Member profile: Rep. Cindy Winckler
Cindy Winckler is serving her fourth term in the Iowa House. She has been a member of Economic Development budget subcommittee, ranking member of Labor and Industrial Relations committee, and ranking member of Education budget subcommittee. She currently as the Chair of the Education Budget Subcommittee and also serves on the Appropriations, Education, Judiciary, and Labor Committees.
Cindy Winckler was born in Des Moines, Iowa. She moved to Davenport when she was young, and has continued to be a part of the Davenport community through her adult years. Public service has been a part of her family background. Her dad owned the snack bar at the Scott County Court House, through an agreement with the county and the disabled veterans organization. Her mother was a long-time deputy city clerk and city alderman.
She is a graduate of West High School in Davenport. She earned a BSE in Home Economics from Northeast Missouri State University and her master’s degree in Educational Technology from the University of Northern Iowa. While earning her master’s degree, she received First Place in the UNI research award for her paper, “Building an Instructional Model for High Schools of the 21st Century.”
Cindy has been a family and consumer science teacher in small and large school districts in Iowa – Davis County, Pleasant Valley, Calamus and Davenport. She is currently employed as a Quality Learning Consultant with Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in Bettendorf. In her capacity as a Quality Learning Consultant, she works with teachers, administrators and school districts to plan and implement student achievement initiatives. Cindy was named Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in February 2000. Cindy is also an ex-officio member of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women and the Iowa College Student Aid Commission.
Cindy and her husband, Joe, have been married since 1973. They have two adult children, Joseph Bradley and Courtney Elizabeth. Her son, Joe, resides in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Courtney and her husband Jeff and their daughters Evelyn and Haley reside in Bloomington, Illinois.
Cindy has been a member of Business and Professional Women for 35 years, and served as national president of that organization in 1994-95. She gained her passion for issues relating to civil rights, workplace equity, access to quality education and assuring that quality healthcare is available to everyone through the legislative initiatives of this bipartisan organization.
She has received the Legislator of the Year twice for the Area 9 Counseling Association. Cindy was named a national Flemming Fellow, class of 2003, and participated in the Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development program during the summer of 2004. She has served as Vice Chair of the Midwestern Legislative Conference Innovations Selection Committee for 2005 and 2006. She was chair of that committee in 2007. Cindy also serves on the Eastern Iowa Small Business Development Center Advisory Board.
