Ann Barrett, the longtime executive director of the Wisconsin Association of Medical Equipment Services (WAMES), will retire after the association’s Sept. 28-30 annual conference.
“Ann has been the heart and soul of WAMES for almost 25 years, so while we are very happy for her she will be deeply missed,” said Rick Adamich, president of WAMES President. “WAMES’s strength as a state association is largely attributed to Ann’s leadership over the years. We wish her the best.”
After reviewing multiple options, WAMES reported that its board has chosen Rose Schafhauser, the President and Owner of Association Management LLC (Stillwater, Minn.) to replace Ms. Barrett. Schafhauser also serves as the executive director of both the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services (MAMES) and the Arizona Medical Equipment Suppliers Association (AZMESA).
“It has been a wonderful experience to work with the many excellent people in and connected to WAMES,” Barrett said. “I’ve seen this association accomplish many great things and I am delighted that Rose is to be the new Executive Director.”
Schafhauser’s company also provides administrative support and services for the Region A Council, the Region B Council, the Region C Council and the National Supplier Clearinghouse Advisory Committee. She has also served on the board of directors of the American Association for Homecare and is a past chair of AAHomecare’s State Leaders Council.
“As a board, it was important to us that we hired someone with strong industry ties. Rose is extremely advocacy savvy while still being effective administratively,” Adamich said. “She has everything we were looking for in an Executive Director and more. We are very excited to be bringing on an individual of her caliber.”
“We are very excited to have been chosen to work with WAMES and we look forward to continuing to build on the foundation of excellence that Ann and the WAMES Board of Directors has built over the past 25 years.” Schafhauser said.
WAMES noted that Barrett and Schafhauser will work closely together over the next several months to ease the transition.