Huntingburg Chamber director steps down

After less than a year at the helm, the Huntingburg Chamber of Commerce executive director has announced she will step down from the position.

Elizabeth Wertman was hired the week before the 2015 Jazz Fest to replace outgoing executive director Nick Stevens.

The Chamber Board of Directors had high hopes for Wertman due to her involvement in the community. She was a graduate of Southridge who has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts of photography from Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. She also coaches the Southridge Middle School girls track and field program. She and her sister, Emily, head up the Puttin on the Hits lip sync competition annually with the Herbstfest.

“No one ever likes to give up on anything. I don’t, especially when I knew others had such high hopes for me and I wanted so much to succeed for them,” she said in a newsletter sent out today. “It is for my own personal reasons that I am leaving the chamber. I do hope that I made a good impact somewhere in working for the chamber.”

Wertman added that she planned on being involved in the community however she could in the future.

The board of directors included a thank you to Wertman for her service.

“During her time with the Chamber, Elizabeth has advanced the chamber’s technology base, redesigning the website, creating a new format for our e-newsletter, as well as updating and pulling a new audience to our social media pages,” chamber board president Al Mihajlovits said in the announcement. “Elizabeth also brought new ideas to our events. The City Wide Yard Sale had a new electronic map for yard sale shoppers to use to find their bargains. At the Farmer’s Market, she showed customers new recipes to cook with their homegrown veggies, thus creating Cooking with the Chamber.”

Mihajlovits added that the executive committee will be meeting to decide on the next step in filling the executive director position.