P&S Council launches podcast series

Using the podcast suite in the Digital Media Studio Makerspace at the Student Innovation Center, the Professional and Scientific (P&S) Council has started a podcast series, available on the council's YouTube channel. Governance committee chair Emily Anderson, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences student services, announced the first edition at the council's Dec. 4 meeting.

Governance committee members Paul Easker, VRAC, and Maggie Shonrock, ISU Research Foundation, serve as hosts. The series, according to Easker, will be about "making the university a smaller place for those who work here." Like other P&S Council members, Easker said he was encouraged to seek election to the council simply as a means to learn more about how the university operates.

"When you know you need some help, how do you even figure out who you need to talk to, who could help you?" he said. "We all have expertise in something, and we can learn from each other."

The first edition features councilor Andrew Sutton, who serves as the IT support specialist for English department. The hosts will invite various council members on the podcast to talk about their work specifically, but also about some universal employee questions:

• What's the job of elected councilors?
• How does the council's committee structure work?
• What university resources do you use to do your job?
• What tips would you share with new (or not) P&S employees?

Henderson: Now is the time for land-grants

Vice president for extension and outreach Jason Henderson offered an abbreviated version of his presentation on the national and state economic pictures and the land-grant university's role in offering solutions.

Henderson spent 15 years with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City working on monetary policy. A nationally recognized expert in agricultural and rural issues, he has published more than 80 research articles in academic and Federal Reserve publications.

The federal picture offers "whiplash" uncertainty and Iowa's economy is strained, he said, due to declining income tax revenues, Iowa's long-held position as a producer (primarily the ag and manufacturing sectors) and a stagnating labor market.

"Iowa is production-based in a national economic system that's geared toward consumption. We're on the wrong side of the ledger," he noted.

To improve Iowans' quality of life, the state needs to boost the productivity of its workforce because the size of that workforce is shrinking.

"This is exactly what land-grant universities were designed and built for. We're the solution," he said.

Researching, innovating, turning science into practice -- what Iowa State has been doing for generations -- is what it needs to double down on. He said the research and development spending gap between the United States and China that existed for decades had closed by 2023.

Iowa Workforce Development says the growth in Iowa jobs will come from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) preparedness. Henderson said STEM isn't enough, pointing to surveys of graduating students and their employers that show gaps in observations about career readiness. Graduates' technical skills are adequate, but communication, leadership and critical thinking skills are where employers aren't satisfied with their new hires.

Iowa State can teach technical and "human" skills to grow the quality of life in communities and strengthen the state's economy, he said. However, the public-funded model is changing and inflation erodes the effectiveness of flat government funding, so Iowa State will need to find new funding partnerships to do its work.

P&S conference registration opens in January

Following a large response to its request for session proposals, the professional development committee selected topics for 18 presentations during three breakout slots at the annual council-hosted conference on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. Registration for the conference will open on Jan. 5.