie Iskow, who describes herself as being “born, raised, educated and employed” in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traded Silicon Valley for more time in the Silicon Prairie since joining Ames-based Workiva in 2019.
She was appointed as Workiva’s CEO in April when co-founder Marty Vanderploeg stepped down from the role. Iskow has held executive leadership roles at Workiva and several other software companies in San Francisco, where she is primarily based.
Workiva was founded in 2008 with the goal of changing the way corporations manage and report business data. It serves more than 5,800 customers globally with software that streamlines financial reporting like annual reports, banking compliance and SEC reporting as well as environmental, social and
governance reporting.
We talked with Iskow at Workiva’s Ames headquarters, which was completed in 2014 and employs 500 of the company’s 2,500 employees worldwide.
This Q&A has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
What led you into the tech field?
My degrees are in economics, so I have a business economics background. But when I was in graduate school, I was doing a dissertation, and I needed to do some econometric analysis and statistics analysis and the capabilities that I needed to analyze my data were not available, so I took software engineering classes and programming classes and I ended up enjoying that a lot. I got the capabilities I needed, so I ended up having this software skill along with economics and when the jobs were around those were my choices — am I going to go pure economics or am I going to do software? I’m using both today but I did go into software engineering for a period of time. My roles got broader and broader, and I took on more operational roles and
that’s how it started.
My foundation is business and economics, so the mix of that is really what powered it all. And sometimes when you’re in engineering, you’re just doing the engineering for the tech’s sake, and to have the business side, which always makes you think about outcomes. I think, for me, I was always using technology as a tool for economics and for business outcomes, and that’s where the power was in the combination of economics and business and engineering and product all together.
What specifically was interesting to you about working with technology?
I think tech over the years has become so much a part of our lives and it’s powering our economy. When I started, yes, it was there but not in the form that it is today. Increasingly, the two came together around me as well as with my career. I love both, and the current role that I have is a beautiful mesh of both. Being a CEO at a tech company is the ultimate combination of business and technology. I think that’s what I love about the job — it’s both.
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CAREER PATHWAYS & ADVANCEMENT
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Dress for Success announces keynote speaker for 2023 Success Luncheon
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Dress for Success Des Moines, a nonprofit that assists women who are entering or reentering the workforce, announced that local author and speaker Alicia Economos will headline its 2023
Success Luncheon.
The event, scheduled for Sept. 28, raises funds to benefit the women served and the programs of Dress for Success Des Moines.
Economos, a life coach, advises women on how to overcome obstacles and gain confidence to develop happier and healthier relationships so they can live their best lives.
The luncheon will start at 11:30 a.m. at Hilton Des Moines Downtown hotel. Tickets can be purchased by visiting desmoines.dressforsuccess.org.
The mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and development tools to help them thrive in work and in life. The Dress for Success Des Moines affiliate was founded in 2011.
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For women with money issues, an ADHD diagnosis can be revelatory: A diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adulthood has solved a mystery for some women, helping them get control over their finances, according to the New York Times. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls during childhood, because boys more often display the well-known hyperactivity trait. But more women, who tend to display the lesser-known inattentive trait, are being diagnosed later in life, thanks in part to ADHD groups and content creators who have helped them recognize that they have symptoms of the neurodevelopmental disorder. From 2020 to 2022, the incidence of ADHD diagnosis in women between ages 23 and 49 almost doubled. For many of the women, the dots connected straight from
their diagnosis to their checking account.
More Iowa counties poised to pay for rape victims’ emergency contraception after AG balks: Following Polk County’s lead, more Iowa counties are poised to pay for sexual assault victims’ emergency contraceptives after the state attorney general’s pause on payments for those services, according to the Des Moines Register. Since January, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has halted the office’s long-standing practice of covering the cost of morning-after pills and, in rare cases, abortion for victims of rape in Iowa. To date, more than 160 reimbursement requests for rape victims’ morning-after pills are pending, according to documents first obtained by Iowa Public Radio. These claims are submitted to the Attorney General’s Office by hospitals and pharmacies that dispense these medications to victims.
Nebraska volleyball sets
women’s sporting event attendance world record: At first, the idea seemed audacious. Holding a college volleyball match inside the University of Nebraska’s massive football stadium? What would it look like? Would enough people come? “I think my brain started spinning,” Nebraska’s senior associate athletic director Brent Meyer recently said in an interview on the team’s website. But then the tickets for Nebraska’s night match against Omaha started selling and selling and selling, with 92,003 fans officially in attendance at the school’s Memorial Stadium for the Huskers’ match against Omaha on Wednesday night, setting a new world record for a women’s sporting event, according to the Washington Post.
Telemedicine abortions are on the rise
in Iowa: The share of abortions using telemedicine in Iowa increased more than 10 percentage points from April 2022 to March 2023, according to Axios Des Moines. The data is from the Society of Family Planning’s latest #WeCount report. A recent federal appeals court ruling limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone may pave the way for a Supreme Court debate that puts the future of telehealth abortions at risk.
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“PREVENTING CONFLICTS IS THE WORK OF POLITICS; ESTABLISHING PEACE IS THE WORK OF EDUCATION.”
MARIA MONTESSORI
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Young professionals are turning to AI to create headshots. But there are catches. (NPR). A forced kiss, and a reckoning with sexism in Spain (New York Times). A mother’s stress may change the makeup of her child’s microbiome (Washington Post). ‘We have brothers, sons, lovers – but they can’t live here!’ The happy home shared by 26 women (the Guardian). One morning in Maine, 225 people and the real Little Sal went to the library (New York Times). Millennials are tired of trying to be perfect moms (Washington Post).
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The words of Maya Angelou lift Simone Biles to even greater heights at US nationals
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We still have so much to learn from her.
On the first day of the U.S. gymnastics championships, Simone Biles wore a purple leotard that said “But still I rise,” bringing the words of Maya Angelou along with her when she competed. It is my favorite leotard of all time. (And as a former gymnastics coach, I’ve seen a lot of leotards.)
There is much focus, and rightly so, on Biles’ gymnastics achievements. She is the only woman to ever successfully complete the Yurchenko double pike vault in international competition, and she performs it better than the rare man who attempts it.
Couples are naming their babies after Biles. I recently met Addie Olson, vice president of marketing and communications at the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines. Olson’s partner is a gymnastics coach, and they named their daughter, Zara Simone, after Biles.
Over email, Olson and I both gushed over Biles’ “But still I rise” leotard.
That leotard meant so much to so many people. And, it recognized all that Biles has overcome – challenges that many women and girls have experienced. Some of them are still very difficult to talk about openly. Biles is driving public conversations about:
- Age and age bias: At 26, Biles is the oldest woman to win the U.S. all-around championships in gymnastics. (Some perspective: When I was growing up in the 1990s, there were whispers about gymnast Shannon Miller being past her prime at age 17. Miller was considered positively geriatric when she competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta at age 19.) Biles has now won eight U.S. national championships – more than any other man or woman. Emily
Giambalvo of the Washington Post recently wrote, “Only recently have the top Americans altered the perceptions in the United States about when female gymnasts peak.” That top American is Biles, who is better at age 26 than she was when she won her first U.S. national championships at age
16.
- Childhood trauma and food insecurity: Biles was a foster child who was adopted by her biological grandfather and his wife. Her biological mother struggled with addiction. “Growing up, me and my
siblings were so focused on food because we didn’t have a lot of food,” Biles said in a story published by the Guardian. “I remember there was this cat around the house and I would be so hungry. They would feed this cat and I would be like, ‘Where the heck is my food?’ And so I think
that’s [why] I don’t like cats … because this freaking street cat, she always fed it. But she never fed us.”
- ADHD treatment: Biles has ADHD, which is often not diagnosed or is misdiagnosed in
women and girls. In 2016, her use of a common ADHD drug was leaked after Russian hackers accessed the World Anti-Doping Agency database. Biles could have ignored the news. But instead, she spoke openly about her diagnosis, elevating an entire generation of kids and adults who are also neurodiverse.
On Sept. 13, 2016, Biles tweeted, “Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of nothing that I'm afraid to let people know. ”
- Sexual abuse: Biles is a survivor of sexual abuse by former U.S. national team doctor Larry Nassar. Her tweets and her advocacy effectively closed the Karolyi ranch, the longtime training site of the national team. In 2021, she testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee, saying, “We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at FBI, USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. We have been failed, and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable. If they are not, I am convinced that this will continue to happen to others across Olympic sports.”
- Mental health: During the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Biles was unable to compete on most events because she had “the twisties,” a disorienting and dangerous condition where a gymnast loses all sense of space while twisting – there is a significant mind-body disconnect. Critics called Biles a quitter and worse. But in the years since, Biles has prioritized her mental health and become an outspoken advocate for those who suffer from mental health conditions. Putting her mental health first might have been the key to her wins this year, according to the Washington Post’s editorial board.
GK Elite, a leotard manufacturer, is selling a replica of the purple Maya Angelou leotard worn by Biles. It is already sold out in most sizes. I’m not surprised.
– Nicole Grundmeier, Business Record staff writer
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At its core, Fearless exists to help empower Iowa women to succeed in work and life. We believe that everyone has a story to share and that we cannot progress as a society unless we know about one another. We share stories through featuring women in our reporting, featuring guest contributions and speakers at our events.
We are always looking for new stories to share and people to feature. Get in touch with us!
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