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MSA EXPERT ASSOCIATES
Mickey Schaefer, CAE President Mickey Schaefer & Associates LLC A proven leader and visionary, Mickey Schaefer brings a fresh, innovative perspective to meet the unique needs of each client. Her energy and experience have transformed industry thinking and have helped organizations focus on two critical ingredients of success – an unrelenting focus on key objectives and strategies and an unwavering commitment to return value to stakeholders. ENERGY • EXPERIENCE • INNOVATION
ABOUT MICKEY SCHAEFER
Mickey Schaefer has been involved with
association management and the meetings industry for over 30 years.
She
has been involved with association management and
the meetings industry for over 30 years. She began her career
with ten years of service as Executive Director of the Missouri
Academy of Family Physicians, and then branched into the supplier
side of the industry as National Sales Manager for the Convention &
Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City. She received her
designation as a Certified Association Executive (CAE) in 1981 from
the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
In 1984 she joined the staff of the American
Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP -- $75 million budget; 400 staff)
serving first as Director of the Membership Division, then Director
of the Meetings & Conventions Division. She also served as
Exhibit Manager and, later, Convention Manager for the AAFP’s Annual
Scientific Assembly ($9 million budget; 20,000 attendees; 600,000
g.s.f. exhibit space) before being promoted to Vice President.
From 1996 to 2005 she served as Vice President over five AAFP
divisions, including Administration, Meetings & Conventions,
Membership, and Strategic Planning & Marketing, where she was
responsible for 110 staff and a budget of $45 million. While a
Vice President at AAFP she directed the organization’s market
research and strategic planning efforts and was responsible for
shifting the Board of Directors toward a strategic governance model.
She completed her Graduate degree with an emphasis
in Marketing and Organization Development in 1995 and served in a
variety of volunteer and leadership positions while residing in the
Greater Kansas City area, including the Big XII Conference, the
Kansas City Society of Association Executives, the PCMA Heartland
Chapter, and the Board of Directors of the Greater Kansas City
Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Schaefer has been named
among the 25 Most Influential in the Meetings Industry by
Meeting News magazine on three occasions, most recently in 2005.
She has held numerous influential leadership positions within the
meetings industry and association community, including serving on
the board of directors for the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors
Association, past Chairman of the Board of the Professional
Convention Management Association (PCMA), and Director on the PCMA
Education Foundation Board of Directors. She was honored by
PCMA in 2003 with the Foundation’s Professional Achievement Award.
In 2003 she was selected by her peers to become an
ASAE Fellow—a prestigious group of top association leaders within
the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). Most
recently, she was selected by the CIC to be inducted in 2006 into
the prestigious CIC Hall of Leaders, which honors the
industry’s outstanding leaders and innovators.
A seasoned, industry professional, Schaefer is
currently living in Tucson and is devoting her consulting practice
to efforts which have a profound impact on the meetings industry,
tourism, and associations.
Learning & Instructional Systems Following careers in higher education and association management, Dr. Lawler recently established an education and learning-organization consulting firm, Lawler & Associates Consulting. He has more than 25 years experience in planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating education, leadership, and professional development programs as a university administrator and faculty member, association executive, and consultant to companies and not for profit organizations. His accomplishments include:
Lawler & Associates Consulting specializes in: a) strategic planning; b) facilitating focus group and expert panels; and c) leading the processes of designing and developing education and training programs that meet clear objectives. Lawler earned his doctorate in instructional systems at Florida State University and he is a Certified Association Executive – a designation conferred by the American Society of Association Executives. A seasoned association executive, educator, and facilitator, Dr. Lawler combines a relaxed, insightful approach that provides Mickey Schaefer & Associates with a uniquely fresh perspective. Convention & Tourism Consul Patrick Tierney is a 45-year veteran of the tourism industry. His career in tourism began in 1960 as a room clerk for St. Louis’ Chase Park Plaza Hotel where he quickly learned the value of tourism and customer service. Promoted to sales positions at the hotel and later at the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Bureau, Pat continued his career climb. His passion for the industry culminated in his being named as President of two major CVBs -- the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City and the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau. During his tenure as President of the two CVBs, growth was dramatic, resulting in increased tourism spending, hotel occupancy, and job creation. Under his direction, funding grew over 100% and the voluntary membership programs grew from 250 companies to nearly 1,000. Both CVBs won many national awards. Throughout his career, Mr. Tierney has also served on many local, regional, national and international organizations’ boards of directors. Since his retirement in 1999 from the Tucson CVB, he has been a partner in The Golfe, a 1,000-member association which promoted golf in the hospitality industry, until the firm was sold to a Washington D.C. company. Mr. Tierney was also a partner in Exhibitor Visibility Worldwide, a well-known industry convention publishing company specializing in the medical meetings market, which was sold in 2004 to a New York publishing firm. An energetic and knowledgeable industry veteran, Pat brings a wealth of experience to Mickey Schaefer & Associates, along with an unwavering passion for the tourism industry. Management ConsultantChristine’s career in health care began as an admitting clerk at the Ohio State University Hospitals in Columbus, OH as she worked her way to a bachelor’s degree from OSU. Later she was Assistant Director of Nursing Administration at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC. While in that position Christine earned a master’s degree in health planning in 1980. After earning the master’s degree, Christine became Director of Professional and Government Affairs for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc. where she directed the association’s membership, professional and government affairs divisions. For her outstanding service she was awarded The Presidential Citation in 1986. Later in 1986 Christine joined the Executive Offices of the American Association of University Women, Inc. and the AAUW Educational Foundation, Inc. in Washington, DC. Her responsibilities included coordination of seven department heads in implementation of association-wide procedures and programs and strategic and long-range planning for the 150,000 member association and foundation. From 1988 to 1989, Christine was Executive Director of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, a trade association with 300 member organizations, where she was responsible for budgeting and financial management, government relations, lobbying, and membership development. In 1990 Christine formed Christine Whorton and Associates (CWA) to provide management consulting services to not-for-profit organizations and associations. CWA’s clients have included the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, the American Diabetes Association, the American Association for University Women Educational Foundation, the La Reserve Community Association, and The Endocrine Society. In the past fifteen years CWA has provided these clients with professional services such as executive support to association committees, creating and operating an employment exchange and job placement services, developing fund raising and accounting procedures, marketing and organization management services. Christine is an experienced association manager and through her firm provides consultation in finance and administration, personnel management, membership development and administration, government affairs, publications, meeting planning and education, marketing, public relations, and board and committee management. With her diverse background in association management and her expertise in strategic planning, Christine is an outstanding contributor to the Mickey Schaefer & Associates team. Consultant – Research/Analysis/Systems Michael Letcher brings many years of experience to Mickey Schaefer & Associates from the information services, database, and analytical industries. After completing his accounting and computer education, he combined his credentials as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Information Systems Analyst (CISA) and entered the glamorous world (pun intended) of data process auditing. In search of opportunities to "do the work," instead of critique it, he ended up at Cerner Corporation, a major healthcare information systems company based in Kansas City. While at Cerner he helped build their first information service, which clients used to compare their hospital's financial and clinical performance to their peers. Mike quickly earned a position as Enterprise Managing Director of HealthFacts, the information service subsidiary of Cerner's at the time. From there, Mike pursued the opportunity to apply his skills and get in on the ground floor of a high-tech startup in the data warehousing, data mining, and analytical software space, called Digital Archaeology. He managed projects to implement the patented technology, creating analytical solutions for many different industries including the areas of finance, database marketing, publication management, media/advertising, and e-commerce. After the high-flying tech days had peaked and an acquiring company had closed its doors, Mike focused his efforts on a major turn-around at a local research company as Vice President of Technology and Innovation before starting his own consulting company, Sense of Life Solutions, Inc. His experience allows him to offer a wide variety of services, including systems analysis, process review and analysis, database development and management, market research, and systems procurement or conversion analysis. Mike’s technological expertise, combined with his knowledge of research and his passion for quality, make him an integral part of the Mickey Schaefer & Associates team. Performance Improvement Consultant Dr. Gallery combines his nearly 24 years of experience as an association executive with his academic training in human performance technology to bring clients expertise in strategic planning, team building, program evaluation, leadership training, staff and volunteer performance development and evaluation as well as group facilitation. During his career with the American College of Emergency Physicians, Michael held a variety of positions, including 14 years as the College's chief operating officer. Before starting his own company as founder and President of OPIS (Organizational Performance Improvement Systems), he introduced numerous innovations at the College including the development of a data driven strategic planning process, a staff bonus incentive plan, performance based budgeting and staff performance goals tied to the College's strategic plan. Michael has also had a long history of leadership in the association management profession. During his career he has:
Michael is currently serving as the chair of the Center for Association Leadership's Measures of Success Project. This landmark research effort in association management is applying the work of Jim Collin's Good to Great to association management. By comparing good associations to visionary associations the measures task force will identify those factors uniquely shared by visionary associations. Michael and the task force have met with Jim Collins on three different occasions — Jim remains an enthusiastic supporter and special advisor to the project. “Mick" has worked with a variety of clients on strategic planning and performance issues including hospitals, school districts, associations and professional corporations His association background, combined with his passion for strategic alignment and performance improvement, make him a natural fit wit MSA. Dr. Gallery will bring special expertise to MSA’s commitment to evolving today’s association into tomorrow’s Strategy Focused Organization, committed to staying strategy focused and aligned to organizational vision and mission.
Tourism Consultant/Account Manager
Kimberly discovered her love of tourism in 1979
working summer jobs in guest relations at the YMCA of the Rockies in
Colorado. While
attending the University of Denver, she stayed on the front-line,
working at hotels and restaurants and becoming a docent at one of
Denver’s historic mansions.
After college, she spent the next 10 years in Real Estate
sales and title escrow, until a part-time job with a meeting planner
led to her become a Certified Travel and Tour Director, prompting a
move to Hawaii in 1994. In Hawaii, Kimberly found a job as a tour guide with Pacific Rim Tours and was quickly promoted to Director of Conventions and Tours. While there, she wrote the company’s operations and training manuals, managed conventions and meetings, guided tours of the Big Island and planned international tours to Fiji and Samoa. She was offered a position as an Account Manager with the second largest Destination Management company in Hawaii, Panache Destination Management. At Panache, Kimberly managed over 30 meetings and incentive programs annually throughout the state and produced a comprehensive training program for Account Managers and Travel Directors. Following 9/11, she started ExcelEvent, a meeting and event planning company and eventually moved back to the Mainland where she was offered an Operations Manager position with USA Hosts in Las Vegas, NV. There she managed over 80 Travel Directors and coordinated meetings and conventions for 10 to 10,000 attendees.
Kimberly’s
marketing savvy and
natural writing ability, coupled with her experience and knowledge
of the travel and tourism industry makes her an integral part of the
MSA team.
Special Projects/Web Consultant Becky's love of the outdoors and passion for
travel led her to summer positions in Yellowstone, Lake Tahoe and
Mt. Rushmore. After
graduating from college in 1988 with a degree in Economics, she
moved to Phoenix to begin her career in the hotel and resort
industry. She held
positions in accounting, front office and human resources at resorts
in Phoenix and Scottsdale.
After conducting hundreds of interviews as Employment Manager
for Wyndham Paradise Valley Resort in Scottsdale, she had the desire
to train job seekers on successful job searching techniques.
She left the industry for several years to work as the Career
Development Coordinator for a private business college.
She had the opportunity to return to the tourism
industry in 2001, when she was offered the Business Manager position
for the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association.
There, she enjoyed managing the association's finances,
handling member requests, maintaining the association website and
coordinating annual conference registration.
In 2007, she became the Program Manager for the Valley
Tourism Ambassadors Program.
She oversaw the development and launch of the Greater Phoenix
CTA Program, which included the involvement of seven local CVBs.
In 2008, she formed her own company, Barndt Enterprises, to
have the flexibility to continue her career in tourism and "manage"
her family at the same time.
Client
Development
Toby became fascinated with the tourism world in
1988 working as a concierge at the Sheraton El Conquistador in
Tucson, AZ. After graduating from the University of Arizona, she
launched her career in tourism at the Doubletree Hotel Tucson as a
Sales Manager where she was recognized as top sales producer for two
years at the Hotel. In 1996 she took a position at the Metropolitan
Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau as a National Sales Manager and
was promoted to Director of Sales after two years. When the JW
Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa broke ground in Tucson in 2003,
Toby was hired as Director of Sales and was the second Marriott
International person on board a team of over 600. She recruited and
trained a team of 12 managers and was charged with motivating the
team in securing advance bookings in excess of 200,000 room nights. Her love for promoting Southern Arizona took her
back to MTCVB as Director of Marketing to assemble an internal
marketing team and develop an in-house agency. Here she managed
marketing strategies that include print advertising, radio and
broadcast, online marketing campaigns, on-and off-line direct mail
campaigns, and other related event/niche marketing programs.
She was also responsible for creating financial co-op
opportunities with MTCVB partners to leverage advertising presence.
Toby’s passion for the tourism industry and abilities to have a direct impact on client development, make her an instrumental member of the MSA team.
Catherine Morrissey,
RN, BSW, MNH
After working in healthcare for 15 years as a nurse/social worker in
various settings, Catherine discovered the convention world, and as
they say, the rest is history. She began work in 1989 for a
fledgling convention publication enterprise called Atwood Convention
Publishing, which grew in a few short years to be the premiere
publisher in this demanding industry.
Catherine began as a receptionist and then moved on to become the
assistant to the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Finding a niche in customer service and trouble-shooting within the
company, she was promoted to Special Projects Coordinator, where she
handled specialty accounts in need of very personalized service.
As the company doubled in size, she was tapped to be the executive
assistant to Wayne Atwood/President and his wife Linette Atwood/CEO.
She worked in this capacity until Wayne’s death in 1995.
Atwood Convention Publishing was then sold and Catherine ventured
out as a freelancer specializing in virtual support to companies. Her company, virtuallyEverything, provides research and analysis services and all manner of administrative support to executives. She works in this capacity for MSA, specializing in Customer Advisory Board coordination & planning and Special Projects. Catherine's intelligence and collegial nature adds refreshing warmth and professionalism to the MSA Team.
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Copyright © 2007-2012 Mickey Schaefer & Associates LLC |
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