Kevin Zihlman is an Assistant Athletics Director of Compliance for the Athletics department. Zihlman joined the University of Iowa in August 2010. In this role, he is responsible for keeping up to date on NCAA, Big Ten Conference, institutional and departmental policy, auditing departmental operations for compliance, and providing education to coaching staff, student athletes and constituents. He is also involved in listening to and supporting our student athletes. In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities, Zihlman has spent the past seven years being an advocate for staff across the organization as a member and past president of Staff Council, an organization that represents approximately 8,000 UI staff and is part of the shared governance system at the University of Iowa.   

During his tenure on Staff Council, Zihlman has worked tirelessly to redefine benefits here at the University of Iowa. Incoming Staff Council President James Jorris shares, “Kevin has been actively advocating for his fellow colleagues from the first day he joined UISC. His time on UISC has seen many achievements like Tuition Assistance that will benefit staff all over campus for many years to come.” Zihlman understands the importance of fostering community engagement and used his time as Staff Council President to highlight staff who have had a positive impact on the university, local, national, and international communities. Zihlman states, “We should know about the people we sit by every day, who are doing wonderful things.” To further expand on opportunities to contribute, he assisted in drafting the Volunteer Time Release language used in the university’s Operations Manual and successfully advocated to double the amount of funding available in the Tuition Assistance Program.  

What started as a chance for professional development led to a strong commitment to service leadership. Zihlman shared, “I've been lucky to have supervisors who have looked out for me when it came to identifying professional development opportunities.” Staff Council was one of those prospects.  “I wanted to learn more about campus and bring information back to our staff that I don't think they were hearing about. What I've learned over the last seven years is that people care about what's going on at the University of Iowa.” Staff Council is an excellent opportunity to build positive relationships around campus and grow in your leadership style. Zihlman states, “past Presidents Heather Mineart, Mike Weaver, and outgoing President Jackie Kleppe, were great examples for me.” They taught me that “my way of doing things isn't always the best way, and you have to take bits and pieces of other styles to learn from and grow with,” he said. 

As Zihlman’s Staff Council term comes to an end, he encourages anyone interested in making a positive impact to give Staff Council a try. The experience can be what you make of it. “My first couple years I contributed through committees but also sat back, listened, and tried to figure out the landscape of things and how the organization worked. You can self-direct the level of participation, but ultimately, it’s about connecting your individual space at the university to a lot of other spaces that you can impact. If people like making an impact, in a selfless way, this is a great organization.” Zihlman has for sure had an impact. Outgoing Staff Council President Jackie Kleppe states, “Kevin has been a strong advocate for his constituents and in service to the entire institution. He always asks very thoughtful questions and has been a great representative on Staff Council. He has selflessly given much of his time and talents to represent Staff Council and provide great leadership on behalf of staff.” Jorris adds, “Kevin is, without a doubt, leaving UISC and the entire UI community better than when he first joined!”