SEATTLE – The Washington Tourism Alliance has appointed Louise Stanton-Masten as its executive director.
Stanton-Masten was president and CEO of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce when it merged with the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council to create Economic Alliance Snohomish County in 2011. She has more than 25 years of experience in organization management, business development, strategic planning and government and community affairs. She is a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management, has directed and served on numerous nonprofit boards and commissions and operated a successful consulting practice providing public policy and planning to clients in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Stanton-Masten was president and CEO of the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce from 2001 to 2011 and was business development director for Economic Alliance of Snohomish County from September 2011 to January 2012, when she resumed management of her consultancy, Stanton-Masten Consulting.
“I am excited to be working with our members and very dedicated board of directors to help advance the tourism industry in Washington state,” Stanton-Masten said in a news release. “Tourism is a $16 billion industry, responsible for more than 150,000 jobs in Washington state. While building upon the successes of the WTA over the past year, we’ll be aggressively working to establish a long-term and sustainable funding model for statewide tourism marketing and promotion in the future.”
Stanton-Masten’s education includes a master of planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor of science from the University of Vermont, in addition to her organizational management degree from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
She serves on the Future of Flight Foundation Board of Directors and served on the City of Everett Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and the executive board of Leadership Snohomish County. Professional affiliations include the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association. She served on the Washington Chamber of Commerce Executives board of directors between 2006 and 2012 and was board chairman between 2011 and 2012.
Stanton-Masten succeeds Suzanne Fletcher as WTA executive director. Fletcher stepped down last month after fulfilling her one-year employment contract, but remains an active WTA consultant.
The WTA was formed in March 2011 in anticipation of the closure of the Washington State Tourism office. On July 1, 2011, the WTA became Washington state’s official tourism marketing organization and assumed ownership and operation of tourism office assets in order to preserve Washington’s tourism market share.
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