Dunwoody Chamber Welcomes New President, CEO

From the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce website:

This week we’re welcoming our new President and CEO, Stephanie Snodgrass. As the public face of the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce, as well as the top staff member, she will play a key role in both the day-to-day activities of the staff and fulfilling the Board of Director’s vision.

The search for the new President took several months. During that time, the search committee, led by Board Vice-Chair Brent Morris, looked at resumes of many highly qualified candidates and interviewed the eight most qualified.

“We were looking for someone who was familiar with chamber standards, best practices and benchmarks and had experience working for a board,” said Morris. “In addition, we were looking for marketing experience and charisma.”

For the past seven years, Snodgrass has served as president of the Walker County Chamber of Commerce and Regional Visitors Information Center, the youngest Georgia chamber executive ever to serve as a chamber president.

She has also served as a member of the boards of the Georgia Northwestern Technical College Adult Education Advisory Committee and Walker County Business Education Alliances Together. She is a graduate of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development’s Leadership Academy, Walker County Sheriff’s Citizens Academy and Adult Leadership Walker County. In addition, she recently completed her first year of Institute of Organization Management.

In other words, she was already doing the job.

“I was wearing a lot of hats,” said Snodgrass.

“She’s a perfect fit for the job,” said Morris, who will work closely with her in his upcoming new role as the next Chamber Board Chair. “She understands how important it is to provide value to our members and knows how to do it.”

Another qualification that made Snodgrass a winner with Dunwoody is her collaborative work with neighboring chambers and local governments, much the way the Dunwoody Chamber and Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber collaborate both with each other and their city governments.

Snodgrass is responsible for a program called “One Walker,” which brings together cities, governments and government authorities in a collaborative manner.

“Through One Walker, I worked with four spread-out cities, one county government, two development authorities, two school systems and the executive board of the Chamber,” she said. “It started with little things, like sharing snow equipment. Now they know one another, and we worked together to pass SPLOST.”

In addition to pulling together various Walker County entities, Snodgrass was able to reach across state lines to recruit Chamber members from both Tennessee and Alabama. Likewise, before even starting her Dunwoody Chamber job, she has already spoken with the leaders at both the Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber and the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Dunwoody.

“It’s all about collaboration to achieve a shared vision,” said Snodgrass. “People don’t see city lines.”

After years of living in a small town in northwest Georgia and traveling on weekends to metro Atlanta to visit friends and enjoy the nightlife and concerts, Snodgrass is looking forward to her new life in Dunwoody.

“It has a small-town vibe, but it’s urban,” she said. “People take a lot of pride in their community.”

»Stephanie Snodgrass, president and CEO of the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce Photo: Courtesy of Chamber website