Julia Faltinson Anderson

"Julia Anderson is a natural leader and role model—enthusiastic, tactfully persistent, and contagiously good-humored. She continues to devote her energy in the lifetime commitment to improving the quality of life for girls and women in developing countries as well as here at home."
—Ruth Swenson, 1994

Julia Faltinson Anderson was born in Iowa in 1919. Her assistance to the international community includes serving the Navy during World War II, helping to train Peace Corps volunteers, serving as director of work camps in Austria, Yugoslavia, and Malawi. During the early part of Anderson's career, she served as an extension home economist, a 4-H youth leader, and later as associate dean for undergraduate programming at Iowa State University's College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Since her retirement, she has been active as a member of the United Way, Mary Greeley Medical Center, and the Iowa Division of the United Nations Association boards; a chair for the International Relations committee, Iowa division of AAUW; and the first woman on the Iowa Banking Board. She has also served on the Ames Fair Housing and Parks and Recreation Commission; she was a strong proponent of affordable housing. A member of the Board of Governors of the ISU Foundation, Anderson recently received the Helen LeBaron Hilton Recognition Award for her lifelong commitment to international affairs pursued through work with UNESCO, Partners of the Americas, and USAID. Currently, she is the cochair of a task force developing a College for Seniors at ISU that will offer noncredit courses for retirees living in central Iowa. Anderson was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. UPDATE: Anderson successfully cochaired the task force that developed a College for Seniors at Iowa State University, which offers noncredit courses for retirees living in central Iowa.