AMES, Iowa – Kimberly Zarecor, professor of architecture at Iowa State University, has been appointed as a full-time program director in the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program. 

In this role, Zarecor will serve on the team that manages the current portfolio of NSF Engines awards. Additionally, she will help select recipients for the next round of NSF Engines awards that will be announced in late 2025. Selected teams will receive up to $160 million in funding over 10 years. 

 The NSF Engines program seeks to support flourishing regional innovation ecosystems across the U.S., spurring economic growth, educational opportunities and job creation in regions that have not fully participated in the technology boom of the past few decades. The program is led by the NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP). 

“This is the perfect opportunity for me to share my research and expertise in quality of life in rural communities,” Zarecor said. “It’s an honor to serve as a member of this team because this is a historic federal investment into regions in the country that could truly benefit from this funding.” 

The NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and secure the national defense. With an annual budget of $9.9 billion (FY23), the NSF is the funding source for approximately 23% of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. 

Zarecor’s full-time appointment took effect on Aug. 12. She will fulfill her duties by working with her team remotely from Ames. She has been a part-time expert with the NSF Engines program since April 2023. 

At Iowa State, Zarecor leads the Rural Shrink Smart Initiative, which is funded by a $1.5 million grant from the NSF through 2025. Her research team works with rural Iowa communities to understand how some regions can improve perceptions of quality of life even as their populations shrink. Over the last four years, the team has developed educational resources and new data science tools that will help similar towns to adopt successful smart shrinkage strategies. 

Zarecor’s work on the Rural Shrink Smart Initiative led to the creation of the TechTHRIVE project in 2021. Funded by an Iowa State University Presidential Interdisciplinary Research Initiative grant, the project aims to establish ISU as a national leader in promoting and enabling a rural innovation economy through research on cutting-edge technologies for rural applications and STEM educational initiatives designed to meet the needs of rural learners.

Zarecor co-leads the project alongside Eliot Winer, professor of mechanical engineering, and Evrim Baran, professor of educational technology and human-computer interaction. 

Prior to her research on rural Iowa, Zarecor’s scholarship focused on architectural and urban history in Europe. In 2011, she published her book Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960 (University of Pittsburgh Press); the book appeared in Czech translation in 2015. The award-winning text analyzes the intersection of architects, housing design, and the state apparatus in the early years of the Communist Party rule. 

Zarecor holds a bachelor of arts in art history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her master of architecture and PhD in architecture from Columbia University. She joined the Iowa State architecture faculty in 2005. 

Zarecor was a Fulbright Faculty Research Fellow in the Czech Republic from 2011-2012. And in 2013 and 2023, she was an Erasmus Mundus Fellow at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. 

She is currently an elected member of the board of directors for the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), and she sits on the organization’s executive committee. 

Contacts 

Kimberly Zarecor, Professor of Architecture, zarecor@iastate.edu
Lauren Johnson, Communications Specialist, College of Design, laujohn2@iastate.edu