NEWS

4 to be inducted into Iowa Women's Hall of Fame

Danielle Ferguson
Des Moines Register
Linda K. Neuman

Four Iowa women will be honored with induction into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame this summer for their impact on the status of women in Iowa.

The 2015 honorees, who will join 160 other women in the Hall of Fame, are Linda K. Neuman of Le Claire, Joyce Chapman of Des Moines, Michelle D. Johnson of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and Marsha Ternus of Grimes.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be Aug. 22 at the State Historical Building in Des Moines. It is free and open to the public.

Linda K. Neuman

Linda Kinney Neuman was the first woman appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1986, after serving four years as the second woman in Iowa appointed to be a district court trial judge.

In 1997, Neuman was also the first woman to be admitted partnership to the law firm Betty, Neuman, McMahon, Hellstrom and Bittner. She became the first woman to serve as a part-time judicial magistrate in Scott County three years later.

Neuman came to Iowa in 1973, after meeting her husband, Henry Neuman of Davenport, at the University of Colorado, where she received undergraduate and law degrees.

She retired from the Iowa Supreme Court in 2003 and has since focused on private practice and joined the adjunct faculty at the University of Iowa Law School, where she designed a course for law students serving as judicial interns in state and federal courts. She also serves pro bono as counsel to the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. Neuman is the director on the boards of the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend, Quad-City Bank and Trust and QCR Holdings.

Joyce Chapman

Joyce Chapman

Joyce Ann Boone Chapman is a lifelong Iowan who kicked off her career in banking right after high school at Plaza State Bank in Des Moines.

Chapman then worked as an internal auditor at West Bank in 1971 and advanced there until she retired as executive vice president and a board member. Chapman never received a formal college education, but says her natural curiosity and drive make up for it. She completed courses with the American Institute of Banking and in 1976 graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The Business Record in 2001 named Chapman a Woman of Influence, and the Rotary Club named her Rotarian of the Year in 2009. Chapman was the first female president of the following organizations: West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, the West Des Moines Development Corp. and the Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation.

Michelle D. Johnson

Michelle D. Johnson

Lt. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson, originally of Spencer, is superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, an undergraduate institution that prepares almost 4,000 students to become leaders in the Air Force. She has also served as director of public affairs for the Air Force and as an aide to presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Johnson has served as an airlift and tanker pilot, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the Air Force Academy and deputy director for information and cyberspace policy on the Joint Staff, where she led a team developing new cyber policies.

Johnson planned and executed operations for multiple North Atlantic Treaty Organization missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Mediterranean Sea, Libya and off the coast of the Horn of Africa.

Johnson was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 1995 for performing well in the classroom and in sports. She was inducted into the Air Force Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. Johnson graduated from Spencer High School and participated in basketball and track.

Marsha Ternus

Marsha Ternus

Marsha K. Ternus, who grew up on a farm in northern Benton County, was the first woman selected as chief justice to the Iowa Supreme Court in 2006.

Ternus served for 17 years on the Iowa Supreme Court and worked on multiple court initiatives, including improving access to courts and pushing the court to improve its oversight of cases involving abused and neglected children.

Ternus earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and a law degree from Drake University Law School, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Drake Law Review.

Ternus now practices law in Des Moines, teaches nationally and internationally on subjects such as judicial independence, and is the director of the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University.