Association News

ISAE Names New Management Team to Lead Association

Pivot Management Professionals assumed management duties for the Illinois Society of Association Executives (ISAE) starting Jan. 1, 2020. ISAE serves more than 400 association members through educational programs, publications and member services. Headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, ISAE helps its members develop professionally while promoting association work to the public.

Pivot Management Professionals leader Sara Decatoire, CAE, IOM, is the newly appointed Executive Director. “Pivot Management Professionals is honored to have been selected to represent ISAE,” says Decatoire. “Having served as volunteer leaders for ISAE in the past, we are excited to take on this new role as staff and look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with our friends and colleagues. Working directly with ISAE members will offer us an excellent opportunity to provide value based on individual and organizational needs.”

The Association Forum commends ASAE for the creation of this new award category. One of our core values is to be a welcoming environment, and diversity and inclusion are a key component of that.

Hyatt Centric Chicago Magnificent Mile Hotel Receives Prestigious Award

Chicago’s Hyatt Centric Chicago Magnificent Mile hotel was awarded the prestigious Donald N. Pritzker Franchise Hotel Team of the Year Award. Criteria for the award include overall achievement in the financial success of the property, outstanding guest service experience, creation of a positive work environment and overall display of leadership qualities.

“As we wrap up 2019, extending my ongoing gratitude to the colleagues with whom I am privileged to work at Hyatt Centric Chicago Magnificent Mile—winners of the Donald N. Pritzker Franchise Hotel Team of the Year Award. I’m so proud of this group of hospitality professionals for all that they do to provide genuine care for our guests, each other and the community!” general manager Doug Dean writes in a LinkedIn post.

ALA Announces New Executive Director

On Feb. 24, 2020, Tracie Hall became the American Library Association’s (ALA) new Executive Director. Hall succeeds Mary Ghikas, who has worked for ALA since 1995 and had been Executive Director since 2018.

Hall returns to the ALA where she served as director of the Office for Diversity from 2003–2006. “Her unique combination of philanthropy and library know-how position her to be the leader ALA needs today,” writes ALA President Wanda Brown.

Hall started her career directing shelters and transitional housing for homeless youth and then took a position in youth services at the Seattle Public Library, where she notes she “fell deeply in love with libraries.” In 1998, she became part of the ALA’s first cohort of Spectrum Scholars, a then-new program to diversify librarianship, completing her MLIS at the University of Washington. After working at the New Haven Free and Hartford Free Public Libraries, she went on to become the second director of ALA’s Office for Diversity in 2003, where she administered the Spectrum program and became a visible and well-regarded leader, speaking nationally; delivering diversity, equity and inclusion trainings; commissioning and co-authoring Diversity Counts, ALA’s first comprehensive study of gender, race and age in the library profession; and authoring three successful IMLS grants to expand the Spectrum Scholarship Program. She left ALA in 2006 to become assistant dean of Dominican’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Most recently, Hall worked for Chicago’s Joyce Foundation developing grant programs.

Hall became the 10th Executive Director and 24th chief staff officer of the 144-year-old association.