Staff
Executive Director
Becky Vonnahme
Breda, Iowa
After a brief career as a sportswriter, Becky transitioned to work in public relations and eventually rural nonprofit fundraising and management. She specializes in grant writing and has garnered more than $8 million for her rural clients – most hailing from towns with populations of under 10,000. She has a passion for rural development and a deep understanding of rural culture that has resulted in multiple successful capital campaigns, annual appeals, and special event fundraisers. She understands the importance of maintaining small-town newspapers to preserve a community’s identity.
Becky received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa, double majoring in Journalism-Mass Communication and Communication Studies. She was a staff member of the university’s award-winning Daily Iowan newspaper. Sticking to yellow and black school colors, she later earned a master’s degree in Communication from Wichita State University. Her thesis, “Reporting about children’s health in Kansas: A content analysis of children’s health articles in Kansas daily newspapers” was awarded Best Graduate Thesis by the Elliot School of Communication. She was also a “Year 10” graduate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Public Health Leadership Institute.
Her family’s farm serves as the home office of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. Surrounded by cornfields, cattle, pigs and windmills, she and her husband Bill, a third-generation Iowa farmer, are parents to five boys (Tucker, DJ, Hayden, Preston and Camren).