Biography

Mildred Hanzel was born in 1924 in Dover, New Jersey to Marcus and Rose Seifert Hanzel. Hanzel spent her childhood years in a Jewish community in Chicago where her father owned a grocery store. After completing high school in 1942 she married Marvin Lavin and over the next twenty-two years raised her family and regularly attended night school at Chicago Teachers College North. Lavin received a Bachelor of Education in 1964 and then taught general science Chute Jr. High School in Evanston, Illinois for four years. Lavin received her MS in Teaching at Northeastern Illinois State College in 1969 and moved with her husband to Iowa City to finish her doctorate. She was an assistant professor in instructional design and outreach education in the University of Iowa’s College of Education from 1972 to 1987 and head of the Outreach Education program at the University of Iowa from 1978 – 1987. Based on Lavin’s commitment to alternative education for nontraditional students, especially women, she developed and directed the Saturday and Evening Class Program from 1971 to 1978. She was active in the Iowa City Business and Professional Women organization and chaired the "Women in Higher Education Administration" conference in 1975 and the "Women in Research" conference from 1985-1987 at the University of Iowa. Lavin was a long term member of the Gray Hawks Writing group in Iowa City and wrote memoirs and poetry that explores her Austrian roots and belief in humanistic Judaism.

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