Sara W. Stephens, MAI, of Little Rock, Ark., will begin her one-year term as president of the Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest organization of real estate appraisers with more than 24,000 members in nearly 60 countries, on Jan. 1. The Appraisal Institute’s other elected officers for 2012 are President-Elect Richard L. (Rick) Borges II, MAI, SRA, of Greenwood, Ind.; Vice President Ken P. Wilson, MAI, SRA, of Plano, Texas; and Immediate Past President Joseph C. Magdziarz, MAI, SRA, of Rockford, Ill. Also serving on the Appraisal Institute’s Executive Committee, as a non-voting member, is Chief Executive Officer Frederick H. Grubbe, CAE.
In the coming year, the Appraisal Institute’s officers and Board of Directors will focus on the Candidate for Designation program. The Board of Directors approved a new strategic vision that will transition the organization from a professional association to a professional society by 2016.
“I want to continue directing our organization toward a professional society, emphasize our ethics and standards, honesty and integrity and be an organization that makes the designation of new members a priority,” said Stephens. “I am proud of our members for their continued involvement in the profession, their commitment to the Appraisal Institute and their support of leadership’s efforts to continue the legacy of the organization.”
Stephens was the organization’s president-elect in 2011 and its vice president in 2010; she will become immediate past president in 2013. She will serve in 2012 as chair of the Appraisal Institute’s Executive Committee and will chair its policy-making Board of Directors.
►Stephens has been active at the Appraisal Institute’s chapter, regional and national levels for more than 20 years. She served two terms as president of the Arkansas Chapter, is the chapter’s current Membership Admissions, Development and Retention Committee chair and has served as both chair and member of the Nominating Committee and chair of the Education Committee. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Chapter of the Appraisal Institute.
►Borges has been a member of the Appraisal Institute since 1978, a member of the National and Indiana Associations of Realtors and the Jackson County Board of Realtors since 1974 and the Columbus (Ind.) Board of Realtors since 1997. He received the President’s Award from the Appraisal Institute in 2009.
►Wilson has been involved in the real estate appraisal profession for more than 30 years. He joined a predecessor organization of the Appraisal Institute in the early 1980s. He began a three-year term as chair of the North Texas Chapter’s Education Committee in 1995 and at the same time was elected to the chapter Board of Directors; he also served multiple years as a regional representative.
►Magdziarz has been an active member of the Appraisal Institute for more than four decades. At the regional level, he has served two terms as regional vice chair and two terms as Region III chair. He has also been a regional representative for many years. On the national level, Magdziarz served three terms on the Appraisal Institute’s national Board of Directors. He has served as chair of the Education Committee for five years and has also chaired the national Audit, Instructor, Faculty and Publications committees. In addition, he has served on a number of project teams.
