Biography

Nancy Jean Shimanek Boyd, lawyer and Iowa State Representative, was born in 1947 in Monticello, Iowa, to parents Doris Flynn Shimanek and Charles Francis “Frank” Shimanek. Frank Shimanek was a lawyer who served in the Iowa House of Representative from 1939 to 1945. Nancy Shimanek graduated from Sacred Heart High School in Monticello in 1966. She attended Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in music in 1970. While attending Clarke College, she served as chairperson for the Clarke College Young Republicans for two years. In 1973, she earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa.

After earning a JD, Shimanek worked as a law clerk for Justice Warren Rees of the Iowa Supreme Court for a year and then as an Assistant Attorney General in the criminal appeals division of the Iowa Supreme Court. As Assistant Attorney General, Shimanek represented the state in criminal prosecutions. After announcing her candidacy for the House of Representatives in 1976, she entered private law practice with her father and brother.

Shimanek ran for and won the Republican nomination for Iowa House District 22 in 1976. She lost the general election to Democrat Maurice Hennessey in November of that year, then won the seat in a special election in December when Hennessey resigned to run for Iowa Senate.

Shimanek served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981. She was a member of the House Judiciary and Law Enforcement Committee, including serving as chair from 1979 to 1981. She also served on committees for state government, natural resources, and human resources, as well as various study subcommittees on legal topics. Shimanek was an active member of the Republican caucus during her time in the House and served as floor manager for the 1980 redistricting bill that established the nonpartisan redistricting process now known as the “Iowa Model.” She was a member of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women and attended the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan as an alternate delegate. Shimanek resigned from the House partway through her third term in September 1981 to work for Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray.

Shimanek worked as an administrative aide to Governor Ray from 1981 until his final term as governor ended in 1983. From 1984 to 1987, she served as executive assistant to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa. There, she met David Boyd, a court administrator, and they married in 1987. For the next ten years, Nancy Boyd served as a member of the Iowa Utilities Board before she resigned in 1997 to work for a private law firm in Des Moines. In 2009, Boyd was appointed to the Board of Parole; she served in this role until 2017.

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