RV Industry Association Plans For Future Of Standards Program

The RV Technical Institute’s Executive Director Curtis Hemmeler will be expanding his role to include Senior Vice President of Standards for the RV Industry Association. The added responsibilities come as RV Industry Association Vice President of Standards, Bruce Hopkins, recently announced he will retire at the end of the year. Additionally, RV Technical Institute’s Senior Director of Education Sharonne Lee has been promoted to Vice President of Education and Operations for the RV Technical Institute.

Hemmeler has been managing the development and launch of the RV Technical Institute, the RV industry’s technical education program tasked with developing a nationally standardized, world-class training curriculum and increasing the number of high-quality trained RV technicians in the industry. Hemmeler is an excellent leader, bringing 20 years of professional experience in technical education and training. Prior to joining the institute, Hemmeler served as the Vice President of Operations and Strategy for WyoTech, a division of Zenith Education that trains auto and diesel technicians. In that position, he led a team of over 300 across three locations. Hemmeler also served 12 years in the United States Air Force and Ohio Air National Guard as an Aerospace Ground Equipment Specialist, responsible for the oversite of the numerous Ground Equipment Technical Manuals and Standards during that time. Hemmeler’s ability to lead, develop strategies to meet critical goals and build consensus will ensure that the RV industry’s gold standards program’s success continues for generations to come.

Lee brings more than 30 years of RV industry experience to her new role with the RV Technical Institute. Over that period, she has been an excellent contributor to the success of the Association’s education and standards efforts, recently playing a critical role in developing the RV Technical Institute’s nationally standardized, world-class training curriculum. Lee developed the first annual Top Tech Challenge in 2017 and her new role at the Institute will allow her to focus on improving the end-user RV experience and professionalizing the field for RV technicians throughout the U.S.

“The Standards Succession Task Force hit one out of the park finding a successor for Bruce Hopkins, our ‘godfather’ of the industry’s standards and inspection program,” said RV Industry Association President Craig Kirby. “It’s critical that we maintain continuity of the standards program and Curt brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to lead both standards and RVTI in this expanded role. I’m equally as excited for Sharonne to grow her leadership position over education within RVTI and to seeing her elevate this vital industry opportunity to its fullest potential. Sharonne has a deep understanding of our industry and a long history of anticipating the needs of our members, implementing processes and embracing technology to improve our education offering.”