DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new superintendent has been named to run a state facility in Clarinda that treats individuals with serious mental illness. Kris Weitzell has been the acting superintendent of the Clarinda Treatment Complex since Jan. 2 when the previous administrator Mark Lund retired. She had been named actiNg deputy superintendent in September 2013.

Her appointment as superintendent was announced Wednesday by Iowa Department of Human Services Director Chuck Palmer and Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin. Weitzell has worked in the Iowa Department of Corrections since 1982 and started her career as a correctional officer at Mitchellville. She rose through the ranks to become deputy warden at the prison in Newton prior to taking a job at the department’s central office.