Lisa Bartusek began her service as Executive Director of the Iowa Association of School Boards in July 2014. Lisa has spent her entire career as an advocate for public education, including more than 25 years of service to publicly elected school boards at the state and national levels.

As IASB’s chief executive officer, Lisa is responsible for providing leadership in developing and maintaining programs and services that support school board effectiveness and advocacy for Iowa’s more than 2,100 elected school board members in 327 school districts, nine area education agencies and 15 community colleges.

Lisa came to IASB after 4 ½ years on the senior management team of the National School Boards Association, in Alexandria, Virginia. At NSBA, Lisa led a department charged with developing research, leadership development and other services for state association executive directors, governing boards and staff; directing national efforts to support school board effectiveness, such as the Key Work of School Boards and the educational program at the NSBA Annual Conference. She also oversaw NSBA’s urban governance initiative, the Council of Urban Boards of Education.

Prior to assuming her position at NSBA, Bartusek was Associate Executive Director for Board Leadership at the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB). In that role, she was responsible for managing professional development programs for board members and superintendents, including annual convention, board training and distance learning. During her 17-year tenure at the Iowa association, she also led the association’s communications efforts for many years.

Before joining the Iowa association staff, Bartusek worked for nine years in communications and public information for the Iowa Department of Education.