The Board of Regents on Monday named Wendy Wintersteen to lead Iowa State University as its 16th president. Wintersteen, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences since 2006, will be ISU’s first female president when she takes office on Nov. 20.

Wintersteen, 61, has been with Iowa State since 1979, leaving only briefly to serve as acting National Pesticide Education Program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Extension Service in 1989. She will succeed Benjamin Allen, who has served as interim president since May 8. Steven Leath, Iowa State’s 15th president, assumed the presidency at Auburn University last spring.

Before becoming dean, Wintersteen was the college’s senior associate dean and associate director of the Experiment Station. In her career at Iowa State, she also has been a professor of entomology, director of Extension to Agriculture and Natural Resources, and coordinator of pesticide management and pesticide applicator training programs.

She serves on the board of trustees of the Farm Foundation and the board of directors of the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. She is president of the board of directors for the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation.

Wintersteen received the Carl F. Hertz Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers in 2016. She was honored as a Kansas State University Alumni Fellow for professional accomplishments and distinguished service in 2007. She also is a member of the Entomological Society of America and the American Association of University Women.

Wintersteen earned a bachelor of science in crop protection from Kansas State University in 1978 and her doctorate in entomology from Iowa State in 1988.

Her annual salary at Iowa State has been set at $525,000 in year one, $550,000 in year two, and $590,000 in year three. She also will receive a three-year deferred compensation plan with an annual contribution of $125,000 in year one, $150,000 in year two, and $200,000 in year three. Wintersteen’s contract is for five years.

The 21-member presidential search committee was co-chaired by College of Design Dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez and Dan Houston, chairman, president and CEO of Principal Financial Group.