| Your Local Resource for Education and Networking. |
MASAE Officers and Directors
- Home
- About MASAE
- Officers & Board of Directors
2023 Officers and Board of DirectorsPresident - Sarah Hagy, CAE
A proud Philadelphian, Sarah enjoys volunteering within her community. Her most treasured volunteer role is being Big Sister to a sixth grader named Synniyah through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The Electrical Association of Philadelphia Vice President - Leslie Teris, JD, CAE
Leslie Teris, JD, CAE, Executive Director, Foundation Financial Officers Group (Talley Management) Leslie Teris leads the team of professionals providing services to the Foundation Financial Officers Group at Talley Management Group, Inc. With more than a decade of experience in the field of professional association management, she has participated in all aspects of association management, working with groups of varying size, complexity, and industry focus. Leslie is a Certified Association Executive, and a member of ASAE and MASAE. Leslie earned her JD at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, NJ, and has experience defending personal injury claims in New Jersey Superior Court. Her legal training in research, analysis, writing, and advocacy translates directly to her role as an advisor to association leadership. Talley Management Group Treasurer - Felicia Taylor, CAE
Felicia K. Taylor is an association executive with more than 20 years of experience working for professional associations. She is the Chief Executive Officer for the New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics. Felicia currently serves on the Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives Board of Directors. She is also part of the Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) (2017-2019 class), a national leadership program through the American Society of Association Executives. She is a recipient of the New York Society of Association Executives 2018 Outstanding Non-Profit Executive Award. She also received the NAPNAP President’s Award in 2011 and the 2009 Standard of Excellence Award for best website development as project lead from the Web Marketing Association. She holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. She earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential, awarded by the American Society of Association Executives in 2018 New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics Secretary - Trudie Bruner, CAE
Trudie is passionate about the good work of associations and the importance of an effective business model to achieve their missions and sustain their efforts. The rapidly evolving economy is challenging the association community’s stronghold on their traditional activities and services, which in turn challenges AMCs and other organizations that serve the association community. While these hurdles have appropriately increased the emphasis on outward strategies, such as missions, membership, and services, this alone is not enough. To be relevant and resilient, AMCs, associations, and the organizations that serve them must also look inward and assess their models of operation. With over two decades’ experience in Association Management, Trudie has served in several modes of management, most significantly the AMC model. Through this work, she has developed a keen understanding of both the operational and strategic business challenges facing AMCs, associations, and the industry as a whole. She founded True Association Management Consulting, LLC, as a platform to share her experience and insight to advance the profession and industry she loves. Trudie holds degrees from Loyola University Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE). She is an active member of several associations, including the American Society of Association Executives™ and the Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives, and believes firmly you should not accept advice regarding your AMC or association from anyone who isn’t engaged with their associations. As a respected member of the AMC community, she frequently serves as a contributor, presenter, and facilitator, including co-organizing and facilitating “#MeToo, Now What? Preparing Our Companies and the Associations We Serve for the New Era of Inclusiveness and Accountability” at the 2018 AMCs Engaged! Conference. Immediate Past President - Dominick Mondi
Northeast Spa and Pool Association Director - Gabrielle Copperwheat
Gabrielle Copperwheat serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Controlled Release Society (Association Headquarters). In this position she provides strategic leadership, governance, finance, brand and operations management to the society. CRS is the premier society worldwide for delivery science and technology. Its 1,200 members: delivery scientists, engineers, clinicians, and technical professionals are creating the future of delivery science and technology through fundamental delivery research, development, regulatory science, and clinical translation. Gabrielle is also Executive of the REMS Industry Consortium, an organization that supports the development of best practices in reducing ambiguity with REMS requirements, advancing the science of safety and risk mitigation for patients; improving predictability and standardization of FDA interactions by bringing together the perspectives of organizations that sell, or anticipate selling, prescription drugs or biologics subject to Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS). Her prior executive leadership experience combines association management company and four national and international non-profit organizations (Insurance Society of Philadelphia, Healthcare Manufacturing Management Council, Third Party Marketers Association, North American Association of Commencement Officers, Convention Sales Professionals International). Gabrielle actively serves on MASAE committees: membership and Mid-Year Conference, prior to becoming Co-Chair of the MASAE Mid-Year Conference in 2020 for two consecutive years and Co-Chair of the 2023 MASAE Annual Conference. Gabrielle holds a Bachelor of Arts from DeSales University, continued education: business, finance, tech communications, HR, human languages from University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Lafayette College and the New Jersey State Board of Accountancy. Internationalization & Globalization for business from LISA in Amsterdam, ND, Yokohama, JP, and Washington D.C., USA. She is pursuing a CAE awarded by the American Society of Association Executives and an IOM. Association Headquarters Director - Jim D’Ovidio
Jim is the owner and founder of Brown Dog Marketing which is a leading supplier of corporate gifts, promotional products, screen printing and embroidering. Brown Dog Marketing has been servicing the trade association industry for 2 decades. The company is ranked in the top 3% of promotional product distributors in the United States. This allows us to compete with national companies with our pricing and still deliver individual service. In 2009, Jim was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year from the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce of which he is an active member and served as a former member of the Board of Directors. Jim is a current member and board director of the Mid Atlantic Society of Association Executives (M.A.S.A.E.) Jim lives in Allentown NJ with his wife Christine, his 3 daughters and Moose the family dog. In his free time, Jim is a avid skier and you will also find him on the soccer and LAX fields cheering on his daughters both in and out of state. Brown Dog Marketing Director - Amy Drum, CAE, CMP, CEM
Drum Meeting Planning & Event Consultants Director - Emily Freeman
Emily resides in the South Jersey area with her husband Kyle, her daughter Lily, and their pug Winston. Talley Management Group Director - Marc C. Labadie, MPAS®, CFP®, AIF®
RTD Financial Director - Kimberly Russell, CAE
Kim has presented twice at MASAE’s Annual Meetings and serves on MASAE’s Membership Committee. She has co-hosted many of MASAE’s networking happy hour events. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and dogs and enjoys reading, crossword puzzles, and dreaming of the beach. Society of Hospital Medicine Executive Director - Denise Downing, CAE, CMP
Neff & Downing Management Services |
Sarah Hagy began serving associations in 2006 when she first made her way into the association management industry. Beginning her career at Fernley & Fernley, Inc., the nation’s first association management company, Sarah spent over a decade honing her leadership and management skills representing trade associations in the waterworks supply, horticultural supply, ice cream vending and kitchen exhaust cleaning industries. Finding her niche in leading trade associations, Sarah assumed the role of Executive Director for The Electrical Association of Philadelphia in the fall of 2017.
Trudie Bruner is the Founder of and a Consultant at True Association Management Consulting, LLC.
Dominick Mondi is the Executive Director of the Northeast Spa and Pool Association (NESPA). Previously, Dominick served as President of the Associated Building Contractors, New Jersey Chapter and prior to that he held the position of Executive Director of the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association. He began his career as a landscape architect, receiving a BS from Rutgers University. Over the last decade, he has coupled his experience as a landscape architect and small business owner with extensive work managing and growing trade associations. 
Amy is an independent consultant with over 30 years of hands-on experience managing meetings, conventions, trade shows, marketing events and special projects for national /international membership associations (trade and professional society) and corporations in industry sectors such as medical, healthcare & STEM, education, finance, insurance and communications. She has worked on staff for both AMC's as well as stand alone associations. Groups range in size from 25 to 20,000 attendees in North America, Europe and Asia. Amy served as MASAE's Mid_Meeting Co-Chair in 2020 and 2021 and Awards Chair in 2022. She and her family are native Pennsylvanians and she enjoys the outdoors and live music.
Emily Freeman, DES, Event Technology Manager, provides oversight of a variety of software platforms in support of client partners, as well as the implementation of new technologies and repeatable core processes. Prior to obtaining this new role within Talley, Emily worked as a meeting manager and obtained her DES certification. Emily has also volunteered on the MASAE Program Committee as both a member and a co-chair for several years, also currently sitting as a director on the 2022 Board of Directors.
Marc Labadie is the Executive Vice President at RTD Financial. Unlike most financial advisors, Marc specializes in working with the non-profit community, working primarily with regional, national, and international member, trade, and industry organizations and/or their foundations. In this capacity, he brings his formal training and experience in serving as a fiduciary to advise and educate volunteer leaders placed in this important, and often unfamiliar role.
Kim Russell joined the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Membership Department in January 2012 and found a career in a field that she never knew existed. As SHM’s Data Operations Manager, she collaborates with different departments about the best uses of the data and marvels at how many ways people can abbreviate the word hospital. She graduated from Rowan University with a B.A. in Communications.
Denise has been President of Neff & Downing Management Services since 2007 and currently serves as the Executive Director for several professional associations, where she oversees meetings and events, membership, communications and more for each association. Prior to becoming President of NDMS, Denise served as a Vice-President from 2002 to 2007 and previously worked in the advertising and corporate marketing fields. Denise graduated from Villanova University, earning a B.S. in Business Administration. She was awarded the Certified Meeting Professional designation in 2007 and the Certified Association Executive designation in 2022.