Distinguished Alumni Cynthia Eisenhauer
Cynthia Eisenhauer
Former Emporian Cynthia (Pendleton) Eisenhauer of Kansas City, Missouri, built a career in government and finance after graduating with a BSE in English in 1970. She also holds an MPA in public administration from Drake University, where she was an adjunct professor, and studied public policy at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Eisenhauer spent 34 years in government service in Iowa as the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s chief of staff and as a cabinet member during four administrations. “During all of those years when she was chief of staff and cabinet member for the governors of Iowa, something that really stood out was it was not just for Republican governors, not just Democratic governors, but for both,” said Allison Garrett, former ESU president and current chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, who nominated Eisenhauer for the Distinguished Alumni award. “That says something about her skills, her ability to get along with everyone and to seek progress.”
Eisenhauer also served as director of the Iowa Department of Management and Budget, the Iowa Workforce Development, the Iowa Board of Regents business and finance division, executive director of the Iowa Campaign Finance Disclosure Commission, executive branch manager of 15 state departments and their budgets for the Iowa Department of Management, and operations manager for Des Moines Community Development. She also taught high school English and journalism at Olpe High School and Topeka High School.
Her numerous awards include National Workforce Development Administrator of the Year, the Leadership for Iowa Award from the Association of Business and Industry and the 1998 Eagle Award for Distinguished Service to America’s Businesses and Workers.
After retiring from state government in 2007, she continued her career as an international government finance consultant and trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation. Her husband, Chief Judge Larry Eisenhauer, received a BSE in social sciences from ESU in 1968 and a juris doctorate from Drake University in 1975.