Chris Gearhart Cournoyer is the 48th Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. Before being appointed by Governor Kim Reynolds in December of 2024, she represented Clinton, Jackson, and Scott counties in the Iowa State Senate. First elected in 2018, she chaired the inaugural Technology committee, from which position she wrote and managed the legislation that made Iowa the sixth state in the nation to protect consumer data in law. She was also Chair of the Education Budget Committee, Vice Chair of the State Government committee and sat on the Education, Natural Resources and Environment, Transportation, and Ways and Means committees. 

Lt. Governor Cournoyer has extensive experience in the technology sector and artificial intelligence. The daughter of an engineer and a teacher, she worked as a senior consultant in the Technology Division at Andersen Consulting, the Fortune 500 firm that later became Accenture. After having her first child, she left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, starting a successful business as an independent website designer and developer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from the University of Texas.

Her entry into public service came when she was elected to her first of two terms on her local school board, which she went on to lead as President. As a member of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, as well as a former member of the Quad Cities Engineering and Science Council, she is passionate about reaching underserved children through work-based learning and STEM education. She has maintained a personal connection to the classroom as a robotics and coding teacher and remains an active substitute teacher in her community. 

Lieutenant Governor Cournoyer is a former reserve Sheriff’s Deputy in Scott County, an avid local volunteer, and a proud mother of four.