Emily Cross has never been shy about setting ambitious goals.

The Tippie marketing student from Oak Creek, Wisconsin, has built an undergraduate resume filled with leadership roles, internships and campus involvement. This spring, she added her biggest one yet: president of Undergraduate Student Government for the 2026–27 academic year.

The victory also settled some unfinished business from middle school.

Cross ran for student body president then, too. She lost—and became vice president instead.

Her path to the presidency at Iowa also came through the vice president’s office. Cross is the first sitting vice president of Iowa’s student government in more than two decades to be elected president.

It’s a role Cross couldn’t have envisioned when she was choosing a college. For a long time, she was set on attending the University of Arizona. Iowa was the first school that accepted her, however, and offered the combination she was looking for: far enough away to establish some independence, but close enough for easy trips home.

A campus visit sealed the decision to make the move to Iowa City. Cross said she was impressed by the range of opportunities available at Tippie and quickly found a community there.

“Tippie has been absolutely amazing.”  

Cross found her way into student government as a first-year student and kept taking on larger roles, eventually serving as director of external relations and then vice president. She said the opportunity to make a tangible impact on campus kept drawing her back.

Among her priorities this year are improving student access to mental health resources, addressing affordability—including student wages—and working with campus safety officials to make sure students know what resources are available to them. She also wants to raise USG’s profile among students, particularly as a source of funding for student organizations.

Cross has carried that interest in service beyond student government. She spent this past summer working with University of Iowa Health Care as a marketing specialist. With nurses on her mother’s side of the family, she said she hopes to continue working in health care after graduation.

As for the route Cross took to the presidency, maybe her middle-school experience taught her something after all.

Turns out, vice president wasn’t such a bad place to start.