Meet Your Candidates for International Secretary

(Candidates listed in alphabetical order. Please read to the end.)

Membership feedback is important, and all members should feel they have a voice. In the past few years, many new initiatives have been developed in direct response to membership feedback. These initiatives have added value and enhanced IAIP’s presence among industry professionals.  What newly implemented IAIP initiatives have you taken advantage of and what is your plan to encourage members to become more involved in the association?

Martha Elliott:

I am taking advantage of the Mastermind community. I believe it is one of the most important initiative our association has implemented. The people in your Mastermind group are there to be your coach, your cheerleader, or your navigator for difficult situations and you get to do the same for each of them in return.  The groups are kept small so that everyone can have the opportunity to be heard and seen. It’s a fantastic opportunity to be a leader, share experience, and to find answers.

To me, it is easy to be involved in this association because there are so many opportunities and amazing people to work with. Everyone I have worked with inside IAIP has always done their level best to make sure the project succeeds. These are exactly the kind of people you want to work with!

I am lucky to have a local association, which from the beginning, was there to support, encourage and help me along the way. It’s for these reason that I believe we need to focus on MAL issues. Where is the support for the MALs?  WE ARE ALL THEIR SUPPORT!  We have a growing number of Members At Large and those of us in locals may find we are MALs in the future. We need to be reaching out to MALs and making sure they have what they need from this association. We’ve already started thinking in this direction, but more should be done. We need to make sure all members know they are equally valued.

Candidate Resume & Experience: Martha Elliott CIIP, CIC, ANFI, CISR is currently serving her second term as President of Insurance Association Of Suburban Kansas City (IAOSKC), Region V, and is a candidate for IAIP International Secretary in 2023.

Martha began her insurance career as a Client Service Coordinator for Marsh & McLennan Agency in Overland Park, Kansas, 2010. After joining IAIP and then earning a CISR, she mentored other employees on the path to designations. She was voted Chair of the company’s Charity Committee, oversaw corporate charity disbursements and worked directly with the administrations of charities like:

Harvesters

The Salvation Army

  Susan G. Komen “Race For The Cure” For Breast Cancer

Light The Night For Leukemia

Since 2011, she has been involved in many IAOSKC charity efforts including fundraising for the Norm Ziegler Trailblazer Scholarship (which is now administered by the Legacy Foundation). Martha has been a member of IAIP since 2011 and served her first term as IAOSKC President in 2013.

During her tenure at Marsh, Martha received three distinguished awards:  International Rookie of the Year (2013), Outstanding CSR Of The Year (KS) (2014), and Regional Client Service Professional of the Year (2015).

She has also served the IAIP Board as Regional Vice President for both Region VII (2015-16) and Region V (2016-17).

Martha’s career took an interesting turn when she accepted an Underwriter II position at Torrent Technologies (a FEMA National Flood Insurance service) (2017-19). She earned an ANFI and soon became the in-house Subject Matter Expert on FEMA’s manual. She worked with agencies nationwide to coordinate insurance information during two U.S. hurricanes and multiple flood disasters. Martha has a Department of Homeland Security Clearance.

In 2019 Martha won IAIP’s Regional Professional Underwriter Of The Year award. Then in 2022 she received the Outstanding CSR Of The Year (KS) from National Alliance and KAIA.

But all of these data points are topical distillations – not enough quality information to let you know who Martha Elliott is, her management style, her personality, how she compares to other candidates on issues, or why you should vote for her.

Martha’s first-of-its-kind campaign website was designed to introduce the candidate to the IAIP voter in a digital but more organic way. There you can find a personal introduction, complete education and scholarship histories, participation timelines, charity details, campaign issues, speech excerpts and convention photos. https://voteforme.info

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Membership feedback is important, and all members should feel they have a voice. In the past few years, many new initiatives have been developed in direct response to membership feedback. These initiatives have added value and enhanced IAIP’s presence among industry professionals.  What newly implemented IAIP initiatives have you taken advantage of and what is your plan to encourage members to become more involved in the association?

Jonel Leake:

I have been all in on the new initiatives! I am in my second cycle of my mastermind group, I am working on the new CLP-A designation and I participate fully in the upgraded website. This is an exciting time to be a member of IAIP. I believe that communication is key in membership engagement. If members don’t know what is happening, they can’t participate. They often need reminders. As Region 1 Vice President, I post on our facebook page, send emails through our website and hold monthly virtual meetings.  I am also a very active participant in the online community and a regular contributor to the IAIP blog and have participated in town hall meetings. These communications allow me to share my enthusiasm about IAIP and have been effective in increasing participation.

Candidate Resume & Experience: I have participated in IAIP on the local, council, regional and international levels since joining in 1985.  I was a multi-term president of my local association and served as the New Hampshire Council Director for three terms. In addition, I served on or chaired various committees at the local and council level. I have co-chaired two regional conferences and served on other regional committees. I served as the Region I MAL Liaison and am currently serving as the Region 1 Vice President.  I am also on the Board of Directors of the Legacy Foundation. I have been a member of the international nominating committee and also served on task forces.

I have been recognized as Insurance Professional of the Year on the local and council levels and as the AAMGA Unsung Hero on the council and regional levels.  I am currently a Member at Large in the State of New Hampshire. I have earned my CPCU, ASLI, AAI, CPIW, DAE and CLP designations and am currently working on my CLP-A.

In the last two years as the RVP from Region 1, I have worked with other members of the board on a collaborative basis. I worked with the RVP from Region V on a board topic to elevate the MAL Liaison to a Director position and we work together to support those directors. I worked with the RVP from Region VII on a board topic to update the comprehensive manual and I worked with the International President to update the “Of the Year” award applications. The RVP from Region IV, the International VP and I worked together on reviewing the educational pricing and we are working on another joint project. As the RVP representative on the Legacy Board, I worked with the other members to encourage members to apply and we went from three grant applications in the prior year to 12 grant applications in the last cycle.

I am very proud of everything the Board has accomplished in the past two years but my job isn’t done. I want to keep working together with all of you for IAIP