Board Member Spotlight
Owner of Valley Screen Printing and RVWA Board of Directors Treasurer
I have always loved anything creative and artsy! As a kid I dreamed of owning a candle shop with my best friend. We took ceramic, crochet, and cooking classes together. We grew up as big Notre Dame football and basketball fans and loved going to games and hanging out. When I was sixteen, my dad told me that I needed to report to work at his print shop, Valley Screen, to help with a big postal service project. I worked there during the summers until after college, when I started full-time, first in customer service, and later graduated to a sales position. Starting at the age of 22 I called on accounts in the RV, Marine, Fleet, and Advertising industries, and had no idea what I was doing!
However, I took a Dale Carnegie Sales Course that gave me the basics and from there, I fearlessly jumped in. Almost 40 years later, I’m still at Valley Screen and the thing that still excites me most is making a big sale. Creativity is an integral part of what we do so I guess my artsy beginnings have been an integral part of my formation. I was named President of the company in my 30s and it’s been a wild ride ever since. We supply decorative graphics primarily for the RV and marine industries, but have accounts in transportation, higher education, healthcare, and corporate identity. We’ve seen a lot of changes in both the RV and the printing industries over the years. It’s exciting and rewarding to see the wide array of products and the diversity of the camping enthusiasts that now enjoy the products we work so hard to produce along with our OEM partners.
I am a serial volunteer board member, serving on more than a dozen boards and committees in the South Bend and Elkhart area. My passion is helping underserved women, primarily with the YWCA, and women in business through my work with Women Business Owners of Michiana, WBENC (Woman’s Business Enterprise National Committee), the South Bend Chamber and more recently, RVWA. I also advocate for our community’s health and well-being as a member of Beacon Health System Board and as former board chair at Memorial Hospital South Bend. I still love anything artistic, including knitting, jewelry design, cooking and gardening. My husband Darrell and I love spending time up North and also with our four grown kids and 13 grandkids. They are my greatest joy…..life is great!