Dear NAI members and colleagues,
As you know, Milward Simpson stepped down as NAI Executive Director at the end of September. Since then, your Board of Directors has been engaged in thoughtful discussion and deliberation, including analyzing where the association is today and where we want to go in the future. The board and its committees and task forces burned more Zoom calls than you can count!
The pandemic brought changes in how we operate, and staff changes have provided opportunity for growth in new directions. We recognized that we needed an Executive Director with solid knowledge of who we are, yet with the capability to bring innovation and action that will move NAI forward. We needed energy, yet stability. We needed a person who could communicate well with the board, with staff, and with the membership. We believe we found that person.
On behalf of your Board of Directors, I’m pleased to announce the next Executive Director of NAI: Paul Caputo.
Many of you know Paul from in-person meetings at conferences, or from Zoom meetings or phone calls to the National Office. Paul has been with NAI since 2002. He was hired as NAI’s first in-house graphic designer, and soon fell in love with this strange field of interpretation. Paul went on to serve as Communications Director, and since 2013 he served as Deputy Director while maintaining his editorial and design responsibilities.
When Margo Carlock retired from the Executive Director position, Paul stepped up to fill that role on an interim basis. He stepped up more than once after that, including leading a team to develop the FY 2022-2023 NAI budget, then taking on more extended duties. Paul is on the board of directors of the Colorado Society of Association Executives and has expanded his non-profit management skills through that organization.
In the short span since Milward’s exit, Paul has developed a plan to restructure the national office and a policy for remote employees, he has restructured monthly executive director reports so that critical action items take the lead, and he advertised for and hired our first marketing and outreach manager, Yvonne Perches. Some of these accomplishments are small, others large, but together they show that Paul is not afraid to put ideas into action. We are confident that incoming NAI President Parker McMullen-Bushman and the new board will find him well prepared to take NAI into the future.
You can reach Paul by email at pcaputo@interpnet.com.
Please join me in congratulating Paul and welcoming him to this new position.
Jay S. Miller, CIT, CIP
President, National Association for Interpretation