Who We Are

Steven W. McCullough joined the company in 1989 as the director of fiscal operations, and he became chief executive officer in 1993. In his current role, McCullough is responsible for carrying out strategic plans and policies as established by the board of directors. He has ultimate management authority for the corporation and appoints the management team of the organization. He became a certified public accountant in 1986 and is a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. McCullough also served on the board of directors of the Education Finance Council; the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity; and the board of the Iowa College Access Network. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Iowa. Steve helped create the corporation's responsible borrowing tools which help families plan for their higher education, figure out how to pay for it, and learn how to create good outcomes.

Erin Lacey, with direction and oversight from the CEO and board of directors, oversees the corporation's operations, compliance and accounting functions and leads the finance teams. She is responsible for ensuring the corporation has funding available for its lending operations via bond issuance and other financing vehicles. Since 2011, she has led the issuance of eight rated bond transactions and six bank financings. She is responsible for post issuance bond compliance. While an accounting major at Iowa State University, Lacey began her career with Iowa Student Loan in 1992 as an accounting intern and was later promoted to several positions within the department. Lacey, who holds a bachelor's degree in financial management from Upper Iowa University, became CFO in 2009 and was named executive vice president in 2013. She is involved in her community serving as the treasurer of the Mary Bump Memorial Foundation board and on the finance council of St. Joseph Catholic Church.

As a member of the executive team, Cindy Bartz oversees all program and project management activities for the corporation's products and services, including corporate programs and initiatives, software development projects, system requirements and contingency planning. She also administers the system development lifecycle process and business impact analysis for contingency planning. As chief information officer, Bartz is responsible for information security, network, Internet services, databases, programming, commercial software and communication services. Bartz joined the company in 1990 as a loan operations assistant and became vice president of project management in early 2010. She holds an associate degree from the American Institute of Business and a bachelor's degree from Upper Iowa University.

Joe Bird, with direction and oversight from the CEO and board of directors, provides leadership in working with colleges and universities, banks and credit unions, professional associations, and other organizations that use the corporation's products and services. Bird joined the company as director of business development in 2010 with nearly 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the higher education industry, and he was promoted to his current position in 2011. His work experience includes management-level positions at a guaranty agency, secondary market, loan servicer and college access organization. Bird earned a bachelor's degree in education at Morningside College and a master's degree in higher education administration at Iowa State University.

As a member of the executive team, Chris Hammerstrom oversees the majority of loan origination, loan onboarding and loan servicing functions, including loan application processing, underwriting, loan purchases, portfolio conversions, customer engagement, inbound/outbound mail, and loan processing. Hammerstrom joined the corporation in 2005 as a loan counselor, before holding multiple other positions including product development director. In this role, he oversaw all development projects for the corporation, including the loan origination system and multiple systems that support the servicing center. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

As a member of the executive team, Jen Hempel oversees the majority of the compliance and corporate communication functions, including the compliance management program, which includes federal and state consumer laws, subcontractor management, consumer privacy, corporate licensing, contract management, corporate communications and publications. Hempel joined the corporation in 1999 as a loan counselor, and has held other positions within the corporation, prior to joining the compliance team in 2011. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of South Dakota and is a member of the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals (ACA International). Through ACA, she holds the designation of a Credit and Collection Compliance Officer.

Ron Foresman oversees all aspects of accounting operations, financial reporting, corporate tax, internal auditing and controls, and other audit support services for the company and its wholly owned subsidiary Aspire Resources Inc. Functional areas reporting to him include accounting, payroll, accounts payable, cost accounting, loan disbursement, payment processing, internal audit, financial planning and analysis, and federal and state tax matters. Foresman has been with Iowa Student Loan for more than 25 years, serving as controller, senior vice president of accounting and corporate treasurer. He has previously served as the director of accounting at Iowa Lutheran Hospital and vice president of capital management for Aviva USA. Foresman received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Iowa State University and is a certified public accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He is a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Iowa Society of Certified Public Accountants.