Staffing Resources
Blake R Jeffery, Inc. provides access to superb association management services talent on an as needed basis through contract and individual project agreements. This approach limits client costs without limiting the quality of assets available. Listed below are the bios for current full time and contracted staffing resources.
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Blake R. Jeffery, CAE
Owner/President
Blake Jeffery serves as president of Blake R Jeffery Inc. an association management and governmental affairs services company. He brings 25 years of local and state legislative, lobbying, public affairs and management experience to the firm and the associations it serves.
Since 1999, Blake has successfully managed his own association management firm which currently represents three principal clients: the Indiana Cast Metals Association, Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council and the Governmental Affairs Society of Indiana. He serves as executive director for each group and manages all aspects of the association business, including financials, communications, website development, membership needs, event planning and more. He also is responsible for exclusively representing INCMA on state legislative and regulatory matters.
Prior to starting his own association management firm, Blake was the director of environmental affairs for six years with the Indiana Manufacturers Association (IMA) and lobbied for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce prior to his time with the IMA. He spent four years in Washington DC where he worked with the National Association of Counties and was the assistant vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Commercial Real Estate. Before moving to Washington, DC,, Blake was in the 1985 Indiana Governor’s Fellowship.
Blake holds a bachelor of arts degree from Anderson University and a master of arts degree in legislative affairs from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
He received his Certified Association Executive (CAE) professional designation in 2004 and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Indiana Society of Association Executives (ISAE). He was a mayoral appointee to the Indianapolis Air Pollution Control Board for four years and also served on the boards of the YMCA at the Athenaeum and the Governmental Affairs Society of Indiana. He is currently a member of the Chatham Arch Neighborhood Foundation, having previously served as Vice President and Treasurer, which has one of the largest foundation endowments in the State of Indiana.
Sally Shewmaker
Independent Contractor
Sally Shewmaker is currently working on a degree in Education and is is the former director of education at Bose Public Affairs Group. Working in the association management division, she supported represented associations with certification and continuing education needs, in addition to program coordination and special event management.
Prior to joining Bose Public Affairs Group, Shewmaker served as health promotions manager at the American Lung Association and chapter administrator for the Indiana Thoracic Society. In addition, she served as the director of membership and communications for the AMOA National Dart Association and as the outreach and marketing coordinator for the Arthritis Foundation, Indiana Chapter.
Shewmaker received a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, Indianapolis. While attending college, she was an intern in the Indianapolis mayor’s office and also in the office of community service at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Shewmaker is a member of the Junior League of Indianapolis, Indianapolis Delta Gamma Alumnae Chapter and the Indiana Society of Association Executives.
Ryan Dearth
Association Manager
Indiana Public Health Association
Ryan Dearth is currently the Association Manager for the Indiana Public Health Association in Indianapolis. Prior to his current position, Ryan was the assistant vice president and director of communications at Bose Public Affairs Group. Dearth has several years of experience managing a diverse group of state and national associations. As a part of the association management team at Bose Public Affairs Group, Dearth assisted association clients with all of their communication and marketing needs, including the planning and execution of event marketing materials, design work, print production, content for electronic media, and other internal and external communications. Dearth also has extensive experience managing trade shows for a wide range of clients. While at the firm, Dearth also served as the director of annual and quarterly conventions and seminars and as executive director for various organizations. He has also governed association board and committee meetings.
Dearth also assisted High Road Communications, Bose Public Affairs Group’s campaign consultancy subsidiary, with their media needs involving video and audio editing and production. Dearth worked as a copywriter and producer for an advertising agency in Evansville, Indiana before joining Bose Public Affairs Group in 1999.
Dearth received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Radio/Television Communications from the University of Southern Indiana. He is a member of the Indiana Society of Association Executives.
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Mark R. Hannah, CPA
Potts, Hannah & Fischer, P.C.
Mark has over 25 years of experience in controllership and public accounting. He has performed auditing services, served as corporate controller, and filled the role of managing owner of Potts, Hannah & Fischer, P.C. Mark is particularly adept at systems development, cost accounting issues and internal control creation. Mark assists clients on varied needs from everything to part-time corporate controller or providing accounting support. The firm includes three partners and four additional accounting staff.
Stephen SuessCurrently Stephen Suess is a freelance technology consultant in New York City. His website and work can be viewed here. Fluent in a large number of technologies and several languages, Stephen combines sharp analysis with creative problem solving of all kinds.
Stephen is the former VP Technology for LA Weekly (Village Voice Media) in Los Angeles. In this position he defined and implemented technology strategy across multiple publications in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Nashville and Minneapolis (total readership: 3.2 million). He played a major role in creating overall business strategies, developing annual budgets and overseeing capital expenditures while managing a technology team of nine. He designed, developed, and managed rollout of customer relationship manager (CRM), helpdesk, reporting and content management systems across Village Voice Media. He also completely redesigned and reengineered content management and websites for the LA and OC Weeklies. Stephen also held positions as IT Director for LA Weekly, IT Director for Liberation Publications in Los Angeles and Manager of Network Operations for Urbandesign Online in San Francisco.
Stephen’s educational background included study in Architecture at the University of Cincinnati and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later in Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University.
Stephen’s experience with specific technologies and tools includes the following:
Web/Applications Development: asp, jsp, php, cfm, (X)html, XML, CSS, Javascript, RSS
Database Development and Maintenance: MSSQL, MySQL, SQL, ODBC/JDBC
Web Server setup and maintenance: IIS (Windows), Apache (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows), PHP 4 and 5
Hardware and Software Setup and Maintenance: Mac, PC, Linux
File, Domain, Email Servers - Windows Server, Mac OS X Server, AD and LDAP, Exchange, Postfix
Networking: Cisco, VPN, Linksys, Dlink, Belkin and other wireless, internet and router setup and configuration
Software Source control- VSS, CVS, Subversion
Content Management Systems: Joomla (mambo), Wordpress Storefront systems - Volusion, Yahoo store
