ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 26, 2011 – InVEST, the insurance industry’s premier classroom to career education program, recently appointed Kelley L. Erstine to its national board. Erstine is CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina (IIANC).
“InVEST is proud to announce Kelley L. Erstine has joined our distinguished group of board members,” says Heather Minkler, InVEST board chair and CEO of Clark-Mortenson Agency, an independent agency in Keene, N.H. “Kelley’s dedication to the industry, his leadership at the association level and his experience in education will be a huge asset to the InVEST board.”
Prior to joining the IIANC team, Erstine served as the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) vice president of advancement and development. UCA is a state supported institution of approximately 13,000 students located in Conway, Ark. He also served as executive vice president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Arkansas from 1996 to 2003. Erstine earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from UCA where he later served as a member of the board of trustees. He and his wife Leslie, a public school teacher, have two daughters, Ashleigh and Madison.
“InVEST is critically important not just to the future of the independent agency system, but to the insurance industry as a whole,” says Robert Rusbuldt, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) president & CEO. “Survey results from the Agency Universe Study by Future One (a collaboration of the Big ‘I’ and leading independent agency companies) pointed to InVEST as a solution to save the future of the industry, with a majority of respondents stating the insurance industry should encourage high schools and community colleges to help students plan for insurance careers. Educators, volunteers, agents and industry leaders, like Kelley Erstine, are key to the success of this program.”
As a 501(c)(3) educational trust, InVEST benefits from the support of numerous insurance organizations, hundreds of agencies, brokers and volunteers. The program provides the insurance industry with motivated, talented and intelligent professionals through a support structure of state associations, board members, national staff, teachers and the many industry professionals who work in the field as classroom liaisons.
Founded in 1970 and based in Alexandria, Va., InVEST promotes insurance education in order to attract individuals to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Each year, the program prepares thousands of students for insurance-related careers with a hands-on curriculum taught in high schools, adult education centers and community colleges. The high school curriculum is a business-education program that utilizes a hands-on approach which simulates an insurance agency and company operations to prepare students for various business careers and create more knowledgeable insurance consumers. At the college level, InVEST is an information-intensive curriculum of risk management and financial services. These courses provide students with a working knowledge of the basics needed to pursue careers in the insurance industry. For more information, go to www.investprogram.org.
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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