What happens when you gather four leaders representing distinct, identity-based association communities? You get a bold conversation about visibility, representation, and creating spaces where people feel they truly belong.

In this episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda sat down with four Association Community Group leaders:

1. Rebecca Achurch, Chair of Association Women Technology Champions (AWTC)
2. Kelli Baxter, Vice President of Black Association Executives (BAE)
3. Carlos Cardenas, President of Association Latinos
4. Diana Lee Tucker, Chair of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Association Community

They discuss:

1. How each of their organizations was formed out of a need for community and visibility.
2. The power of representation and why identity-specific mentoring matters.
3. Why cultural proximity helps build confidence and unlock leadership potential.
4. Their commitment to allyship and how they've collaborated across groups.
5. The importance of welcoming allies into their communities to foster inclusion.
6. Innovative programs, like peer mentoring and CAE funding, that uplift emerging leaders.
7. Challenges around growth and sustaining energy as founders transition out of leadership.
8. The importance of financial sustainability and succession planning for long-term impact.
9. Their hopes to inspire association CEOs to create similar communities within their industries.
10. Why now is not the time to back away from DEI-focused spaces, despite current headwinds.

References:

1. AWTC Website
2. BAE Website

How do you keep members engaged when the industry is undergoing constant mergers and acquisitions? How can an association stay flexible, strategic, and still build a sense of community?

In this episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda interviews Leakhena Swett, President of the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA). Leakhena discusses:

1. What liquid terminals are and how critical they are to the global supply chain, from fuels and chemicals to molasses and palm oil.
2. The diverse membership of ILTA, including 70 terminal members and 300+ supplier members providing everything from drone tech to cleaning services.
3. The constant M&A activity in the industry, and how ILTA mitigates the risk by staying in communication with members and focusing on value.
4. How Leakhena’s background in technology and systems thinking has shaped her strategic approach to leading ILTA.
5. A flexible strategic plan that allows ILTA to pivot quickly, given how fast the industry and regulatory environment are changing.
6. How ILTA is responding to increased demand for in-person engagement by taking committee meetings to member locations.
7. The big changes coming to ILTA’s 2026 annual conference, including CEU accreditation and shorter, more dynamic sessions with organic networking.
8. An intentional move away from rigid session tracks to more inclusive, cross-functional learning.
9. The expansion of roundtable discussions at the conference, supported by a mobile app for gamification and post-event engagement.
10. Why ILTA relocated its HQ from Arlington, VA to downtown DC to better serve its advocacy mission and engage directly with federal agencies.

References:

1. ILTA Website

In this special episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda is joined by colleagues from Matrix Group International, Inc.: Dave Hoernig, Vice President of Software Engineering, Jessica Parsley, Director of Project Management, and Alex Pineda, Creative Director. They look back on the trends they’re seeing in the association space. They discuss:

1. How AI dominated 2025, with associations investing heavily in staff training, internal policies, and custom GPTs to boost content production and streamline workflows.
2. The AI tools that helped Matrix Group clients modernize outdated content by converting PDFs to HTML, summarizing large documents, and creating metadata and schema for better discoverability.
3. Why associations wrestled with how much previously gated content to expose for AI indexing, balancing member-only value with public visibility and relevance in AI search results.
4. “About the Industry” storytelling sections of a website becoming a trend, with associations crafting narratives to spotlight the importance of their fields not just to members, but to the public and policymakers.
5. How clients faced tighter budgets in 2025, making incremental updates and data-driven decisions more important than ever.
6. The notable rise of multimedia content, with podcasts and audio read-alouds replacing and supplementing long-form text to meet member preferences and improve accessibility.
7. How personalization is becoming easier with AI and how associations can now deliver customized recommendations for members, modeled after platforms like Netflix or Duolingo.
8. How AI is revolutionizing design and development, with tools that boost creativity, accelerate prototyping, and reduce tedious manual work.
9. How mobile-first and voice-enabled experiences are expected to surge, especially as younger members rely more on phones and smart speakers for web interaction.

References:

1. Matrix Group Website
2. See how TFI tells the story of the industry.
3. We made a few tweaks to the ALDA website in advance of a larger redesign in the future.