Strategic Planning Members
Allen Bierbaum
Allen Bierbaum has lived in Ames since 1994, and is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Priority 5. He received his Masters and PhD in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University and has remained engaged in the community through a variety of groups. He currently serves as the vice-chair of the Ames Parks and Recreation Commission, and has been a member of Iowa Innovation Council, and Leadership Ames Class 29. Allen and his wife Lora have three children in the Ames school system.
Laura Clausen
Clausen is a proud educator currently teaching 3rd grade at Edwards Elementary. She is a wife to Justin, and mother to two children in her district, an eighth grader and a fifth grader. This will be my twentieth year in education. She spent her first several years in special education and the last few at Edwards teaching kindergarten, second and third grades.
Jamet Colton
Jamet Colton grew up in Santiago, Chile in a dictatorship in a politically charged neighborhood. Jamet’s neighborhood, her community, her life experiences made her a lifelong activist from inclusion on la plaza (playground) to interpreting to community organizing. As Story County College Access Network Director, Jamet is following her motto of Ahora es Cuando – Now is when we work collectively and empower individuals to find their life’s purpose.
Nicole Coronado
Nicole is in her 4th year as an associate principal at Ames Middle School. She currently works with 8th grade students and staff, as well as the English Language Learning and At-Risk programming for the building. Prior to her work as an administrator, she served as a fourth grade teacher for seven years at Sawyer Elementary School.
Kenneth Damron
Damron is one of the Associate Principals at Ames High School. He has been with the Ames Community School District for two years. Prior to coming to ACSD, Damron was an assistant principal in Salt Lake City, Utah. He taught 9th grade English, journalism, and coached football and track and field. While in Utah, Damron served on multiple school community councils, which served as the governing body that guided strategic planning for school districts.
Kari Deal
Kari Deal brings multiple perspectives to the table. She is a parent to three children who will all experience education within the Ames Community School District, continues to serve as the school counselor at Meeker Elementary, and has been a member of the Ames community since graduating from Iowa State University. Mental health is a key component in each person’s life. This guides Kari’s approach to advocating for support of the whole-person.
Amy Erica Smith
Amy Erica is an Ames CSD school board member, a parent of two kids at Meeker and Ames Middle School, and an associate professor of political science at Iowa State.
Nikki Fischer
Fischer is an Iowa State University graduate and transplant from Altoona, Iowa. She works for the Ames Chamber of Commerce as the Director of Workforce Development and Diversity. She works with school districts in the Ames MSA to help connect our business partners and community to our students and teachers. She received her Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University as the work in the DEI space is a part of her job and passion for her community.
Andy Fish
Andy Fish studied Education at Iowa State University and student-taught at Ames Middle School. After six years of teaching, he is now the Education Initiatives Coordinator at the United Way of Story County. In this role, Fish seeks to coordinate the work of community non-profit initiatives to the benefit of Story County students. He lives in Ames with his wife and daughter.
Christy Franco
This is Franco’s 27th year with the Ames Schools. She has taught kindergarten, first, second, and fourth grades. Currently, she is the Extended Learning Program teacher (ELP) K-5 at Fellows Elementary. Franco’s husband and her are parents of three daughters, Ames High graduates in 2016 and 2018, and her youngest daughter is now a junior at AHS. Franco, too, is an Ames High grad (1991). Over the years she has been involved in various literacy and curriculum teams, interview and search groups, her building leadership team, served as a mentor for first and second year teachers, and have been a parent volunteer. Her fourth grade class received the Story County Volunteer Award in 2017, and Franco received the Dan Woodin Excellence in Education Award in 2020 for Fellows Elementary.
John A. Haila
In addition to his mayoral role, in fall 2022 Mayor Haila was elected President of the Iowa League of Cities; is co-founder and past president of the Iowa Mayors Association; and serves as Governor Reynolds’ mayoral appointee to the State of Iowa Justice Advisory Board. In 2016 he sold the firm and now dedicates his time to serving the City of Ames as Mayor. He is a proud Iowa State University alum, where he met his wife of almost 46 years, Mary. They have lived in the Ames area for five decades. Together they raised two sons, also ISU alums, and enjoy having their sons and daughters-in-law, and eight grandchildren, all living in Ames.
Jennifer Hayes
Jennifer Hayes is an Integrated Services teacher at Sawyer Elementary. She graduated from The University of Northern Iowa with a degree in elementary education and special education. Hayes moved to Ames to begin her student teaching and quickly fell in love with the community. She began working for the district in January 2020 as a special education teacher. Her favorite part of the job is meeting and getting to know students and their amazing families.
David Lee
David Lee is a senior at Ames High. He went through 1-12th grade education in the district and has worked in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion projects at the school, around the city, and with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
Mary Morton
Morton is currently the principal at Northwood Preschool. She has been a teacher elsewhere in the Ames CSD, an instructional coach, curriculum coordinator, and assistant principal. Morton is a graduate of Iowa State.
Aaron Rodriguez
Rodriguez a proud father of four wonderful young women in the ACSD (4, 6, 8, and 14). Professionally, he is an Engineer at Danfoss Power Solutions. Rodriguez served on the Fellows PTO as the President. He is proud to call Ames his home and look forward to the brighter tomorrow that we can bring here.
Anita Rollins
Anita Rollins has been an active member of the Ames community for over 30 years. Rollins retired from Iowa State University after nearly 25 years with an Iowa State University program that successfully increased the number of youth from racially and ethnically marginalized populations that earned degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A former school board member, Rollins remains active in the community. She currently serves on the Ames City Council. She is also secretary of the Ames Branch of the NAACP, Finance Chair at Friendship Baptist Church, and on the board of Northwest Bank. She is passionate about equity issues, having earned a degree in education from ISU as well as a certificate in social justice.
Jesica Sidler
Jesica Sidler is a daughter, sister, wife, mother, educator, friend, and advocate. Her current role in the ACSD is the equity coordinator. She previously taught 3rd grade for the district. Sidler has two kids who attend the district in first grade and third grade.
Jerry D. Stewart
Jerry Stewart is a former public high school teacher in North Dakota and Waterloo. He gained extensive experience in higher education during his 25 years as an administrator at Iowa State University. Jerry has presented at numerous professional conferences. Currently, Jerry is employed by the Ames Community School District to assist with the recruitment, selection, training, and retention of approximately 175 Educational Assistants.
Aileen Sullivan
Aileen Sullivan is in her 27th year of teaching chemistry at Ames High School. A long-time resident of Ames, she is mother to two sons: a graduate of the AHS class of 2022 and a member of the AHS class of 2026. During her time at Ames High, she has served as a model and mentor teacher, the head of the science department, chief negotiator for the Ames Education Association and was an assistant coach for the girls track team for over 20 years among other roles. Aileen is the 2018 Iowa Teacher of the Year. “Don’t be a fault finder, be a star finder” is a guiding mantra she uses each day to add a positive perspective to her work. Her husband Joel rounds out the Little Cyclone family as a social studies teacher and long-time coach at Ames High.
Olivia Taylor
Olivia Taylor is a junior at Ames High who loves to read and write. She is focused on her career path but her ambition for the Ames community also speaks great volume. Taylor’s lived in Ames all her life and being a small town girl means a lot to her as it’s her home.
Deani Thomas
This is Deani Thomas’s 20th year with the district. She is currently the Director of Special Education and have previously served as the Special Education Coordinator and a middle school special education teacher. Thomas has a child attending Ames Middle School, a grandchild attending Fellows Elementary School, and a grandchild attending Northwood Preschool Center.
Zhengyuan Zhu
Zhengyuan Zhu is a parent of two Ames school students. He is a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Professor, Director of the Center for Survey Statistics Methodology (CSSM), and Professor in the Department of Statistics at Iowa State University. Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Zhu’s expertise is in survey statistics and data science.