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Hoover board taps Corridan for chairwoman
News · April 10, 2024
The Hoover Presidential Foundation announced on Feb. 28 a new board chairman, Betsy Sierk Corridan of Iowa City.
“We are thrilled to announce the election of Betsy Corridan as chairman of the board of trustees,” read a press release. “With a wealth of experience in leadership management and a strong commitment to our mission of promoting and sharing the Hoover story, Betsy brings valuable insight and dedication to a wonderfully engaged board.
Betsy has a long family history with the Foundation. Her father, Robert Sierk, is a former member of the board and an honorary trustee.
One of Betsy’s favorite Hoover memories was in 1992 when her family was seated behind the Hoover family during the Hoover Presidential Library-Museum renovation dedication.
“It was a stifling hot summer day in West Branch,” Betsy said, “I remember being so impressed that President Reagan would come to West Branch for that dedication. It was a wonderful celebration!”
Since that time, Betsy went on to graduate from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Upon graduation, she joined the staff of the Kappa Alpha Theta international office where she would stay for the next four decades. She served in a variety of positions, retiring as chief executive officer of the Theta enterprise in 2022.
“When I joined the Hoover board, I started to read about Lou Henry Hoover, I was excited to learn that she was a sorority woman herself,” Betsy said. “She was an early member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at Stanford.”
Betsy is currently serving her third three-year term on the Hoover Presidential Foundation Board.
She cited a love of history as part of her reason for joining the board. It’s one she shares with her husband Jim, who served as Director of the Indiana Archives and Records Administration.
“I’m always happy to serve when I can be helpful. I was honored to be asked and with all things considered, it was an easy choice,” Betsy said.
Betsy’s personal support of the Hoover Campus is two-fold.
“I truly believe anyone with Iowa roots should support the Hoover Campus simply because it’s part of who we are,” she said. “I think that most of us can identify with at least a small piece of his life. We can relate to something that occurred in his life or something he has done. I think we all identify with that very practical person who simply did the right thing.”
She believes that story needs to be preserved and shared far beyond the state of Iowa.
“The fact that a U.S. president was born and raised in Iowa should make Iowans proud,” read the press release, “and once they hear his life story as the Great Humanitarian, they will become even more proud.”
“We need to share that with the rest of the country!” Corridan said.
She is proud to work with Foundation trustees and staff who are fully committed to modernizing the telling of the remarkable Hoover story.
“If we don’t share the Hoover story, no one else will,” she added.
Corrdian and husband Jim have two adult boys: Bobby, a Purdue mechanical engineer in his first year of law school at Arizona State; and Peter, a third-year accounting major at Purdue.
The Foundation said it hopes everyone will extend a warm welcome to Corridan “as we embark on accomplishing significant goals including the final phases of the Timeless Values | Modern Experience campaign to renovate the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
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