Celebrate excellence in Iowa!

We're inviting all past examiners, applicants and judges to join us on June 7 as we honor the 2022 IRPE Award recipients.

Find out more about the IRPE process, past winners and what it takes to join our Board of Examiners on our Getting Started page. We can't wait to have you get involved with our process!

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

JoAnn Sternke

JoAnn loves what she does and finds joy in helping leaders “get better at getting better.” She enjoys working with leaders and teams throughout the country who are looking to be more intentional in how they pursue improvement. She loves speaking to groups nationally and internationally and strives to make the complex work of systems improvement simpler to understand and achieve. She works with teams to develop strategic plans, improve employee engagement, and attain results.

From 2001 to 2017, JoAnn served as Pewaukee School District Superintendent of Schools, a district just west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2013, the Pewaukee School District was honored to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a presidential honor few organizations have attained. Under her leadership, student achievement saw a dramatic increase. Despite having one of the most rigorous public school graduation requirements in the state, PSD achieved a 97% graduation rate. For six years, the Pewaukee School District was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. With passion for the mission of opening the door to each child’s future, Pewaukee saw a dramatic increase in the percent of students pursuing two- and four-year college.

Dr. Sternke earned her doctoral degree at Cardinal Stritch University where she also served as a professor in the doctoral/superintendent licensure program. Dr. Sternke’s dissertation focused on Jim Collins’ work Good to Great. That focus on helping organizations go from good to great drives JoAnn to this day. How systematic is YOUR organization at "getting better at getting better"?