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ASID Expands Industry Partnerships Team With Three New Members

Furniture World News Desk on 6/7/2019

From left to right: Joyce R. O’Brien, Jon Strassner, and Cara Mitchell.
From left to right: Joyce R. O’Brien, Jon Strassner, and Cara Mitchell.

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) recently welcomed three new members to its Industry Partnerships team: Joyce O’Brien, Jon Strassner, and Cara Mitchell. Each brings a wealth of experience in membership, communications, manufacturing, and more to their new role with ASID. The team will work to deepen the relationships between professional designers and non-designer industry members, engaging both parties to work together to impact lives through design.

“We are excited to grow our industry partnerships team with Joyce, Jon, and Cara, and look forward to working with them to advance the design industry and help showcase the impact of design,” explains ASID CEO, Randy Fiser. “With our new members’ extensive and diverse backgrounds, they will serve a vital role in supporting engagement, sponsorship, and education throughout the design community.”

The ASID Industry Partners program encourages companies that provide a product or service to the industry to join the Society, providing a forum that unites the professional designer with manufacturers, product representatives, and others integral to the successful practice of interior design.

ASID Industry Partners seek to raise the level of the interior design profession through participation and support of research, educational programs, scholarships, and more. Through interaction with ASID professional designers, the potential exists for ASID Industry Partners to expand their knowledge of the practice of interior design and increase their share of the marketplace.

The new ASID Industry Partnerships team members include:

  • Joyce R. O’Brien, vice president, Membership and Industry Partnerships, ASID, is a seasoned association executive with an extensive background in membership, marketing, communications, and publishing leadership. Most recently, Joyce served as senior director, Membership for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), where she oversaw membership operations, customer service, membership acquisition and retention, chapter membership operations, and member research. Prior to her tenure with APhA, Joyce was a consultant, providing marketing, communications, and membership support to nonprofit organizations including the Association of Governing Boards for Universities and Colleges (where she previously served as senior vice president for Marketing and Communications), International Coach Federation, Association of Fundraising Professionals (where she previously served as vice president, Communications & Marketing), as well as HomeAid Northern Virginia. She is a long-time member of ASAE and has served as a speaker, author, and volunteer leader. She has served on two ASAE Section Councils; the Membership Section Council (2016-18) and as  chair, chair-elect, and past chair of the Communications Council. Joyce holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

  • Jon Strassner, LEED AP, serves as director, Industry Partnerships, ASID. Before joining the Society, Jon worked with Humanscale for 22 years, serving as vice president of Workplace Strategy and Industry Relations, Canadian sales director, and North American director of A&D. A LEED Accredited Professional since 2007, Jon is passionate about understanding the role we all play in the Net Positive Movement, where we don’t just take less from the environment, but restore, regenerate and replace what has been damaged or destroyed. A passionate member of the
    Next Wave collaborative, Jon has traveled the globe to share this message, speaking at events such as the Our Ocean conference in Bali, Indonesia, ICFF in New York and Miami, Design Week Philadelphia, SCALEX, SCALE, the Leadership Experience: Presented by ASID, and more. Jon has had articles published in Contract magazine, Loft Life, and Design at Work.

  • Cara Mitchell currently serves as associate, Industry Partnerships at ASID, and previously worked as executive assistant to the CEO for the Society. She came to ASID from Los Angeles and a career in the entertainment industry, working at The Gersh Agency where she represented writers of television and film. Cara graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Psychology and Media Studies, and grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida.


About ASID: The American Society of Interior Designers believes that design transforms lives. ASID serves the full range of the interior design profession and practice through the Society’s programs, networks, and advocacy. We thrive on the strength of cross-functional and interdisciplinary relationships among designers of all specialties, including workplace, healthcare, retail and hospitality, education, institutional, and residential. We lead interior designers in shared conversations around topics that matter: from evidence-based and human-centric design to social responsibility, well-being, and sustainability. We showcase the impact of design on the human experience and the value interior designers provide.

ASID was founded over 40 years ago when two organizations became one, but its legacy dates back to the early 1930s. As we celebrate nearly 85 years of industry leadership, we are leading the future of interior design, continuing to integrate the advantages of local connections with national reach, of small firms with big, and of the places we live with the places we work, play, and heal. For more information, visit asid.org.