PNA, Jan. 27

PNA's Wilson earns Certified Association Executive credential

The American Society of Association Executives has announced that Corinna Vecsey Wilson, the PNA’s senior vice president of operations, has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential. The CAE is the highest professional credential in the association industry. Less than five percent of all association professionals have earned the CAE.

To be designated as a CAE, an applicant must have a minimum of three years experience in nonprofit organization management, complete a minimum of 75 hours of professional development, pass a stringent examination in association management and pledge to uphold a code of ethics. To maintain the certification, individuals must undertake ongoing professional development and activities in association and nonprofit management. Approximately 3,300 association professionals currently hold the CAE credential, which was first awarded in 1961.

Wilson oversees both the for-profit and the trade association day-to-day operations, including finance and accounting and the association management division. She came to the PNA as the general counsel in 2000, after eight years in private law practice. She took on management responsibilities for the core association functions (legal, lobbying, meetings, member services and communications) in 2001 and was named to her current position in early 2005.

Wilson graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1986 and from the University of Minnesota Law School, cum laude, in 1992. She practiced in the Advertising, Media and Entertainment Law Group at the Minneapolis firm Fredrikson & Byron from 1992 to 1997, and in the Harrisburg office of the Corporate Group at the Pittsburgh-based firm, Buchanan Ingersoll from 1997 until 2000.

Prior to law school, Wilson worked as a reporter for The Associated Press in New York City, as a research assistant for The New Yorker magazine in Paris, as a news clerk at the International Herald Tribune in Paris and for a literary agency in New York City. She comes from a family of reporters and editors.