40 Under 40

Part 2

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ACCE is dedicated to recognizing and supporting the most talented professionals in the chamber industry. This annual recognition program showcases 40 of the industry’s top emerging leaders who have demonstrated success in their careers and made significant contributions to the communities they serve. The list includes CEOs and staff professionals from a wide variety of roles and chamber sizes. Their creativity, dedication and commitment to identifying innovative solutions will help shape the future of the chamber profession.

Ainsley Johnston
Events Manager
Greensboro Area Chamber of Commerce
Greensboro, N.C.
Nominated by Tracy Myers, EVP, Member Engagement, Greensboro Area Chamber of Commerce
Ainsley has utilized her experience in planning large festivals and her work in the theatre to transform not only the Greensboro Chamber’s events and programs, but also the industry. She is a thought leader in events and programming. She works with marketing professionals to add production value that wraps around the content of events to create experiences that community members find exciting. Ainsley grew our signature events to sell-out status with over 1,000 attendees. Community leaders seek out her advice when planning other major events in the city. During the pandemic she worked tirelessly to recreate and reimagine events and programming in a virtual, and now hybrid, format. Her creativity and skillset allowed us to meet our pre-pandemic goals.

Drew Kamp
President & CEO
Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Nominated by Chamber Board Chair Judd Knispel, State Farm Insurance
I was board chair when it was time to hire a new CEO. Chamber relationships in our community were poor. Portions of the Chamber had even branched off into separate entities and there was not much hope in bringing these groups back together. We could not have hired a better person and leader. Drew has tirelessly and masterfully worked on all of these relationships. City, county and major employer/funder relationships are flourishing. We set a very challenging goal for Drew to bring these groups together—and he crushed it!

Katie Lopez
Director, Military and Workforce Development
Tampa Bay Chamber
Tampa, Fla.
Nominated by Bob Rohrlack, DBA, CCE, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Chamber
Since joining the Tampa Bay Chamber in 2018, Katie’s leadership has helped the community gain national recognition for its efforts to support military families, including the Association of Defense Community’s Great American Defense Community Award, Hiring Our Heroes Three-Star Chamber of Valor Award and the Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Community of the Year Award. Katie also revamped our workforce development committee and was the catalyst leading our workforce housing committee. These issues are impacting all communities and in Tampa Bay, the collaboration with our city, county and educational institutions has greatly increased and we are currently working on new zoning restrictions for density and parking.

Joshua Lunger
Senior Director of Government Affairs
Grand Rapids Chamber
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Nominated by Andy Johnston, CCE, IOM, Vice President, Government Affairs, Grand Rapids Chamber
Josh leads our advocacy efforts on local government, housing, environment, energy and transportation. He recently organized and led the Michigan Housing Coalition, which boast over 100 members and is focused on creating and expanding tools for local governments to support the development of attainable housing. The bipartisan legislation Josh led overwhelming passed the Michigan Senate and will be acted upon this fall. At the local level, Josh has led a number of successful initiatives including influencing our city’s new COVID ordinance, the creation of social districts and securing more resources to address public safety issues. Josh utilizes an inclusive approach, taking into consideration the broader impact of policy decisions. Not surprisingly, when our leadership team was establishing our organization’s values, he was one of the team members we modeled them after.

Kelley McCall
Senior Vice President, Leadership, Community & Resource Development
ChamberRVA
Richmond, Va.
Nominated by Brian D. Anderson, CCE, IOM, President & CEO, ChamberRVA
Last summer, Kelley created "Shared Values Summit," a program which centered on the work we aspire to do together, across the region and sectors, to strengthen our economy and community. Her vision and leadership helped regional organizations, big and small, step up their support for communities of color by changing business practices, catalyzing transformational projects with other CEOs, and working through civic and community organizations to advance inclusive economic growth. She also led our small business relief fund initiative, a six-week sprint to award 100 grants to local businesses negatively affected by COVID last year. She continues to collaborate with a regional coalition to deploy additional funding in our community.

Danielle McFadden
President/CEO
Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce
Lowell, Mass.
Nominated by Board Member Joanne Dennison, The Guidance Counselor for Grown Ups
Pre-pandemic, Danielle’s creativity, devotion and passion showed. Open to new kinds of offerings, it has never been, “We don’t do it that way.” This chamber never got stale and continued to recruit new members who caught her enthusiasm. As we faced recent challenges like other membership organizations, she didn’t hesitate. Danielle created online fundraisers, identified community-focused partnerships to support the greater good, used social media to raise awareness and spread happiness, retained and astonishingly recruited new members, provided support to the broader community and launched virtual programs and events – all with an element of fun.

Megan Mullins
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Wilmington Chamber
Wilmington, N.C.
Nominated by Natalie English, CCE, CCEC, IOM, President & CEO, Wilmington Chamber
Megan has helped to amp up the Wilmington Chamber’s image in our community. She has used her experience in retail marketing to tell our story in every possible medium. She revamped our website, social media properties, membership and sponsorship sales material and more. She also brings a unique perspective to the staff team, having been an active volunteer in a political party in our community. As we discuss our advocacy opportunities, she plays an important role helping us understand how we might appear to that party. That has enabled us to truly live into our role to be the sane center and to advocate for prosperity and the business growth that enables prosperity.

Samuel P. Murphey
Chief Strategy Officer
Greater St. Louis, Inc.
St. Louis, Mo.
Nominated by Jason Hall, CEO, Greater St. Louis, Inc.
Sam has played a lead role in guiding the formation, strategic mission and revenue growth of Greater St. Louis, Inc., the premier economic development organization in the bi-state metro. He is the mastermind who makes things happen. He has a relentless work ethic and is trusted by this region's most influential CEOs. Sam’s extraordinary skills in analysis, stakeholder engagement and strategic communications helped guide the complex, year-long process the successful conclusion of the merger of five regional entities and launch of Greater St. Louis, Inc.

Jesse Phillips
Coordinator of Inclusive Growth
Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce
New Haven, Conn.
Nominated by Garrett Sheehan, President & CEO, Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce
Jesse originally joined our team as the partnership services coordinator. During his tenure, he quickly expanded the role into our diversity and inclusion efforts. Jesse began leading our Diversity and Inclusion Council and making inroads with BIPOC-owned businesses that had not been involved in the chamber. Though new to the chamber world, he has taken our organizational model and fundamentally changed it to be more diverse and inclusive. The chamber is about partnerships, and he has created many, but he has also built a new level of trust with many businesses in our community.

Jacqueline Pitts
Vice President, Communications
Kentucky Chamber
Frankfort, Ky.
Nominated by Ashli Watts, President & CEO, Kentucky Chamber
As the first professional journalist to launch a news platform at a state chamber, Jacqueline led the way for other chambers across the nation to do the same. Since then, The Bottom Line has become one of the most respected political news sites in Kentucky. In 2021, she was named as the chamber’s first vice president of communications, overseeing all communication efforts for the chamber. Jacqueline oversees the organization’s communications and marketing strategy, which includes managing social media, media relations, graphic design, email marketing, print and digital newsletters, website design, advocacy communications, program marketing, photography and more. Jacqueline has been a trailblazer for expanding the chamber’s efforts and outreach.

Brittany Quick-Warner
President/CEO
Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce
Eugene, Ore.
Nominated by Chamber Board Chair Cale Bruckner, President, Concentric Sky
It has been my privilege to work closely with Brittany and observe firsthand her leadership skills, amplified by her ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit, fearlessness and work ethic. She rose to the challenge in unimaginably difficult times marked by COVID-19, devastating wildfires, social unrest and an epidemic of homelessness. She maintained and grew our membership, launched Onward Eugene to promote economic development and tap new funding sources, implemented a new membership model, helped businesses access COVID relief funds, took a high-profile position in support of racial justice, increased chamber efforts to diversify its leadership and program participants and issued a seminal report on homelessness calling for a radically new approach to the problem.

Kayla-Rose Rombalski
Director of Talent Development and Interim Director of Business Engagement
Portage County Business Council
Stevens Point, Wis.
Nominated by Todd Kuckkahn, Executive Director, Portage County Business Council
Kayla was brought into our organization as the director of talent development. In September 2020, she added the role of director of business engagement when the board of directors decided to not fill the vacated position. She has turned the membership position on its head – in a positive way. The logistics and our use of ChamberMaster as a tool instead of a burden has helped to streamline so many aspects of the organization. She also developed a new member retention system that streamlined the program with a reduction in lost members, even during the pandemic. She pivoted in her role as director of talent development, as well. Due to the pandemic, we had to flip our Leadership Portage County program from live to virtual. The crowning achievement was a drive-through graduation for the participants that included staff in caps and gowns.

Jack Russell, CP
President
OneZone Chamber of Commerce
Fishers, Ind.
Nominated by Chamber Board Chair Patrick Broccol, Co-Owner, Senior1Care
Jack is a strong, servant leader whose passion for the chamber shines through his efforts to create innovative projects, collaborative relationships with business and community leaders and a fun, professional work environment for his team. He has been able to take OneZone to yet another level this year by focusing on value-adding opportunities, including creating a new supplier diversity program, launching a health and wellness committee, establishing a women in business group and advocating for county funding to support a career center.

Colleen Schipsi
Program Manager
Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce
Holland, Mich.
Nominated by Jane Clark, CCE, IOM, President, Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce
Colleen’s commitment to our members and their chamber experience has taken our programmatic work to the next level. In the last year alone, she developed and managed 45 digital programs during a time when Michigan prohibited any in-person gatherings. She implemented an intentional pivot in our programmatic priorities and was driven to be innovative and truly responsive to what our members wanted and needed. Colleen has stretched herself to learn new skills and been successful doing it. She constantly thinks bigger to make things better and has demonstrated a willingness and ability to successfully learn brand-new areas of work.

Courtney Shaw, APR
Senior Vice President of Communications
Greater Des Moines Partnership
Des Moines, Iowa
Nominated by Greater Des Moines Partnership President & CEO Jay Byers, CCE, IOM, and Chief Operating Officer Tiffany Tauscheck, CCE, IOM, CDME
Courtney joined the Greater Des Moines Partnership in 2019. She has been a positive, impactful contributor, and her efforts have helped us share our region’s story with national and international audiences. Courtney has built strong relationships with the media, and her efforts have resulted in nearly 12,000 media mentions for the organization in more than 55 countries. Courtney has led several high-profile initiatives, including a national digital marketing campaign focused on driving site selectors to consider Greater Des Moines (DSM) as the place to be to expand businesses, and targeting individuals who have the propensity to move to DSM for job opportunities. This national marketing campaign has contributed to more than 325,000 unique visitors to Partnership talent attraction and economic development webpages during Courtney’s time overseeing it.

Whitney Theriot
Vice President & COO
Temple Chamber of Commerce
Temple, Texas
Nominated by G. Roderick Henry, CCE, IOM, President & CEO, Temple Chamber of Commerce
To say it simply, Whitney is a vital team member, a confidant who strives to always be one step ahead by taking on increased responsibilities, challenges and opportunities, enabling the organization to strive for relevancy, to be a level above. She’s demonstrated strong leadership traits by taking on assignments including the successful submission of a workforce grant through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and being accepted into the Business Leads Fellowship program. She was recently elected chair of P-20, a multi-county consortium of education and business leaders working on initiatives to enhance the workforce of tomorrow.

Esmeralda Villarreal
President & CEO
Brownsville Chamber of Commerce
Brownsville, Texas
Nominated by chamber board chair Richard E. Abete, Senior Vice President Commercial Lending Department, International Bank of Commerce
Esmy is a fierce leader with a strong passion to serve her community. She inspires her staff daily to carry out the mission of the chamber. She displays leadership qualities, integrity and a strong work ethic which has paved the way to her being considered one of the top leaders in our community. Esmy is well-known and respected by chambers of commerce throughout Texas by her leadership role as an active board of director of the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives.

Ryan Weaks
Director of Marketing & Communications
Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance
Lynchburg, Va.
Nominated by Christine Kennedy, CCE, IOM, CPC, Chief Operating Officer/Executive Vice President, Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance
Ryan’s first day was the day the COVID-19 pandemic closed down Virginia. He hit the ground running, managing all our COVID communications. He set up our virtual platforms and launched our virtual briefings and trainings all within a week of our state’s lockdown. But that doesn’t even begin to describe his contributions. Within 12 months, Ryan increased our Instagram followers by 500%, our LinkedIn and Facebook likes/followers by over 300 each. He set up our blog publishing 47 posts within seven months. His work with the press and media earned us 37 pieces in our regional paper and 89 mentions with our regional television stations. In 2021, he’s completely revamped the Alliance’s website, launched our new podcast and set up new non-profit and member focused weekly social media campaigns to highlight members.

Jonathan Weinhagen
President & CEO        
Minneapolis Regional Chamber        
Minneapolis, Minn.
Nominated by Chamber Board Chair Cassie Nelson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, McGough Construction
Jonathan brings passion, expertise and strong leadership skills to his role leading the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. In the Minneapolis region, our community has come together to address systemic racism and deal with the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. This occurred as businesses were also struggling through a global pandemic. As the largest and most diverse business association in the region, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber has helped lead the way in tackling these challenges and more. Jonathan has been the steady hand that our business community needed to provide a path forward and hope for a stronger tomorrow.

Katie Yeutter 
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer        
Florida Chamber of Commerce         
Tallahassee, Fla.
Nominated by Mark Wilson, CCE, President & CEO, Florida Chamber of Commerce
Katie embodies the best leadership qualities and drives the innovative, forward-thinking work needed to propel our industry forward. She is playing an essential leadership role in transforming our organization into an entrepreneurial operating system that aligns the right talent with the right strategy and results in momentum and growth, while enhancing our corporate culture. Katie’s vision, coupled with strategic direction, has also been instrumental in leading the Florida Chamber in creating “the Florida Model” for Equality of Opportunity, including growing the Florida Prosperity Project, aimed at cutting Florida childhood poverty in half by 2030, launching our groundbreaking statewide diversity, equity and inclusion effort and a COVID-impact study on childcare, remote work and productivity.

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