IOWA COURT REPORTERS ASSOCIATION
2025 Midyear Seminar
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Luana Savings Bank
855 W. Bridge Road
Polk City, Iowa
.8 CEUS (pending NCRA approval)
Hotel room block located at:
Country Inn & Suites
2510 SE Tones Drive
Ankeny, IA 50021
515-644-6164
ICRA room rate-$105
**RESERVE BY OCTOBER 24 FOR ROOM RATE**
https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/ee94t0?checkInDate=2025-11-07&checkOutDate=2025-11-08&ratePlanCode=BTDNTC
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Title of Session
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Time
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CEUs
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Speaker
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Registration
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8:00-8:30
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Registration and breakfast
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DMACC transition/Update
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8:30-10:00
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.15
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Megan Sankey and Brittani Meyer, DMACC Instructors
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Break
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10:00-10:15
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Safe at Home
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10:15-11:15
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.1
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Christy Johnson, Deputy Secretary of State
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Break
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11:15-11:30
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Lunch and Learn/Lobbyist Update
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11:30-12:30
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.1
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Sydney Gangstead, Logan Murray & Jacob Schrader, Lobbyists
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State v Salifou Sahr
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12:30-2:30
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.2
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Joe Danielson, Assistant Polk County Attorney & Detective Ben Carter, DMPD
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Break
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2:30-2:45
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DCI ESD K-9
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2:45-3:45
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.1
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DCI Special Agent Hai Tran
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Break
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3:45-4:00
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Safe Babies Court
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4:00-5:30
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.15
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Eva Morales and Karli Mays, Assistant Polk County Attorneys
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DMACC Transition/Update
Megan Sankey and Brittani Meyer
8:30-10:00
Megan Sankey graduated from AIB College of Business in 2005 and earned her RPR designation shortly thereafter. Her career began as an official court reporter in Douglas County, Nebraska, where she worked for a couple years. Her time there was short, but the experience and mentorship gained was profound. Following that, she moved to northwest Iowa and worked as an official there for nearly 16 years, first for The Honorable John Duffy and then The Honorable Carl Petersen. In August of 2024, Megan accepted a full-time teaching position at Des Moines Area Community College for their Realtime Court Reporting program. Megan has served on the ICRA board for 6 ½ years and several ICRA committees. She is co-editor of the ICRA newsletter In Verbis. In addition, she serves on the State of Iowa Judicial Nominating Commission. Megan holds professional certifications, including ICRA’s CSR and NCRA’s RMR and CRR. Her current focus is striving to provide opportunities for growth, learning, and excellence and assisting students in reaching their ultimate goal: a meaningful and impactful career in court reporting! Megan lives outside of Alta with her husband Bill, two daughters, dog, two cats, and five chickens. In her free time, she enjoys Cricuiting, reading, and camping with her family.
Brittani Meyer is a full-time instructor in the DMACC Realtime Court Reporting program, where she began as an adjunct instructor in August 2023 before joining the program full-time in 2024. She has served as editor of ICRA’s quarterly newsletter In Verbis since 2022 and remains active on multiple ICRA committees. Brittani has served the profession in numerous leadership roles including as ICRA’s President during the 2022–2023 fiscal year. Brittani began her career as an official court reporter in the First Judicial District shortly after graduating from AIB College of Business in 2005. Following statewide layoffs in 2009, she worked as a freelance reporter until returning to work with the Judicial Branch in 2011. Her most recent position as an official was with Chief Judge Kellyann Lekar, a role she began in April 2014 and remained in until transitioning into education. During her tenure with the Judicial Branch, Brittani served on several statewide committees. Brittani holds professional certifications including NCRA’s RMR and CRR certifications and Iowa’s CSR certification. She has a long-standing passion for mentoring students and sharing her love of the court reporting profession, making the move into teaching a natural step. Her current focus is on helping students and professionals understand how they can support one another during this important time for the court reporting industry. She lives in Cedar Falls with her significant other Joe and four daughters (ages ranging from 4 to 15). In her free time, Brittani enjoys crafting, dabbling in graphic design and photography, live concerts, audiobooks, and relaxing in the sun.
Brittani and Megan will share their experiences transitioning from professional court reporters to instructors, highlighting both the challenges and rewards of making that shift. Their presentation will explore how students can play an active role in supporting today’s working reporters, while also showing how seasoned professionals can encourage and mentor the next generation. By weaving together real-world examples from the courtroom and the classroom, they will offer practical strategies for building stronger connections between students and professionals, ensuring that the skills and traditions of court reporting continue to thrive.
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Safe At Home
Christy Johnson, Deputy Secretary of State
10:15-11:15
Safe at Home is an address confidentiality program for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, and assault. In 2015, Iowa became the 34th state to pass an Address Confidentiality Program through legislation and officially launched the program January of 2016. In 2021 the program expanded to include members of law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, and judges along with their families and household members. Safe at Home provides participants with a legal substitute address, mail forwarding, and confidential voter registration and absentee voting. Today there are approximately 1,300 participants in the program across Iowa. With the realization that a large portion of our participants were survivors of human trafficking, Secretary Pate launched Iowa Businesses Against Trafficking (IBAT) in 2022. IBAT is an extension of SAH and serves as a tool to bring awareness to this atrocious crime. Creating a statewide alliance with Iowa’s business community to end human trafficking in the state.
Christy Johnson, a graduate of Iowa State University and Troy University, is currently serving as the Iowa Deputy Secretary of State. In 2015 she was integral in the implementation of Iowa Safe at Home, an address confidentiality program. She then started the Iowa Businesses Against Trafficking initiative in 2022. Christy is also proud to serve as the Vice President for the National Association of Confidential Address Programs.
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Lunch and Learn-Lobbyist Update
Sydney Gangstead, Logan Murray, Jacob Schrader
11:30-12:30
Sydney Gangestad has over a decade of public policy experience. In her various policy roles, she has developed a fundamental understanding of the legislative process and a non-partisan, bipartisan approach to lobbying to help advance clients’ legislative agendas. Before Dentons, she represented the interests of the Iowa Judiciary before the legislative and executive branches of the Iowa Judicial Branch. As an experienced lobbyist and grassroots strategist, Sydney offers clients the legal services they need to accomplish their goals.
Logan Murray has nearly a decade of government relations experience building and maintaining bi-partisan relationships at all levels of government. Previously he served as a multi-client lobbyist and attorney at a regional law firm where he represented trade associations, non-profit organizations, municipal governments, law enforcement, a casino, and national corporations. After graduating from Drake University Law School, Logan joined the Iowa House Republican Caucus as a Legislative Analyst and Policy Advisor. There, he drafted and analyzed proposed legislation for state and local government and labor committees, and he served as the primary staffer for the Transportation Budget and the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund. Through his previous roles, Logan developed a reputation as a trusted resource for clients, policymakers, and legislators.
Jacob Schrader graduated from Drake University Law School in 2024 and received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science from Iowa State University. While in law school, Jacob was the campaign manager for a successful legislative campaign in one of the most competitive districts in Iowa. Additionally, Governor Reynolds has twice appointed Jacob to the Iowa Board of Massage Therapy, and he currently serves as vice chair. He has previous experience in multiple roles with the Iowa House of Representatives and clerked for the federal public defender in the Northern and South Districts of Iowa. Jacob completes legal research and provides legal analysis, working alongside Sydney and Logan to represent client interests before the legislature, executive branch, regulatory committees, and boards and commissions.
Collectively, our government relations team will give us an update on legislative issues affecting court reporters. Sydney, Logan, and Jacob will also discuss the importance of grassroots advocacy and will provide information on ways court reporters can network to make a difference and protect the statewide sentiment that stenographic court reporters are the gold standard.
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State v Salifou Sahr
Joe Danielson, and Detective Ben Carter
12:30-2:30
Joe Danielson is an Assistant County Attorney with the Polk County Attorney's Office. He has been assigned to the office's Drug and Gang Bureau since 2015. He was previously an assistant county attorney in Story and Grundy Counties. Joe received his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University in 2005. He received his Juris Doctorate from Drake Law School with Honors in 2010.
Ben Carter is a detective within the Des Moines Police Department Crimes Against Persons Section and a full-time FBI taskforce officer. Ben has been with the DMPD for seventeen years where he has been assigned to first watch patrol, the summer enforcement team, the Metro STAR Entry Team, and the Vice & Narcotics Control Section, in addition to his current assignment investigating assaults, robberies and homicides. Ben was a 2018 recipient of the United States Attorney's Office Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee Law Enforcement Award, and a 2023 United States Attorney's Office Law Enforcement Victim Service Award.
Ben is currently in the FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) training portal with final certification slated for late September of 2025. Once certified, Ben will be the sole FBI CAST member in the state of Iowa. Ben has received training on radio frequency theory, the use of specialized cellular equipment, and the gathering, use, and mapping of cell phone records. Ben has utilized cell phone records, social media application records and internet protocol (IP) data to assist in investigations involving robbery, arson, theft, murder, and the recovery of missing endangered children.
Salifou Sahr and Sam Sando were charged with murder in the first degree, among other charges, for the murder of Trishay Thompson. Mr. Sando was acquitted of all charges three months before Mr. Sahr’s trial. Detective Carter will explain what work he did between trials to gather more evidence which secured a conviction for Mr. Sahr, and Joe will share with us different trial strategies he had to apply for the second trial.
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DCI Electronic Storage Device K-9
Special Agent Hai Tran
2:45-3:45
Hai Tran graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2018 with a Bachelors in Information Security and from Southern New Hampshire University in 2022 with a Masters in Cybersecurity. Hai has been with the Iowa DCI since 2020 spending his first year and a half with the Special Enforcement Operation Bureau (SEOB) until 2021 where he transferred to the Cyber Crime Bureau (CCB).
In November 2022, ESD Welles was partnered with Hai and both graduated from Todd Jorden Detection in Indianapolis. Since 2023, ESD Welles and SA Tran have been deployed over 100 times across Iowa.
Electronic storage device detection K-9s have been used by the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation for over five years to help locate critical evidence in all kinds of cases, especially child exploitation cases. They are specially trained to smell specific chemicals present in the manufacturing process of electronics and can help them detect devices hidden behind walls and under floors. Special Agent Tran will be talking about the techniques and terms they use in their pursuit of investigating and using K-9s to help those investigations, and what we might hear about in court when those K-9s are used.
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Safe Babies Court
Eva Morales
4:00-5:30
Eva Morales is an Assistant County Attorney in Des Moines, Iowa. She has served in the Juvenile Division of the Polk County Attorney’s Office since 2015, handling exclusively child welfare, delinquency, and juvenile mental health commitment cases for the betterment of children, families, victims, and the community. She is one of two prosecutors on Polk County’s Safe Babies Court Team and enthusiastic about this initiative. Additionally, Eva serves as President of the Cohen Juvenile Practice Series, which is dedicated to elevating the practice of juvenile law through training and collaboration. Outside of work, Eva is a member of various associations, boards, and committees surrounding her interests in mentorship, law, early childhood development, and serving the Latino community. She is also a military wife and a mother of two little girls. She is actively involved with her family and devoted to leading by example for her daughters.
Karli Mays is an Assistant County Attorney in the Polk County Juvenile Division. There, Karli is a member of the Safe Babies Team, which specializes in permanency for children ages zero to three years old. Karli attended The John Marshall Law School and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa. Prior to joining the Polk County Attorney’s Office in 2016, Karli practiced criminal law in Cook County, Illinois.
The goal of the ZERO TO THREE’s Safe Babies approach is to prevent maltreatment and neglect of babies and toddlers and to keep families together. The SBCT is a collaborative, trauma-informed approach to resolving child welfare cases involving infants and toddlers. The approach applies the science of early childhood development to meet the needs of young children and families under the court’s jurisdiction. Polk County has had a SBCT since 2005, and they are the only court of its kind in Iowa. Eva will describe what makes this specialty court unique in the juvenile system, and why it’s successful.
