Lisa Kieffer-Haverkamp joins the University of Iowa College of Education full-time this fall as a clinical instructor in the Educational Leadership Program after serving as an adjunct professor for seven years. 

Kieffer-Haverkamp received a bachelor of arts degree in Elementary and Special Education from the University of Northern Iowa and a master of arts degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies from Iowa.

Kieffer-Haverkamp has been an educator for her entire career. She began teaching directly after graduating from the University of Northern Iowa and her focus was on elementary and special education. She later served as a special services director in Washington, Iowa, an elementary principal in Solon and Iowa City, and a regional administrator at the Grant Wood Area Education Agency in Cedar Rapids. 

“I continued to stretch beyond what the status quo was, reaching for more opportunities for my students,” Kieffer-Haverkamp says. 

It was early in her career that Kieffer-Haverkamp was drawn toward supporting adults in their educational journey.  

“There is a different level of conversation focused on helping adults learn,” Kieffer-Haverkamp says. “The work has inspired me to continue to improve as an educator of adult learners.” 

Kieffer-Haverkamp seeks to build effective leaders to support students, teachers, parents and communities. A driver for her is to have the ability to support new educational leaders to become high-quality educators. 

In transitioning to being at the College full-time, Kieffer-Haverkamp says she is enjoying ongoing conversations with pre-service administrators, current practitioners, and education researchers focused on improving our educational system. 

She says she is especially proud of the teamwork she has been involved with in regards to her career accomplishments. 

“From Professional Learning Community work, lesson design models, professional learning, to student assistance teams, working with a committed group of professionals focused on an improvement target is energizing work,” Kieffer-Haverkamp says. 

Kieffer-Haverkamp says that when individuals bring their strengths to the work, it’s possible to enhance the production of an entire team through thoughtful facilitation.