Voting for the 2024 RV Industry Association (RVIA) Board of Directors election closed on September 25. The final results were tallied after official representatives from member companies cast their votes during the September 5 to 25 balloting for the three open seats announced in August.

Nine candidates were running to fill the three open Board seats in 2023; from that, the successful candidates for one RV Manufacturer seat, one Park Model RV Manufacturer seat, and one Supplier seat were elected. RVIA added the following three industry leaders to a three-year term each, beginning on January 1, 2024

RV Manufacturer
Ashley Bontrager Lehman
Founder, President and CEO, Ember Recreational Vehicles, Inc. 

Before founding Ember in 2021, Lehman worked in various marketing roles at Jayco since 2011, including director of corporate marketing. Lehman also worked as a freelance marketing consultant, an event marketing consultant at Geico and a U.S. House of Representatives legislative correspondent. Lehman has been a member of the RVIA’s Emerging Leaders Coalition since 2022 and was a public relations intern for the Association during college. Lehman is a member of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County’s Foundations Relations Committee, a member of the Fundraising Committee for the Boys & Girls Club of Middlebury Capital Campaign (2018) and a voting member of the Bontrager Family Foundation for Charitable Giving (2019/22).

Park Model RV Manufacturer
Trevor Kropf, GM, Kropf Industries, Inc.

Kropf has worked at Kropf since 2010, first as controller and his current general manager position since 2021. Before Kropf, he worked as a staff accountant at Kruggel, Lawton & Company, LLC. Kropf has served on the RVIA’s Board of Directors since 2021. He has also served on the Park Model RV Committee since 2021 and as an Advocacy Day Participant in 2022 and 2023. Kropf has served on his high school youth basketball Board of Directors as vice president while coaching and leading fundraising for the past six years. He is also a Greens and Grounds Committee member at Elcona Country Club in Bristol, IN as an advocate for junior/youth golf. From 2018/20, Kropf served on the Board of Directors for Brenneman Day Care Ministry in Goshen, IN where he led fundraising events to create a playground for kids.


Supplier
Heather Jenks, VP, RV Sales, Genesis Products

Jenks has been VP of RV Sales at Genesis Products since 2015. She has over 27 years of experience in the manufacturing industry—16 years at Genesis Products and 11 years as a sales manager at Doors Plus from 1998 to 2007. She recently joined RVIA’s Market Information Committee after attending RV’s Move America Week in Washington, DC. Jenks has been heavily involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Elkhart County for over ten years and has served on the Goshen Board for over five years. She also serves on an advisory committee for Soup of Success and volunteers at many organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Elkhart County 4H Fair and the RV Industry Association’s Park Improvement events.

RVIA said the Board of Directors is the highest authority in the Association’s organizational structure and is responsible for setting and overseeing strategy and policy related to critical topics such as standards, marketing, government affairs, events, industry education, and association finances. 

RVIA’s 2024 Board will hold an organizational meeting to elect officers for the next year following the Board of Directors meeting during the RVDA Convention/Expo, November 6-10, in Paris, Las Vegas.

Photos courtesy of RVIA