GLIN==> Ohio State University's Huntley Receives Regional Award for High Impact Program Achievements

Ohio State University's Huntley Receives Regional Award for High Impact
Program Achievements

 

July 7, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

SANDUSKY, OH-Ohio Sea Grant Extension's Tourism Program Director Melinda
Huntley received the Early Career Individual Achievement Award on June 21 at
the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network's annual meeting in Sheboygan, WI. The
award recognizes Melinda's many contributions toward the program's role in
Ohio's tourism efforts since she joined Sea Grant in 2006. She competed with
Sea Grant extension agents from all seven other Great Lakes programs and was
selected through a peer-reviewed application process.

 

Nominees must demonstrate noteworthy enthusiasm, excellent performance, and
outstanding achievement. The Early Career and Mid-Career Individual
Achievement Awards are the only Great Lakes Sea Grant-sponsored awards that
recognize individual accomplishments.

 

"It was a real honor to be chosen for this award," Melinda says. "Sea Grant
has an amazing caliber of agents who are innovative, connected to their
communities, and who deeply care about what they are doing. It's a thrill to
be recognized among these individuals."

 

By bringing people and organizations together to work for common causes,
Melinda has created several successful partnerships. In her work on 18
projects, she has partnered 30 offices and organizations ranging from state
and federal agencies to professional associations, tourism offices,
television stations, and environmental groups.

 

Melinda has secured more than $400,000 in grants and project contracts and
has leveraged an additional $790,000 from project partnerships. Working with
more than 30 individuals and programs, Melinda wrote the 60-page Lake Erie
Island Guidebook to showcase Lake Erie's unique tourism destinations. She
has not only fostered collaboration, but has empowered individuals by
creating the Ohio Tourism Leadership Academy in 2008. The academy shapes
tourism professionals into industry leaders. In its first three years, the
academy has graduated 30 students who have a greater recognition of their
roles in creating more sustainable communities and nearly 80 percent of
alumni have pursued statewide or regional board and leadership positions.
Several states have contacted Melinda for her assistance in duplicating the
program.

 

Melinda led the development of Ohio Sea Grant's new four-year Strategic and
Implementation Plan in 2010, the same year she led a 14-county National
Heritage feasibility study for the National Park Service. The Lake Erie
Literacy Principles Melinda helped develop with three other Ohio agencies
served as the foundation for the Great Lakes Literacy Principles, created by
Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence Great Lakes.

 

After graduating from Ohio State University, Melinda, of Sandusky, served as
public relations coordinator at Cedar Point and the Sandusky/Erie County
Visitors and Convention Bureau. She became Executive Director of the
Visitors Bureau before coming to Ohio Sea Grant in 2006.

 

"In her short tenure with Ohio Sea Grant, Melinda has transformed our
program from a participant in tourism development activities to an
acknowledged leader," says Frank Lichtkoppler, Ohio Sea Grant Extension
Program Coordinator. "We look forward to her future Sea Grant work in
anticipation of the valuable and worthy programs that haven't been conceived
but surely will be."

 

For a photo of Melinda, please visit her profile page at
ohioseagrant.osu.edu/outreach/extension/mhuntley.

 

Ohio State University's Ohio Sea Grant program is part of NOAA Sea Grant, a
network of 32 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable
use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For information on Ohio Sea Grant
and Stone Laboratory, visit  <http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu>
ohioseagrant.osu.edu.

 

###

 

Contact:

 

Melinda Huntley, Tourism Program Director, Ohio Sea Grant, 419.6.9.0399,
<mailto:huntley at coastalohio.com> huntley at coastalohio.com.

 

Frank Lichtkoppler, Extension Program Coordinator, Ohio Sea Grant,
440.350.2582,  <mailto:lichtkoppler.1 at osu.edu> lichtkoppler.1 at osu.edu.

 

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