Carole Custer of Jefferson is one of 80 women featured in the summer issue of VISIONS magazine, the official publication of the Iowa State University Alumni Association. Entitled “Visionary women: A selection of curious, distinguished, trailblazing, and fascinating women who chose to spend time on the Iowa State campus,” the list includes women who have changed the world because of their research discoveries, women who have changed the lives of Iowa State students, and women alumni who have discovered new elements, helped women get the right to vote, created new foods, and led national intelligence and disease control organizations. “I am so honored and humbled to be included in this list of women trailblazers,” said Custer when the list became public.
In 1987, Iowa State University president Gordon Eaton created a position in his office, assistant to the president for marketing, and hired Custer away from the Iowa Lottery where she was director of marketing. During her three-decade career at Iowa State she has created the office of university marketing that not only is responsible for building the university’s academic brand but also offering marketing services to the university’s colleges, departments, units and programs. At any one time, her office has upwards of 40 projects in development. She led the university’s efforts for developing a brand that attracted the highest enrollment of students in the school’s history, making Iowa State the largest public university in the state. She and her creative team are currently building a national awareness of the university’s accomplishments in innovation and the new Student Innovation Center to be unveiled in 2020-2021. “I’ve had a wonderful team that has understood the value of listening to our audiences across the state, nation and the world, and then consistently communicating how Iowa State can best serve them,” she said.
Custer is a journalism graduate of Iowa State University and was the president of the board of directors of the Iowa State Alumni Association and has been honored by the association with its highest volunteer award and the Young Alumna Achievement Award. She has also been honored by the university’s student government as a Staff Member of the Year.
