Phi Kappa Psi - University of Iowa

The hawkeye Iowa alpha Chapter of phI Kappa psI • sprIng 2022 A mici, my Brothers! My name is Mark Easler '86, and I am honored to serve our Iowa Alpha House Corporation as President. Since this is my first formal communication to the brotherhood, let me start by introducing myself. I was initiated in the spring of 1986 and lived in the Chapter House for three years, then across the parking lot at 435 Ridgeland Avenue for my senior year. I wanted to stay close to the house for fun— and to stay on the board plan with Joyce the cook. In 2006, I attended an Iowa Alpha alumni trip to Cabo and stayed at the home of Jerry Nelson, UCLA '48. Through that experience I was moved to reinvigorate the alumni base of central Iowa. With the help of Elliott Smith '78 and Brand Newland '00, we founded the Central Iowa PKP Alumni Association, which led to a spot on this House Corporation Board. Spring 2020 and the rise of COVID-19 created an opportunity for our team to complete some deep cleaning and minor capital improvement projects. Working with then-president John Greenwood '00, I offered my services to manage and coordinate the work needed. When John recognized my passion and joy for managing this project and chapter house, he asked I succeed him as President. With my son Peter Easler '17 living in Iowa City as an alumnus and daughter Bridget as a sophomore, I gladly accepted, purchased a condo in a Iowa City, and committed to a biweekly trip to campus to oversee the management of our beloved chapter house. My focus thus far has been providing the best value proposition to the active Brothers who live in our structure by keeping it in good repair, clean, and comfortable. With 35-40 Brothers living in each semester and Kinnick Scholarship operations during the summer, the house gets plenty of healthy use. I also strive to improve our communication to alumni to ensure you are apprised of the great things that continue to happen on our beautiful property overlooking the Iowa River. Our enhanced communication will also provide us opportunities to gather our brothers to reconnect with friends old and new. With that, I'd like to invite you to Iowa City to celebrate our 155th year on campus the weekend of August 19-20, 2022. While it will be hard to top the 150th in 2017, this event format will be very similar: • Arrive in Iowa City as students return to campus and the town is buzzing. • Post up at Airliner for comradery Friday evening. • Golf at Finkbine Saturday morning. • Convene for dinner overlooking Kinnick Stadium Saturday evening. • Gather to celebrate our Nile C. Kinnick Scholarship recipients at Hancher Auditorium Sunday morning. Our guest on Saturday evening will be Scott Siepker, whose documentary on Brother Nile Kinnick '38, will be released the following week. Find the latest information and please RSVP by July 20th at: iowaalpha. org/events. I am looking forward to seeing all of you this fall! In the Bond, Mark Easler '86... House Corporation President mjeasler@msn.com | (515) 205-6212 ONLY THE BEST FOR OUR BROTHERS A Word from Our New House Corporation President W hen Phil Brown '99 reflects on his time at Phi Kappa Psi and the University of Iowa, he shares that he wouldn't trade it for any other college experience. Through Iowa Alpha, he learned valuable lessons and skills not found in a college classroom, and he has continued to use those today. "Being able to hold executive positions at the Chapter helped me understand what running a business might be like in the future as well as what it means to hold brothers you care for accountable," he said. Phil is a Director and Principal Engineer at Oracle Cerner, a health technology company, and the leadership skills he gained at Phi Kappa Psi have helped him handle the challenges of COVID-19 within the industry. (Continued on page 2) Serving Others During Hard Times Two Leaders in Healthcare Reflect on COVID-19 "In the early days, we knew very little about COVID-19; we know so much more now, and we are going to learn a lot more in the next two to five years. The data that's been collected in healthcare this year is probably going to create entirely new fields of research and knowledge." –Phil INSIDE: alunmus spotlIghts pgs 1-2 alumnI news pgs 2-3 Chapter report pg 4

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