Five TAA members have been elected to the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Mike Kennamer has been elected Vice President/President-Elect, Mark Lerner has been elected for a second term as Treasurer, and Claudia Sanchez has been elected Secretary. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste and Katrina (Katie) Van Heest have been elected to Council positions.

Kennamer is Director of Workforce Development at Northeast Alabama Community College, President/CEO of Kennamer Media Group, Inc., and author of more than 50 publications, including textbooks on healthcare and public safety. He is a research fellow for the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Rural Education. Kennamer currently serves as TAA secretary, a TAA Ambassador, and chairs the Membership Marketing Committee.

Lerner is a published author with 15 plus years experience in desktop publishing. As a certified professional medical auditor, his company provides expert testimony, audits, seminars, and other products and services for attorneys, physicians, students, and governmental agencies. He serves, or has served on, more than five executive boards, and has more than 30 years of auditing and collections experience.

Sanchez is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Texas Woman’s University. As an academic author, her research interests include second language teaching methodologies, Spanish language literacy, multicultural teacher competency, and parental involvement in K-12 education. She is currently serving her second term on the TAA Council.

Howard-Baptiste is an assistant professor at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the Department of Health and Human Performance. She teaches courses related to Health Behavior Change, Sociology of Sport and Community and Environmental Health. She has been teaching at the secondary and collegiate level for over twelve years. Her research interests center on the experiences of Black female scholars in the academy.

Van Heest is an academic editor who works with scholars to develop and polish their research so that it makes its mark in academe and beyond. She has taught at Pomona College and worked on a multiyear curriculum grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to running Tweed Editing LLC, Katie sits on the advisory board of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures, an independent scholarly organization.

Kennamer, Lerner and Sanchez will serve two-year terms beginning July 1, 2015. Howard-Baptiste and Van Heest will serve three-year terms beginning July 1, 2015.

Thank you to all members who participated in the election process. As a member-driven organization, TAA relies on members’ willingness to get involved in governance and other activities of the association. Learn more about the TAA Council.