The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) has announced that Beth A. White, executive director of the West Virginia Association for Justice, has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation. White is the first new CAE in West Virginia in more than 10 years. Just eight additional West Virginians hold the credential.
The CAE is the highest professional credential in the association industry. To be eligible, an applicant must have a minimum of three years experience with nonprofit organization management, complete a minimum of 100 hours of specialized professional development, pass a stringent association management examination and pledge to uphold a code of ethics.
“Every day I see the extraordinary work done by WVAJ’s attorney and paralegal members on behalf of West Virginia’s consumers, workers, and small business owners. It is a privilege to work with them, provide their practices with critical resources and help them protect access to our courts, the civil justice system and right to trial by jury,” said White.
“As WVAJ’s executive director, it was important for me to continue to develop professionally and help ensure that WVAJ grows and remains the best voluntary bar association that it can be.”
White has more than 20 years of experience in association management, public relations, political communications and campaigns, legislative and media advocacy, and program development. She was named executive director of the West Virginia Association for Justice in June 2005. She had worked with the association since 2003 as a political and media consultant. She earned an M.S. from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, with additional coursework in political communication at the university’s Maxwell School. She earned her undergraduate degree from West Virginia State University. In addition to her new designation as a CAE, she holds an accreditation in public relations (APR).
White is also a published historian and lecturer, focusing on U. S. history from the colonial period through the Civil War and U. S. political history. For more than a decade, she has studied and written on the history of trial by jury and the 7th Amendment, lecturing on the subject extensively to both state and national audiences. She has also written and lectured on West Virginia in the Civil War.
