Iowa State names David Cook its 17th president

AMES — When David Cook stepped into the Iowa State University Memorial Union in 1988, he was an overwhelmed first-generation college freshman tripped up by words like “syllabi.”

When Cook returned to the ISU union Tuesday — no longer a higher education novice, with 37 years of academic experience under his belt — he took on a new title.

“At this time please help me welcome, the 17th president of Iowa State University, Dr. David Cook,” Board of Regents President Sherry Bates said in unveiling North Dakota State University President Cook as outgoing ISU President Wendy Wintersteen’s successor.

“The vote was unanimous,” said Bates, flanked by fellow regents and members of the 12-member search committee.

The introduction before an enthusiastic campus crowd Tuesday doubled as a reunion for Cook, who was born in Mary Greeley Medical Center, graduated from Ames High, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State in 1992.

“This is an institution that means so much to my wife and I,” he said. “It is coming home.”

Cook, 55, will take over as ISU president on March 1, 2026 — leading the 168-year-old land-grant university that today boasts 31,105 students, 1,746 faculty, and a $1.75 billion budget.

Cook and Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Benjamin Houlton spent the day interviewing behind closed doors with the full Board of Regents as the only remaining finalists of four invited to participate in public forums and face-to-face interviews.

One of the four declined the initial invitation to move forward in the process and another dropped out after accepting. The four top prospects were chosen from a pool of 78 applicants, which the search committee whittled down to eight semifinalists in October.

Cook during his public forum on campus last week touted his Ames roots, sharing he wasn’t looking to leave his job at North Dakota State but couldn’t pass up a dream job that would bring him home to Ames — where both he and his wife, Kate Cook, grew up.

He told reporters after his introduction Tuesday that — during the search process — someone nominated him as a prospect for the job, and members of the search committee reached out.

“Ames is home and Iowa State is home,” he said. “When the job opened up, it was immediately something I was very interested in. So if I had to think about it, I didn’t have to think about it very long.”

And while Iowa State is 450 miles south of Cook’s current campus in Fargo, they have a lot in common, sharing a land-grant mission — meaning both were designated by their respective state legislatures to receive benefits to “teach agriculture, military tactics, and the mechanic arts as well as classical studies.”

“What Iowa State does with its land-grant mission is something that I really have a lot of affinity for,” Cook told reporters Tuesday, recounting his time at the University of Kansas serving the spirit of the land-grant mission. “And then of course I’ve been the president of a land-grant institution … The missions are really the same, it’s really kind of in my DNA to have a deep love for that kind of work.”

As public Midwestern research universities, the two campuses also face similar headwinds — like federal funding cuts, political pressure, artificial intelligence advancements, and an enrollment cliff.

“By the way, you're killing it with five straight years of enrollment growth,” Cook told the Iowa State campus during his forum last week. “That's incredible. But guess what? It's going to get a lot harder, and everybody else is going to kick scratch claw.”

Cook said he’s excited and prepared to tackle those challenges at Iowa State with a team of administrators, faculty, staff, and students — in line with the shared governance values central to American higher education.

“It's going to be a lot of outreach, a lot of listening, a lot of engagement,” he told reporters Tuesday of his priorities upon starting at Iowa State in March.

Road back to Ames

After graduating from Iowa State with a bachelor’s in political science and speech communication in 1992, Cook continued his higher ed pursuits at the University of Kansas — earning a master’s and doctorate in organizational communication in 1995 and 1998, respectively.

His dissertation, for which he lived in Shanghai for a stint, centered on “Communication strategies and Chinese organizational commitment in American firms in China.”

Staying in Kansas post-doctorate, Cook spent 15 years with the University of Kansas Medical Center in roles like assistant director of the Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth; assistant vice chancellor of external affairs; executive director of the Midwest Cancer Alliance; associate director of the Institute for Community & Public Health; and associate vice chancellor of the Institute for Community Engagement.

He moved over to the KU main campus in 2013 as vice chancellor and founding dean of the KU Edwards Campus and School of Professional Studies. And was appointed KU vice chancellor for public affairs and economic development in 2020 — directing the university’s state and federal government relations, public affairs, and economic development efforts.

Giving him experience with a research park like Iowa State’s — which covers 550-plus acres and more than 1 million square feet of workspace in 16 buildings, serving 125-plus tenant companies employing 2,500 employees — Cook supported KU’s Innovation Park of more than 60 corporate tenants, startup companies, and KU spinouts.

Two years into his role as vice chancellor for Kansas, Cook landed the top North Dakota State job — which at the time was facing a “significant budget challenge that required quick and thoughtful action.”

“With a downward trend in enrollment, NDSU had been losing operational revenue from both tuition and state funding,” according to an NDSU Foundation profile of Cook.

As president, Cook launched an “NDSU Transform” initiative merging the campus’ seven academic colleges into five, phasing out 24 academic programs, and cutting personnel. Although enrollment hasn’t increased from its about 12,000 total, it has stabilized after years of decline since the campus’ peak of 14,747 in 2014.

ISU priorities

When asked about his top priorities as ISU president, Cook said he aims to get a solid understanding of its finances.

“Higher ed financing is complicated, it’s different in every state,” he said. “And it’s imperative that a leader really understands how the finances work. So that'll be a priority for sure.”

He also looked to the Legislature — which is about to begin its session in January.

“I'll kind of follow a couple months later, but nonetheless, our biggest funder is the state Legislature, our biggest partner and collaborator, and so I’m really doing my best to understand the relationship, how that whole process works, and frankly, what the Legislature wants to see from the institution,” he said.

Just minutes after being named president, Cook told reporters he hadn’t yet heard from any lawmakers or Gov. Kim Reynolds.

“I think that’s probably what’s coming next,” Cook said.

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, on Tuesday afternoon issued a statement about Cook’s appointment, calling him “the right candidate.”

“As an Iowa State Alumni, I’m excited to see a fellow Cyclone has been selected as Iowa State’s next President,” Collins said. “This coming session, I look forward to working with President Cook to continue to reform Iowa’s higher education system.”

Collins, in commenting on Cook’s selection, criticized the search process — which lawmakers addressed in recent legislation meant to give regents more power in picking a president and search committees less.

“While I believe the right candidate was ultimately selected, glaring issues in the presidential selection process have once again emerged,” he said. “Not only did two of the four finalists drop out before even coming to campus, but the other finalist was a self proclaimed climate advocate, and a proponent of lab grown meat.

“As a result, this coming session the Higher Education Committee will seek to make additional reforms to the university president selection process.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com