Christie Vilsack
First Lady of Iowa
Ann Christine Bell Vilsack (née Bell; born July 9, 1950) is an American literacy advocate and politician. Vilsack is married to former Governor of Iowa and United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. She served as the first lady of Iowa from 1999 until 2007. She was an unsuccessful 2012 Democratic nominee for Iowa's 4th congressional district.
Early life, marriage, and family
Ann Christine Bell was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where she was raised. She graduated from Kirkland College in Clinton, New York, in 1972 with a Bachelor's in Education and later earned a Master's in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1992. She was later presented with an honorary degree from Hamilton College, receiving "...the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters of Hamilton College, admitting you to all of its rights and privileges."
She met her future husband, Tom Vilsack, while attending college. He reportedly approached her in the cafeteria and asked, "Are you a Humphrey or a Nixon supporter?" The couple married on August 18, 1973, in Mount Pleasant. They have two children.
Teaching career
The Vilsacks moved to Mount Pleasant in 1975.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Christie Vilsack” as first Lady of Iowa. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as first Lady of Iowa. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5110713. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1999, 2007 and 2012.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Christie Vilsack”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Christie Vilsack primary sources, Christie Vilsack archive and Christie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Christie Vilsack”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Christie Vilsack” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.