Folken plans retirement after 20 years with Kirkwood

     “It's very surreal. I've been coming to this building every single day since 2009. It's become a very important part of my life. It's very hard to walk away from something that you love. I love this team.”

   After 20 years with Kirkwood Community College’s Jones County Regional Center, Regional Director Lisa Folken of Monticello has decided to retire, effective Dec. 20.

   Replacing Folken as director as Craig Stadtmueller, also of Monticello.

   Folken climbed the ladder throughout her career with Kirkwood.

   In 2004, she started out part-time with the alternative high school. At the time, Kirkwood was housed in the former John McDonald Hospital.

   In 2008, Folken was named student academic support coordinator, a first for the regional center. She kept that same role in 2009 when Kirkwood built their new regional center south of Monticello.

   In 2012, Kristy Black, then regional director, was promoted as dean, overseeing all of Kirkwood’s regional and county centers.

   “At that point, I became the associate director just for one year while I completed my master's,” Folken recalled.

   Folken has two master’s degrees to her name, both having been earned throughout her career at Kirkwood.

   Her first, in education administration, was obtained through Iowa State University. Folken pushed herself and completed her master’s in less than 18 months.

   In 2013, she was named director of the Monticello center. (The role of director requires a master’s degree.)

   For the last 11 years, Folken has been director.

   While the role of director meant overseeing the staff and faculty, Folken also spent time in the classroom as well.

   While Folken was finishing her first master’s she had to take a teaching course. That opened her eyes to being in the classroom.

   “I was kind of resistant in taking it,” she admitted. “I knew I am going to oversee faculty, but I didn’t want to teach. I took that class and it was a really pivotal moment for me.”

   The professor at ISU completely changed Folken’s perspective.

   “She really inspired me. I walked away from that class saying, ‘I think I want to teach.’”

   Folken’s first gig in the classroom has teaching “How College Works.” The course name says it all.

   While Folken had her master’s, it was not in a specific subject or discipline, so she was limited in what she could teach.

   That’s when she went after her second master’s degree. She earned her degree in Mass Communications: Communication Leadership.

   “I really felt at that time it was going to give me another lens to be able to support my own faculty,” she said. “If I'm overseeing faculty, it makes sense that I should also teach because I had never taught before. It wasn't a requirement for the job, but I knew that it would enhance and help me support faculty here. And it has. It's been a game-changer.”

   While only 18 additional credits were required to teach beyond How College Works, Folken enjoyed being back in college herself that she kept going for that second master’s.

   “I loved the program so much, I decided to finish,” she said. “I feel like I want to complete the master's because you never know with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), whether or not they're going to change the requirements. I ended up investing some of my own money into it, just knowing I really wanted to complete it and I just loved the program at Drake.”

   In 2021, Folken then started teaching Fundamentals of Oral Comp. (Composition), or speech.

   “I love the class. I love the curriculum,” Folken said. “I wanted to teach that class or something like that because often times, there are high school or college students who don't complete a degree because of their fear to complete speech or math. Math was not for me. Communications is something that's very easy for me.”

   She said being in the classroom has brought everything full circle since being at Kirkwood. While overseeing faculty is one thing, this has allowed Folken to really see things form their perspective and support them in all aspects of their jobs.

   “Otherwise, I was one step removed. I never taught before,” she said. “Yes, I can lead a team, but until I was in their shoes, I didn't really know.”

   Not only has she taught within the classrooms, but Folken has taught online classes, too, over the summers and during winter breaks.

   Folken said she owes her Kirkwood successes to Kristy Black, who was with every step of the way.

   “She has just been instrumental in my entire career at Kirkwood. Having Kristy alongside me in my entire career here at Kirkwood has really been a gamechanger. Kristy has just been such an integral part of my career here.”

   It was Folken’s dedication to her job, dedication to the faculty, and dedication to the students that added to her being named the recipient of the 2025 Kirkwood Community College President’s Award! She was surprised with the honor in November while attending an employee collaboration day at the main campus in Cedar Rapids.

   “That was a huge surprise,” she said. “This is the top echelon of an award at this college. This big award every year is the President's Award. I never would have dreamt to have earned this.”

   She said the award is “based on going above and beyond, the top tier of excellence at the college. It’s a varity of things, everything from community engagement to faculty support, student support, passion for what I do; not being afraid to take risks.”

   Folken parents and husband, Denny, also made a surprise appearance to help her celebrate.

   For Folken, every opportunity she’s had while working at Kirkwood has opened the door to more opportunities, beyond what she ever imagined.

   “It's hard to always see the relevance in what you're doing and the importance of it,” she said. “It's so much easier to look backwards and see how this played out. I tell students this. I try to see that growth potential, whether it's a student or faculty. How to be the best version of yourself.”

   In July, Folken’s husband retired as principal of Shannon and Carpenter elementary schools. He’d been at it for 21 years. Initially, she said the plan wasn’t necessarily for them to retire around the same time.

   “I just started exploring it,” she said. “I wasn't in a big hurry because I love my job. But when he figured out that he could retire, we just started doing some homework on it. Is this something we can and should do?”

   The driving force is the fact that all three of the Folkens’ adult children reside in Pheonix, Ariz., and they want to have more time to travel and see their family without the difficulty of working around their academic work schedules.

   In retirement, Folken is looking forward to less of a schedule and offering her expertise as an adjunct faculty member, perhaps for Kirkwood. She also wants to do some leadership coaching and consulting work.

   “I'm planning to start my own consulting firm,” she shared. “I'm still working through the details of that with the name and brand. I'm a certified strengths coach. I'm planning to do another certification that's a deep dive into personalities and how it impacts your workforce and your own personal life.”

   Folken said she’ll miss the students and her Kirkwood team, a group of staff who have been working together for the past 12 years.

   “I've had a great career, largely because of this team here and also because of our director team. I take great pride in building relationships with the faculty and with students wherever I can. And supporting people to be the best versions of themselves.

   “Everything that we do here is for the students. I love working with students. I'll miss the students, for sure. But also, the daily interactions. I love working with people. That will be a definite change for me.”

   Folken has nothing but faith in Stadtmueller taking over as director.

   “Craig has shown an interest in leadership, whether it was going to be this role or something else within Kirkwood,” she praised. “My goal was to help him grow those leadership skills and to learn what I do here. Ultimately Craig has lived and breathed this for 12 years. He's very passionate about what we do. We've learned together; we've grown together; we’ve made improvements together. Craig clearly has the passion and the desire and the willingness to really want to develop this into a great career for him.”