Away from the campaign trail

'looking up to' my 6"6" husband...staffing 'trunk or treat' as a Kiwanis volunteer at Eastwood Apts. ... Painted lady volunteer in the kids area at the Octagon Art Festival...a rare selfie, taken at the ICCI forum in DSM... taking a break as the 2016 cochair at Kiwanis Pancake Days...Mom, Kerry and I in Hawaii...another day, another dousing when we had the Balloon Splash at Tom Evans Park...

Memberships: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Ames Chamber of Commerce, Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ames Seed Capital Corporation,FreePress, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Iowa Friends of Companion Animals, Kiwanis Club of Ames, ISU Women's Club, League of Women Voters, Online Publishers Association, Sierra Club, Society of Professional Journalists,

Birthdate: Sept. 11, 1957 in Mason City, Iowa

Husband: Kerry Whisnant, PhD. Children: None

Address: 1705 Buchanan Dr., Ames
Education: North Iowa Area Community College, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, Tarrant (Texas) Community College, Des Moines Area Community College, (1975 to 1991) Drake University (1991 to 1993)

Community and Civic Involvement:Iowa League of Women Voters tax incremental financing (TIF) committee (2015 - present), Community and Family Development (CFR) Board (2013 – present), elected to executive board (2015 - present). Youth & Shelter Services Public Policy Board (2012 –present), Story County Juvenile Justice Committee (2005 – present), League of Women Voters of Iowa Board (2012-2013), Ames Community Arts Council’s (ACAC) Doug Brown Media Award (2010), Ames 4th of July Committee (2009-2012) CFR Story County Advisory Board (2009-2011), Society of Professional Journalists – Greenlee School, ISU Champion of the First Amendment (2009), Leadership Ames Class XXII graduate (2009), Mid Iowa Community Action Outstanding Volunteer (2009), Ames League of Women Voters president (2008-2010). Kiwanis Club of Ames Board (20089-2010), CHARACTER COUNTS!® National Certified Trainer (2005), CHARACTER COUNTS!® in Ames (2004-2006), ACAC Support of the Arts in the Media Award (2003)

About Lauris

Updated March 28, 2016
Lauris is married to Kerry Whisnant, a physics professor at Iowa State University. Their two cats, Bailey and Tut, allow the couple to share their home on Buchanan Drive in Ames.
Household membership often grows temporarily as they open their home (and hearts) to rescue animals in need of extra care and attention.

Lauris was born in Mason City, Iowa, raised in Mason City and West Des Moines, and has considered Ames her hometown since 2002, when the Des Moines Register asked her to become section editor of the Ames Life & Times. Lauris owns Iowa News Online, which formerly published Ames365.com, AmesNewsOnline.com and the Ames Bulletin Board, and is now developing a website focused on human-animal relationships in Iowa.

Lauris reported on Story County government for a decade. She also has been a reporter, editor and radio news director in Alaska, Wisconsin and other newspapers in Iowa, spending a total of two decades covering local, state and tribal governments. Lauris also has a financial management background, ending that first career in the late 1980s as an assistant vice president and the Dallas/Fort Worth branch manager for a national mortgage company.

Combined, her management positions at two Fortune 500 companies, her ownership of a small, local internet business and her journalism career have honed Lauris' budget creating, analyzing and oversight skills.
Lauris undertook an in-depth two-year job shadow of the job of Story County Supervisor, beginning in 2012 as she prepared for her first run for supervisor and continuing through November, 2014 , when she was unsuccessful in her second attempt for a supervisor seat. During that time, Lauris attended over 300 county-related meetings and studied over 1,000 documents.

After the 2014 defeat, Lauris took time off from both general news journalism and politics to focus on her personal life and increase her involvement in animal rescue and advocacy. She continued to pay attention to what was happening in the county, but with less intensity and focus.

Or as she describes the period, "I took time to become a citizen again."