Karen McNeill-Harris Selected As American Furniture Hall Of Fame Executive Director

Furniture World News

Karen McNeill-Harris has been selected to lead the American Furniture Hall of Fame as the organization’s new executive director. She succeeds Joanna C. Maitland who retired last fall and was honored with the American Furniture Hall of Fame Trailblazer Award in 2001. In her new role, McNeill-Harris will be responsible for developing new services to promote greater understanding of the U.S. furniture industry and its history, will supervise the annual nomination and selection process for new membership, and will manage all communications efforts including production of the organization’s newsletter, videos, marketing materials and the Web site. In addition, McNeill-Harris has been charged with expanding the organization’s services to colleges and universities that offer home furnishings programs, and will handle planning for the yearly Awards Banquet. The nomination process for this year’s banquet will begin in May. “After a search process headed by Don Belgrad, CEO of Schnadig Corporation, we felt Karen was the best candidate for the new executive director role,” says Leroy Lail, Board president. “We are fortunate to have a person with her knowledge of the industry and with such a strong communications background heading our organization.” McNeill-Harris is president of McNeill Communications Group, Inc., a leading strategic communications, public relations and marketing agency which specializes in home furnishings. She also has served as president and chairman of Women in the Home Industries Today (WithIt). The American Furniture Hall of Fame is an international, industry-wide effort organized to honor those individuals whose outstanding achievements have contributed to the continued growth and development of the U.S. furniture industry, as well as to research, collect and preserve the cultural, economic and artistic history. The organization is based in High Point at 202 Neal Place, and can be reached at 336.884.8700.