VIDEO: Meet Artesha Moore, Forum’s New President & CEO

This video was created by FORUM Magazine to get to know Artesha Moore, Forum’s incoming president & CEO. In this video, Moore answers the following questions:

• Tell us about your professional experience (0:11)
• What do you look forward to in your move to Chicago? (1:53)
• Why are you interested in leading Association Forum? (2:40)
• How do you plan to further develop Forum’s Welcoming Environment? (3:49)
• What’s something that would surprise people about you? (6:15)

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If you’d prefer to read the article, see the transcript below:

Artesha Moore: Hi, I’m Artesha Moore and I’m the new CEO and President of The Association Forum.

Tell us about your professional experience

Artesha Moore: So, I’ve been working in associations for are more than 20 years. Like many association professionals, I stumbled into this career by accident. I was looking for a job and I was knowledgeable about building databases using SQL programming. So, I applied for an administrative assistant position for a small professional society in Washington DC. And when I was in the interview, the Deputy Executive Director was peppering me with all kinds of questions about leading teams and managing programs. And so, I thought for sure, I wasn’t going to get the job, right?

But instead they made me an offer to be a Membership Manager and that started me in the career of association management. I didn’t know about professional societies or associations, but this career changed my life. I found a career that I loved and it allowed me to gain a variety of hands on experience and really make meaningful impact for a variety of careers. So, I’ve been fortunate to have the experience of working through technology strategy and implementing future thinking, forward thinking integrative programs. But also really maximizing and helping others maximize their leadership potential for various societies. And so, I believe in using power of data and technology, but really breaking down silos and structures in a way to motivate others, to dream big, and achieve more.

What do you look forward to in your move to Chicago?

Artesha Moore: I am really excited to moved to Chicago. I’ve only been there a few times in my previous roles for board meetings and conferences and every time I’ve come, I’ve loved it. Throughout the different parts of the year, so I hear everyone talk about the winter, I’ve been there and the deep fall, and I loved it then as well. And I think the thing for me is the food, the music, the culture, they’re all top notch. And really the people, everyone that I’ve ever met that’s from Chicago or have lived there for a long time, they have such a chill vibe. And so, I’m excited to move to the city and get to know it from the inside.

Why are you interested in leading Association Forum?

Artesha Moore: Becoming the new President and CEO of Association Forum allows me to give back to the community that’s given so much to me. As I said earlier, associations really changed my life and gave me a career. And so, being able to be in this position and give back is the number one reason why I applied. Though I’m not from Chicago, I’m really familiar with the Association Forum and its programs, its resources, and the volunteer leaders. And so, being able to lead the Association Forum as it relates to giving access to learning and opportunities for others to find their own leadership voice is really intriguing and really powerful for me. And then it’s about supporting the community that the members have found such a positive bond with each other and has grown their leadership in their own ways. So, in this new role, I’m excited to help the staff and the volunteer leaders in the board shape the future direction of the organization.

How do you plan to further develop Forum’s Welcoming Environment Program?

Artesha Moore: Diversity, equity, and inclusion has been a staple of my life and my leadership. As a Black woman who assumed a leadership role as a senior staff leader in my late twenties, I focused all of my energies on creating frameworks that lead to structural change that’s lasting. And so, throughout my career I’ve worked to identify volunteers and staff whose voices and ideas just were not being heard and provide them with an opportunity to lead. My efforts to support these leaders in some ways has really helped me learn more about how to tell stories and a way to inspire others with their unique and diverse voices. And so, most of the organizations tend to overlook their talented staff and then when they do engage them, they don’t create an environment that really supports them bringing their authenticity forward. So, as it relates to welcoming environment in that initiative, I was really intrigued from the beginning in that regard.

And I’m excited to bring my background forward in a way that can maybe help support the acceleration of that. I have a background in the business of learning and aligning technology and ways to help deeper integrate programs within systems. So, I’m looking forward to finding ways with the volunteers and the staff on how to use my experience in a way to really change the game for the industry. I think now more than ever creating those sustainable welcoming supportive environments is going to be essential to all organizations to thrive. And so, as associations create the new value proposition for that next generation of leader, being truly inclusive and equitable in an authentic way is imperative, right? But most organizations right now, they have the desire to change but they don’t know how. And that’s where I see this program really helping to show not just the tools and the resources, but the day to day work of how leaders are doing it and living it, making it more welcoming for the next future generation of leaders.

What’s something that would surprise people about you?

Artesha Moore: I don’t know if it’s a surprise because people who know me know this deeply, but I love science fiction and superhero content. I’m talking books, movies, comic books, podcasts, Marvel, TikTok, you name it. I think it would surprise people how much of that content throughout my life has shaped my strategic and leadership thinking. So, a lot of the ideas or concepts or even ways of doing things comes from exposure to science fiction in a way that anything is possible, right? So, my father loved everything science fiction and especially movies about space and aliens. And so, when we were young, he took us to movies to see everything. And my mom is an avid reader, so every other weekend we would go to the library and we could pick whatever we wanted. She just allowed us to go in, as long as you got books, she didn’t mind.

So, mine were usually a mix of Danielle Steel novels and Octavia Butler stories, right? I love the messy drama, but the science fiction pushed my imagination to embrace the impossible. So, in the sci fi stories, it was always cool interesting people coming together, right? They got to use cool technology and together it overcame the impossible. And so, when I think about the work that I do every day in associations, I look through those lenses. I get to work with cool, inspiring people. I get to use new technologies in new ways and together we accomplish the impossible. So yeah, sci fi. Avid sci fi reader, fan, and send me suggestions.