Nancy Brown, MITA’s Director of Communications, retired as of July 31. Danielle Coppersmith has assumed her duties as Manager of Communications and Events.
Nancy began her career at MITA in 2000, after working in public relations and print journalism in Michigan and New York after graduating from Michigan State’s Honors College in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. She started working at MITA (which at the time was known as Associated Underground Contractors) when the association was still in the “dark ages,” she joked.
“We did not have a website, we sent member bulletins by mail, and the fax machine was our top technology,” said Nancy, who helped establish the association’s first website, first Facebook page, and sent some of the first e-bulletins along with other MITA staff.
Her main focus throughout the years as MITA’s staff grew and changed remained her favorite task: MITA’s quarterly magazine, Cross-Section.
“I will never forget my first interview at Grand Valley Concrete Products because I was mercilessly teased as I stumbled around trying to take photos throughout the construction shop site wearing open-toed sandals,” Nancy said. “My favorite interview was with Jackson-Merkey, because the friendly, talkative Steve Jackson talked so much the article wrote itself. And John Malloure with C. A. Hull always actively provided me with construction photos and story ideas.”
But by far her most memorable time was helping spread the word about Kurt Poll, of K & R, and his dual-purpose trips to Africa to help drill underground wells and also share audio Bibles with residents.
“MITA members are well-known for being hard-working, family-oriented people, who also eagerly find ways to give back to the community around them and around the world, and I admire that,” said Nancy, who hopes to find time in retirement to volunteer and give back to the community, in addition to spending time traveling with her husband, Tim, and visiting with their two grown sons, Matt and Andrew, and his wife, Andrea.
