About Us

As president, Steven W. McCullough is responsible for carrying out strategic plans and policies as established by the board of directors. He has ultimate management authority for Aspire and appoints the management team. In addition to his role with Aspire, McCullough is president and chief executive officer of Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation, which he joined in 1989. He is a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. McCullough also served on the board of directors of the Education Finance Council; the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity; and the board of the Iowa College Access Network. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Iowa. McCullough helped create the corporation's responsible borrowing tools which help families plan for their higher education, figure out how to pay for it and learn how to create good outcomes.

Erin Lacey, with direction and oversight from the CEO and board of directors, oversees the operations and compliance functions and leads the finance and accounting teams. She oversees accounting activities, including budgeting, financial statement preparation, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, U.S. Department of Education 799 processing, payment processing and disbursement of all student loan funds. She also coordinates multiple audits that Aspire adheres to, including the financial and SAS 70 audits. While an accounting major at Iowa State University, Lacey began her career with Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation in 1992 as an accounting intern and was later promoted to several positions, including CFO in 2009. Since 2013, she has served as Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation's executive vice president and corporate treasurer in addition to her Aspire duties. Lacey holds a bachelor's degree in financial management from Upper Iowa University.

As a member of the executive team, Cindy Bartz oversees all program and project management activities for Aspire products and services, including divisionwide programs and initiatives, software development projects, system requirements and contingency planning. She also administers the system development lifecycle process and business impact analysis for contingency planning. As chief information officer, Bartz is responsible for information security, networks, Internet services, databases, programming, commercial software and communication services. Since 2010, Bartz also has served as vice president of project management and chief information officer for Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation. She holds an associate degree from the American Institute of Business and a bachelor's degree from Upper Iowa University.

Joe Bird, with direction and oversight from the CEO and board of directors, provides leadership in working with colleges and universities, banks and credit unions, professional associations and others utilizing Aspire products and services. Bird has nearly 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the higher education industry and also serves as senior vice president of business development and client relations for Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation. His work experience includes management-level positions at a guaranty agency, secondary market, loan servicer and college access organization. Bird earned a bachelor's degree in education at Morningside College and a master's degree in higher education administration at Iowa State University.

With direction and oversight from the executive vice president and board of directors, Mary Kay DeBolt provides leadership to a large number of employees engaged in student loan servicing, counseling, collections and other direct communications and services for individual customers. DeBolt is also senior vice president of operations and corporate secretary for Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation, where she has been employed since 1982. She is a graduate of Grand View University and Des Moines Area Community College and a member of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance.

Dr. Norm Nielsen serves as president emeritus of Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was president of Kirkwood from 1985 until he retired in 2005. Nielsen joined Kirkwood in 1979 as a vice president after working as a teacher, coach, principal and superintendent of schools in the Iowa public school system. After retiring from Kirkwood, Nielsen served as interim chancellor of Houston Community College in 2006–2007. He is past president of the League for Innovation in the Community College and has been awarded Iowa State University's Distinguished Achievement Citation and Laureate Award for prestigious service, educational leadership and personal commitment to the teaching profession, as well as the Marie Y. Martin award for community college leadership from the Association of Community College Trustees. Nielsen also received the Distinguished Alumnus award from both University of Iowa and Buena Vista University where he now serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He also served as Interim President of Mt. Mercy University in Cedar Rapids Iowa. Nielsen holds advanced degrees from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. He has served on the Aspire board since 2006.

Before his current role as a consultant on job coaching, placement and fundraising for not-for-profits, Dr. John Hartung was president of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. A graduate of Grinnell College, he earned his master's from the University of South Dakota and Ph.D from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Hartung previously served as vice president for college relations and associate professor at Simpson College and as vice president for academic affairs, professor and coach at Dakota Wesleyan University. He currently serves on the boards of the Iowa Sports Foundation, Iowa Higher Education Loan Authority, and the Drake Relays Executive Committee. He and his wife, Joan, have three children and seven grandchildren.

Kay Beyerink retired in 2013 after serving as CEO of Telco Triad Community Credit Union in Sioux City. She has served in many officer positions with the Northwest Iowa Chapter of Credit Unions. She is a past director and has served on numerous committees with the Iowa Credit Union League. Beyerink is a member of the Noon Sertoma Club and the T.T.T. Chapter AC, and she has worked for many years at the community level for the Children's Miracle Network, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce. She is past president of the Better Business Bureau of Siouxland. Beyerink was elected to the Aspire board in July 2013.

Juan Garcia serves as vice president of Equity Solutions for Midas Education. In this capacity, Garcia partners with education and business leaders to address equity issues to better serve all students, with emphasis in low-income, first-generation, English language learners and minority-serving education systems. At ACT, Inc., he was responsible for strategic partnerships, working with existing and creating new partnerships fulfilling ACT’s nonprofit mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success. As a polished communicator, Garcia has represented many organizations in multiple settings, ranging from sales presentations to keynote addresses at the national and international level. Before joining ACT, Garcia served as a champion of college access and readiness for ICAN. As the executive director of ICAN, Garcia established relationships with school and district administration, state and local leaders, as well as other nonprofits to reach at-risk students, ensuring that these students were aware of the support that was available to them for pursuit of higher education. Prior to his work in improving education opportunities for our students, Garcia led marketing and promotions for the launch of a new Spanish magazine published by Meredith Corp. and served as an account executive in Latin America for the Hispanic Marketing Division of Donnelley Marketing, Inc. In 2015, he received the award for Diversity and Inclusion from ACT, Inc., nominated and selected among all company employees. In November 2016, Garcia graduated from Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program of Leadership Best Practices. Garcia currently serves on the following boards: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Organization of the American States – Art Museum of the Americas; City of Waukee Board of Adjustment; and the Iowa Literacy Council. Garcia is originally from Lima, Peru, and is fluent in English and in Spanish.

Before joining Ahlers & Cooney, P.C., in 1994, John Hintze was senior vice president and general counsel for Pioneer Hi-Bred International in Des Moines. After receiving his law degree with distinction, Order of the Coif, from the University of Iowa in 1973, Hintze was a partner at Davis, Hockenberg, Wine, Brown, Koehn & Shors in Des Moines and a founder and shareholder at Sheerer, Hintze and Templer, P.C. He has served on the boards for the Blank Park Zoo Foundation, the Iowa Association of Business & Industry, the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce and the West Des Moines Development Corporation, among many others. Hintze has served on the Aspire board since 2001.

Tony Kaska joined Midwest Heritage in 1992 and was promoted to president and chief executive officer in 2009. He is a past board member of the Lucas County Development Corp. Kaska currently lives in Chariton, Iowa, and serves on the board of Chariton Arts and Recreation. He is also a board member at Shazam, serves on the Greater Des Moines Partnership Regional Workforce Development/Education Committee and is a member of the Iowa Wesleyan University Board of Trustees.

Steve Ollenburg is chief risk officer of Modern Woodmen of America and has been an executive since 2001. He has been in banking and financial services since 1983. He has served on the boards of organizations such as America's Community Bankers, Iowa's Community Bankers and the Midwest Conference of Community Bankers; as chairman of ChildServe; on the advisory board of S1 Corporation and on the Iowa advisory board for Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, as well as serving as chairman of the board for Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation from 2000 to 2008, representing Iowa savings and loan institutions. He currently serves as chair of Bridge Investment Community Development Corporation. Throughout his career, he has served numerous local service clubs, chamber of commerce committees, charitable organizations, legislative task forces and other similar activities.