Before serving as an Iowa state senator, president of the Iowa State Senate, and US ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ambassador Mary Kramer (Ret.) was a nightclub piano player, music teacher, public school administrator, retail personnel director, and vice president of human resources and community relations in the insurance industry. Inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2009, her first memoir, More Than a Walk on the Beach, was published in 2010. Married to her best friend for nearly sixty years, Kramer is a mother of two and grandmother of four.
The ambassador's daughter, Krista Kramer Hartman, began her career as a semi-pro golfer and played a little lounge piano herself. From a successful career in real estate, she's emerged as a serial entrepreneur honored numerous times for her professional acumen and community leadership. She enjoys every opportunity to empower and develop others and currently works as a business consultant and coach. Next, she plans to become a winemaker and plant a vineyard and with her husband.
