Anne Frank Initiative

Anne Frank smiling

UI faculty, authors, discuss personal narratives from 'Exploring Anne Frank and Difficult Life Stories' book

Friday, April 11, 2025
A webinar put on by the Anne Frank Initiative explores the importance of Holocaust education and why Anne Frank's story is relevant to discussing other difficult stories from the past and present.
Book cover for Exploring Anne Frank and Difficult Life Stories

Exploring Anne Frank’s legacy: Upcoming webinar on empathy, education, and difficult life stories

Monday, March 3, 2025
Join the University of Iowa Anne Frank Initiative as they host an insightful and engaging webinar featuring several esteemed authors from the groundbreaking book, Exploring Anne Frank and Difficult Life Stories.
Ana Laura Leyser

In the news: Downtown banners feature student and postdoc research and creative activity

Thursday, January 23, 2025
One of those recognized is Ana Laura Leyser, an undergraduate majoring in biomedical sciences, for her research conducted through the Anne Frank Initiative (AFI), where she developed a digital diary inspired by Frank’s work, featuring stories about children from various cultures and eras, written by UI students and Iowa City community members.
A person speaks at a panel event, standing in front of a seated audience. A screen displays text behind them.

Youth voices unite in multilingual tribute to Anne Frank's legacy

Monday, October 28, 2024
The Iowa City Public Library resonated with the powerful words of Anne Frank on October 20, as 15 young readers brought her diary to life in their native languages, marking what would have been her 95th birthday. The event, part of the 2024 Iowa City Book Festival, drew an emotional response from a diverse audience of community members and parents.
students participating in the Tadoku Workshop in April 2022

International Programs’ affinity groups contribute to Iowa’s global mission

Monday, July 1, 2024
The faculty-led affinity groups create opportunities for faculty to advance research and teaching through a focus on collegiate issues and perspectives, provide opportunities for faculty and students across disciplines to interact and collaborate, and develop public engagement projects to benefit communities in Iowa and abroad.
Kirsten Kumpf Baele speaking in front of group of eighth grade students from Clear Creek Amana in auditorium

Anne Frank Initiative welcomes over 250 Clear Creek Amana eighth graders to University of Iowa campus

Monday, June 3, 2024
The Anne Frank Initiative welcomed over 250 eighth graders from Clear Creek Amana (CCA) Middle School where they learned about Anne Frank’s story, her legacy, and her special connection to Iowa.
Shereen Honary

Shereena Honary

Title/Position
Events & Operations Coordinator, Pentacrest Museums
Shereena Honary holds a Research M.A. in Area Studies of the Middle East from Leiden University, The Netherlands. She focused on Middle Eastern diasporic narratives, particularly the graphic novel Persepolis, to analyze autobiographical and diasporic narrative themes of identity, gender, and Otherness, and the ways in which personal narrative guides us towards understanding and universal humanism. Shereena currently oversees events at the Pentacrest Museums, which housed the Anne Frank exhibit, “Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank” in 2022. She also completed the Peer Educator Training offered alongside the exhibit to inspire in visitors ways in which to relate and learn from her powerful narrative. Growing up as a daughter of an immigrant herself, the hope to create a world with acceptance and belonging that the story of Anne Frank inspires continues to be a driving force for Shereena’s academic and community involvement.
Students sitting on Pentacrest

200 Clear Creek Amana students visit UI campus to learn about Anne Frank

Monday, May 22, 2023
The Anne Frank Initiative, an International Programs affinity group, welcomed approximately 200 students from the Clear Creek Amana Community School District to the University of Iowa campus on Friday, May 19.
main event

The UI focuses on human rights education during 2023 International Day

Thursday, April 27, 2023
Over 250 middle school students from Eastern Iowa schools participated in the International Day Human Rights Conference 2023. Organized by the University of Iowa Baker Teacher Leader Center and sponsored by International Programs and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, this year’s conference theme was Education for All.  
Kirsten Kumpf Baele with sapling

Anne Frank Initiative established at the University of Iowa

Tuesday, February 7, 2023
The mission of the Anne Frank Initiative is to investigate Anne Frank’s literary contributions and her legacy in a more contemporary context. 
Ashley Holt

Ashley Holt

Title/Position
Executive Director, Iowa Hillel
Ashley Holt is the Executive Director of the Louis Shulman Hillel Foundation, Alliber Center for Jewish Life (Iowa Hillel), a non-profit organization that serves as the foundation for Jewish life on the University of Iowa's campus. In this role, she aims to build a vibrant Jewish community on campus, provide educational opportunities, and help students connect to Judaism in ways that are meaningful to them. At Iowa Hillel, Jewish students (of all knowledge levels and backgrounds) are encouraged to learn about their heritage and develop their own unique identity within the world of Jewish pluralism. Prior to moving to Iowa City, Ashley worked for the Nature Conservancy in Illinois and served on the board of Go Green Wilmette, a local environmental organization. She has a BA in economics and political science and a minor in philosophy from Washington College in Chestertown, Md. Ashley studied abroad at the London School of Economics while interning in the House of Commons in Parliament, as well as at Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, Israel.
Carl Follmer

Carl R. Follmer

Title/Position
Assistant Department Executive Officer and Associate Professor of Instruction
Carl R. Follmer, M.A., Ph.D. is an associate professor of instruction, director of the Frank Business Communication Center, and an assistant department executive officer at the Tippie College of Business. His academic background is in German Studies and children's literature, and includes a dissertation investigating fascist propaganda aimed at children in Germany and Spain.  In his professional work, Carl teaches communication skills and develops communications programming throughout the Tippie College of Business.  A critical part of his teaching is helping students consider audience needs and concerns as they develop professional communication skills. He believes that Anne Frank's empowering message for children to document their lived experiences and become writers and thinkers has the ability to create a better community.