NPPA Names Mindy Hutchison As New Executive Director
DURHAM, NC (October 4, 2010) – Following a unanimous vote of confidence from the National Press Photographers Association's board of directors, the organization's long-time membership director Mindy Hutchison has been named NPPA's new executive director.
She will assume the leadership role beginning October 23.
Jim Straight, who's been NPPA's executive director since May 2007, has accepted an offer from the American Diabetes Association to be their new executive director of eastern North and South Carolina.
"Mindy is NPPA's second-longest employee and for the last three years she's worked closely with Jim on his projects," NPPA president Bob Carey said today when he made the announcement. "Mindy knows the membership desires and many of the members and sponsors personally. She is highly qualified, she ran the NPPA office while we were conducting the personnel search for Jim, and I believe she will be a great fit for our needs in the coming years."
Carey said when the board voted to elect Hutchison to the position, each board member spoke of their positive experiences with Hutchison and her willingness to serve NPPA.
"I am looking forward to seeing how Mindy helps us streamline, find new educational offerings and continue to be the voice for visual journalists. I believe in Mindy, we have a great person to fill Jim’s shoes," Carey said.
"I'm ready for the challenge of leading NPPA's staff through this reorganization," Hutchison said today. "We're motivated to find the best ways to recruit, engage, guide, and utilize volunteers. We know that visual journalists are exceptionally busy these days, and if they're taking time to help NPPA we want to see their efforts come to fruition."
"We've accomplished quite a bit under Jim Straight's leadership during the past few years," she said. "A membership survey helped us to learn more about who our members are and to identify their priorities and interests. In addition to developing a strategic plan, a vital governance restructuring was implemented. Now that these foundations are in place, I feel confident that we can move forward with greater ease and focus."
Hutchison says that a major area of NPPA's focus going forward will be developing online educational content, offering quality webinars, and educational materials that members can access easily at home. "I'd also like to push towards having more workshops held at universities across the country, so that we could reach more members for the face-to-face networking and education that people crave," she said.
Hutchison has worked with both of NPPA's past two executive directors.
"After working with the staff, leadership, volunteers, and members for more than five years, I feel as though I know the organization inside and out. And I'm coming to this position with my heart already invested in the organization, its members, and its mission," she said.
"Working with Jim has been a pleasure and a privilege. I know I speak for the entire NPPA staff when I say that we will certainly miss him."
Hutchison joined the NPPA staff in 2005 and she's been responsible for the strategic management of member recruitment and retention as well as the administration of member benefits, services, and data. In her role as membership director she revamped the membership department, and she's exhibited a special talent for streamlining and organizing systems. Hutchison has attended five NPPA board meetings since joining the organization, and has been the staff's liaison to the board and NPPA's volunteers for various committees and projects, including Web site improvements.
Many of the new member benefits and special offers are the result of Hutchison's negotiations with many of NPPA's outside vendors and partners, and she's recently overseen an upgrade to NPPA's Job Information Bank on the organization's Web site. Hutchison is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a BS in Sociology.
"I'd appreciate any feedback from members or potential members on what they need and want from the NPPA," she said, "and if anyone out there would like to get involved as a volunteer, let me know and I can steer you in the right direction!"
Straight told News Photographer magazine today that his decision to leave "was a really hard choice."
"I love NPPA and my time here, but my roots are in healthcare non-profits and an opportunity presented itself to serve people with diabetes and hopefully to help prevent others from getting the disease. I felt compelled to go in that direction. But I do want to stay involved in NPPA, as a volunteer, because I think it's a mission that's important."
Having worked with Hutchison during his time at NPPA, Straight thinks Hutchison "will be great."
"Mindy has been my second in command over the past three years, she knows NPPA better than I do, and she's a natural leader who truly cares about the members and the mission. The decision to leave would have been a lot more difficult to make if Mindy had not been here to step in. She has a lot of drive, and we all expect her to really hit the ground running."
Today NPPA's president thanked Straight for his service to the organization.
"When Jim came to NPPA three years ago, one of the first things I heard was 'if we can keep Jim for several years, we'll be lucky,'" Carey said. "In my two years as president I've have come to rely on Jim and the staff for so much on a day-to-day basis. Jim has been instrumental in helping reform NPPA by streamlining our Bylaws, creating an elected national board of directors, bringing in new sponsors, cutting expenses throughout the organization, and re-evaluating our educational offerings."
Straight came to NPPA in 2007 from his post at The Hormone Foundation, the public education affiliate of the Endocrine Society in Chevy Chase, MD. Before that he was the senior director of Medical and Community Programs and Development for the National Kidney Foundation of the National Capital Area in Washington, DC.
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