Kate Carr Named New HIA President

Kate Carr has been appointed the new president of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA), Washington, DC, the national trade association for hearing device manufacturers. Carr brings more than two decades of non-profit, government, cause marketing, and advocacy experience to HIA.  An experienced leader, she has devoted her career to organizations that change outcomes in healthcare and improve the lives of children and families.

Carr started her career in politics in her home state of Pennsylvania. She moved to Washington, DC, to work at the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee where she developed and directed diversified fundraising campaigns. In 1995, she joined the Clinton White House, serving as Special Assistant to the President, Office of Public Liaison, responsible for maintaining relationships with CEOs, the Washington representative community, trade associations, small business owners, and leaders. After politics, she moved into the not-for-profit sector where she has continued her career for more than 20 years. Under her leadership, organizations have expanded health care programs in the United States and around the world, developed comprehensive marketing and brand awareness campaigns, and significantly expanded advocacy efforts at the global, federal, and state levels.

Most recently, Carr served as the CEO of Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) where she worked on transformational growth of the organization as it entered its 20^th year of operations. She was charged with charting a new strategic plan, rebranding the organization and building awareness, reversing a 3-year deficit spending trend resulting in a budget surplus in 2017, and rebuilding the development and marketing and communications teams.

Carr’s experience in leading worldwide organizations includes Safe Kids Worldwide and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. While President and CEO at Safe Kids Worldwide, she positioned the organization as a go-to source for media on key child safety issues, created a celebrity engagement platform, and doubled revenue in 5 years to $15 million. She led campaigns with ambitious goals to reduce child deaths from preventable injuries by 50% by 2020 and launched new safety programs in India, Malaysia, China, the Middle East, and South America. Through her efforts, the Safe Roads|Safe Kids Campaign was created with an accompanying Summit in Washington, DC, in 2014 and 2016.

Working with leaders in the US House of Representatives, Carr created a Kids Safety Caucus bringing together 40 bipartisan members of Congress. She significantly expanded advocacy efforts at the federal and state levels, with focus on laws and regulations covering product safety, safe sleep, child passenger, and pedestrian safety, fire safety and carbon monoxide poisoning. Her efforts included close collaborations with Consumer Product Safety Commission, US Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.

Carr has also worked in executive roles at the nonprofit organizations Malaria No More, Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), and the Welfare to Work Partnership. She holds a BBA in Economics and Management from Temple University.

The HIA leadership position became vacant after the untimely death of Jane Reese-Coulbourne, who was appointed HIA executive director in February. Shortly after accepting the position, Reese-Coulbourne was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and at that time asked the HIA board to start looking for her replacement. She died on April 23, and her obituary can be read here. The American Association for Cancer Research—an advocacy area for which Reese-Coulbourne had been a passionate advocate—has published an excellent tribute to her.

Source: HIA