Magazine Online    The Authority On African-American Conventions, Incentives, & Leisure Travel

WANDA D. PAUL, CPA, is senior vice president of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCVB). She is responsible for the administration of the PCVB's budget; oversight of all financial operations; technological improvements; personnel administration for their 60 employees and coordination of all office purchasing, administrative and legal matters. She also oversees the Membership Department as well as development programs.

Paul began her career as an auditor for Deliotte Haskins and Sells in 1979 and later went on to serve under the Goode administration from 1983 to 1985, until she joined the PCVB.

AVA M. POPE is director of Sales for the Greensboro Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Her primary responsibilities include spearheading the sales effort in the solicitation of all types of meeting, conventions and events for Greensboro, North Carolina. Her primary target markets are the minority and corporate areas.

A long-time veteran of the hospitality industry, Pope previously worked with the Potomac Hotel Group in Washington, DC as Director of Sales and Marketing. She is a member of many professional associations, including the National Forum for Black Public Administrators.

CHERYL RICHARDS serves as vice president, Strategic Alliances, overseeing the corporate partnership program and member sales and services. In this position, Richards' duties include setting the membership sales and service standard for the bureau, overseeing the production of all member-based publications and maintaining the day-to-day operations of the member services department. Richards, who has been with the bureau for 20 years, began her career in the communications department, where she handled local, national, regional and international trade media. She is a graduate of the University of North Texas, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism/Public Relations and a minor in Business Marketing. Her affiliations include Public Relations Society of America, Dallas/Fort Worth Area Tourism Council, Dallas Community Police Awards Committee, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Dallas Zoological Society Board member and University of North Texas Alumni Association Board Member. As part of the Dallas CVB "Better to Best" program, Richards' goal is to reach out to traditional and non-traditional companies and educate them on the importance of travel industry in the North Texas area. She understands the correlation between collaborating with the Dallas CVB and increased visibility for the company in the business world and is an advocate for the bureau and local business.

PEGGY B. RILEY is director of Multicultural Affairs for the Greater Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau and is a Kentucky Certified Tourism Professional (KCTP). She has been with the Bureau for 14 years.

Her responsibilities include: assisting with the solicitation of minority conventions, meetings and group tourism; minority marketing and community affairs, enhancing employment opportunities within the convention and tourism industry for minorities; and providing access to the lucrative travel, meetings, conventions and tradeshow market for minority-owned businesses. Riley also is the liaison for the Bureau's Multicultural Affairs Advisory Council, (MAAC), which advises the Bureau on multicultural issues, programs and convention solicitation.

Riley received her B.A. degree in Communications from the University of Louisville and her Kentucky Tourism Certification from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY.

She is a Board Member of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers (NABHOOD) and a member of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners; The International Association of Hispanic Meeting Professionals; The African American Travel Conference; The National Multicultural Food Service and Hospitality Alliance; the Louisville & Jefferson Co. Hospitality and Sales Association; the Louisville Chapter of the NAACP; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; Bates Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville, KY; and various other local committees and boards.

BRENDA SCOTT, serves as vice president of Sales and Marketing for the Bryan-College Station Convention & Visitors Bureau. Her duties include overseeing and managing the convention sales, sports market and tourism sales team in a marketing effort to meet and exceed room night target goals and promote and brand College-Station as a destination.

Before entering the tourism industry, Scott enjoyed a successful 18-year career as a corporate officer in the banking industry. She served as vice president of Community and Member Relations for seven years at the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau and is the former president and CEO of the Mobile Area Convention and Visitor Bureau. Under Scott's leadership, the MACVB and Mobile were recognized as award-winning cities and convention and visitor bureaus.

Scott assumed her position as the vice president Sales, Services and Marketing of the Arlington Convention and Visitor Bureau in October of 2006 where she led all operations of convention sales and services.

She was also responsible for the tourism department of the bureau, and all visitor center activities and 35 volunteers. Her accomplishments include exceeding room night goals for 2008 by 11% by the third quarter of the fiscal year.


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