IABC - Heritage Region

She should have known. The signs were all there.

In Brownies, all she wanted to do was to be troop scribe. By junior high, she wasn’t content with just band, orchestra, library club and history club. No, she had to start a debate club.

As an undergrad, she was a political science major. She loved current events. She listened to the news every morning. Then, at breakfast, she recapped the day’s stories to her journalism-major friends to prep them for the quiz in the nine o’clock news class.

When the band scheduled a tour to Europe, she organized a fundraising drive – sell donuts to hungry students in their dorms every Sunday night for a year. Her sorority turned to her to plan special events and serve in two officer positions.

In grad school, she pulled herself out of a warm bed to make 2 a.m. treks through the February snows to listen and record shortwave newscasts at the journalism school for an international broadcasting project.

Social scientists say that the values and habits an individual holds between the ages of 17 and 21 are the values and habits held throughout the rest of a person’s life.

The signs were there … and the social scientists were right.

After college, she worked – community relations associate, broadcast reporter and news editor, marketing communications manager, corporate communications director, independent consultant, adjunct faculty at a community college and a university. She volunteered – Fine Arts Fund campaign chair at two companies, PBS Auction Copywriter Chair for several years, newsletter editor for a Sister City program and her university alumni club, and publicity chair for a community band.

Oh yes! There was another organization. She was invited to a social networking event. The hosts want to start a new group – something called IABC. She became a charter member of the Greater Cincinnati chapter.

Through the years, she held every chapter office, except finance!. She was a member of the chapter’s first accreditation class and continues to mentor ABC candidates.

She served as her chapter’s senior delegate to District 7, then served two terms as district professional development director. She was asked to make a four-year commitment: district secretary, deputy director, director, and past director. She said “Yes.” It marked the start of a new dimension to her IABC service.

A few years later, she became district director for a second term. This time around, she became part of the task forces working on restructuring IABC in the U.S. She facilitated planning for the merger of the former districts 1, 3 and 7 into the new Heritage Region. As a member of the task forces, she researched best practices; co-authored a communication plan for restructuring/change issue; developed key messages; wrote white papers, toolkits, and presentations and developed job descriptions.

As Heritage Region director in 2006-2007, she led the 27-member board of directors and committee chairs through a strategic planning process, developing long-term strategic and short-term action plans; researched and wrote issues and background papers for the board; led the board to develop new revenue streams; and developed the first sponsorship package for the regional conference.

On the international level, she served two terms on the International Executive Board (IEB) and one year on the Council of Regions (COR). She served on the Research Foundation’s Proposal committee for five years and has been an Accreditation exam grader for eight years. She was a member of the Ethics work group for two years, the international conference programming committee for two years, and the Global Membership work group for one year. She is a member of the 500 Club.

In May 2007, IABC/Greater Cincinnati recognized her for her years of IABC service on the local, district/region, and international levels. The Accreditation Council named her an Accreditation Ambassador at the international conference in June 2007.

Joy resides in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburbs with her husband, Hugh Lutton, and their dog, Cherokee, a rescue dog who is part Aussie and part sheltie. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and newspaper journalism and a master’s degree in television/radio, both from Syracuse University.

Joy Lovejoy Past Region Director

Joy Lovejoy
Past Region Director