Yelick & Wilhelm Hired For Administrative Positions

The Agency will welcome back a former staff member and will welcome a new face when two individuals begin working in administrative positions on July 1.

Cindy Yelick has been hired for the Executive Director of Instructional Services position, and Lance Wilhelm has been hired for the Director of Technology position. The Executive Director of Instructional Services position will carry out the duties of the Director of Special Education, serve as an advocate for effective education for all children, promote prevention and early intervention, foster supportive and productive relationships with families, schools and communities and provide leadership regarding education for children and youth with disabilities.

For the past two years, Yelick has worked for the Iowa Department of Education as the administrator in charge of overseeing the development and implementation of the Iowa Core. For the two years prior to that, she was the Executive Director of Teaching & Learning at Heartland, leading all teaching and learning functions such as special education, curriculum and instruction and professional development. She also spent two years as a Heartland regional coordinator and three years as Director of Early Childhood, Assessment and Special Education at the Ames Schools. She has previous experience has a college instructor, elementary principal and classroom teacher.

Yelick holds an Ed.D. degree in educational leadership from Drake University, an M.Ed. degree from the University of Houston in curriculum and instruction and second language education and a B.A. degree in elementary education.

The Director of Technology position serves agency-wide and provides oversight for the development and implementation of the agency’s technology infrastructure, including policies, procedures, maintenance and deployment of technology resources.

For the past five years, Wilhelm has served as the director of technology for the Ames Schools, where he has been responsible for providing leadership and direction for the district’s technology initiatives including networks, servers and instructional integration. From 2002 to 2006, he was an assistant professor and lecturer in the College of Teacher Education and Leadership at Arizona State University and from 1999-2002 he was the technology coordinator for the Ankeny Schools. He also spent 10 years as a computer applications and language arts teacher and technology coordinator at the Ogden Schools.

Wilhelm holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instructional technology, an M.S. degree in curriculum and instructional technology and a B.S. degree in distributed studies, all from Iowa State University.