FORT MADISON, Iowa – The Iowa Board of Corrections voted Friday in support of three new wardens to lead within the Iowa Department of Corrections. The Board approved the Department’s selection of Shawn Howard as the Warden of the Newton Correctional Facility (NCF), Marcy Stroud as the Warden of the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility (MPCF), and Chris Tripp as the Warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP).
Howard, who will serve as Warden of the NCF, is the current Deputy Warden of the Clarinda Correctional Facility (CCF), where he has served in this position since August of 2019. Howard has had over 29 years of experience in the field of corrections. He has held such positions as Juvenile Court School Liaison Officer and Probation and Parole Officer in the 5th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. He has worked at the CCF for the past 16 years in the positions of Treatment Director and Deputy Warden.
Stroud, who will serve as the Warden of the MPCF, is the current Deputy Warden of the MPCF. She has worked with the Department of Corrections since she started her career as a Correctional Officer in 1989. Over her career, she has held many positions within the department to include Activities Specialist, Counselor, Treatment Director, Forensic Hospital Director, and her current position of Deputy Warden.
Tripp has served as the Deputy Warden of the ISP since 2017 and has been serving as the interim Warden since April of this year. He started his career in Iowa Corrections at the ISP in 1990. Over the course of his career, he has held multiple positions including Correctional Officer, Correctional Supervisor, Food Service Coordinator, and Food Services Director.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to appoint these wonderful leaders to their new positions as wardens. The decades of service these individuals have given this state and department will serve them well in their new roles as wardens. Throughout their careers they have had the opportunity to not only prove their devotion to our mission as an agency but to exercise the level of leadership required to guide the amazing team members at their respective prisons which they will now lead. I thank them for their willingness to lead, and the Board for their support of these new wardens,” Beth Skinner, Director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said in a released statement after the new wardens were approved.
