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Retallick named next associate dean for personnel and finance, Iles to step in as interim AGEDS chair

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Retallick named next associate dean for personnel and finance, Iles to step in as interim AGEDS chair
Mike Retallick

AMES, Iowa – With a passion for leading others and thinking strategically about where the college and its departments and programs should go, Mike Retallick has been selected to serve as the next associate dean for personnel and finance for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Iowa State University, effective July 1.

Retallick currently serves as chair of the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies (AGEDS), a position he’s held since 2016. He will continue serving in this role, in addition to being the new associate dean, until August, when Jeff Iles, professor of horticulture and previous chair of the Department of Horticulture, will step in as interim chair of the AGEDS department.

“Dr. Retallick has done a tremendous job of leading the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies, is a great team player and totally embraces the community and land-grant spirit of the college. We are excited to have Mike in this role as associate dean for personnel and finance to support our faculty and staff, to enable our students and to achieve all of our missions and purposes,” said Daniel J. Robison, endowed dean’s chair in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “We are grateful for Dr. Iles stepping up to lead the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies as interim chair this fall. Jeff did outstanding work as the long-serving chair of the Department of Horticulture, and he’ll bring that experience and skill to this interim role.”

Jeff Iles
Jeff Iles

A search for a new chair for the AGEDS department will begin soon. 

Retallick has been at Iowa State since 2001, starting as an academic advisor then assistant, associate and professor in the AGEDS department. He also previously served as the director and is now the interim director of the CALS Science with Practice program.

He has served the college and university in many capacities as well, through involvement in various boards and committees, including the Agricultural Endowment Board, CALS Online Learning Taskforce, Micro-credential Taskforce, Provost’s Chairs Cabinet and Faculty Work/Life Advisory Committee.

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“This role is instrumental to the success and advancement of the college,” Retallick said. “I’m humbled by the opportunity to join the dean’s leadership team and look forward to working across the college’s departments and units to advance the great work we do in teaching, research and Extension and Outreach, all of which are enabled through personnel and finance.”

Retallick has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville and a master of agribusiness degree from Kansas State University. He earned his doctoral degree in agricultural education from Iowa State.

The position of associate dean for personnel and finance is fairly new in CALS. Ruth MacDonald currently serves in this role and will do so until June 30. After that, she will continue as the interim chair of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

“We are so appreciative of the great work and impacts our college’s first Associate Dean for Personnel and Finance Ruth MacDonald has done these past four years with staff in the CALS budget and finance office and leadership all across the college,” Robison said.

Contacts

Mike Retallick, Agricultural Education and Studies, 515-294-4810, msr@iastate.edu

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Whitney Baxter, Agriculture and Life Sciences Communications, 515-294-2314, wjsager@iastate.edu

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Finance

Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

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Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.

The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.

This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.

She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.

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Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.

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Finance

UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

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UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.

The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”

The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.

Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.

The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted.   Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.

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The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.

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Finance

Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

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Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.

The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.

The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.

Audit contract details

Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.

“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.

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Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.

“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.

New finance director position

The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.

“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.

Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.

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Closed session

The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.

Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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