AARC ABOUT US

The American Association of Retirement Communities is a not-for-profit professional association established in 1994 to support the efforts of states and municipalities, as well as community developers and for-profit businesses, who market to retirees. A recognized thought-leader and center of research, the AARC provides unparalleled networking opportunities and innovative ideas from the people and organizations driving success and change in the retiree attraction industry.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the American Association of Retirement Communities is comprised of experts in their respective area of “Retiree Attraction”. Based on each member’s expertise, they provide strong leadership for the organization. Each Board Member has a passion for helping to promote retiree attraction as an economic development strategy.

Officers
Bill Houghton – Chairperson
Ben Keal – Vice-Chairperson
Kristy Peters – Secretary
Daniel Keir – Treasurer

Board of Directors

Rachel Harrell   Misty Galloway
Jeff Fleming       Mike Notartomaso
Andre’ Nabors   Rosie Vassallo
Kevin Sexton     Ramay Winchester

Wade Adler has devoted his entire professional career to the real estate development industry, primarily in the sales and marketing of retirement, resort and destination properties. He has held executive positions at some of the largest developments in the American East, with leadership roles in the marketing of private island properties, high-end executive golf properties, and exclusive resort communities.

Wade’s extensive hands-on experience in real estate marketing as well as his involvement in such industry endeavors as Ideal Destinations and the Marketing & Sales Institute has made him a trusted advisor throughout the industry. Wade is also uniquely positioned as an evaluator of the real estate sales function as he holds real estate brokers licenses in multiple states.

Rachel Harrell is presently the Executive Director of the Loudon County Visitors Bureau. She has ten years prior experience in the tourism industry in Hardin County, Tennessee, and has worked with the Retire Tennessee program from the beginning.

Rachel is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin, Murray State University, and the Southeast Tourism Society’s Marketing College. She enjoys boating, cooking, and documenting life through pictures.

Jeff Fleming has been an advocate for retiree recruitment for many years. In 2019, he decided to become an early retiree himself after a 35-year career in public service to his hometown. His background in city management, planning, and economic/community development provide a unique perspective on livability, streamlined development review, and economic impact metrics. Kingsport is a city of 54,000 with a quarter billion budget located on the “less taxing” side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the extreme northeastern part of Tennessee. He is known affectionately as “Mr. Kingsport”, receiving several awards and recognitions for his community service. In retirement, he continues to work with MoveToKingsport.com, a public-private partnership that serves as the city’s official relocation program. To date, people from all 50 states have moved to Kingsport with the top ten being FL, NC, VA, GA, TX, SC, KY, OH, CA & NY (in that order). Jeff & Cristi, his wife of 34 years, have two adult children and two grandchildren that have stolen their hearts. He loves traveling in general, but especially backroads and small towns, observing best practices in community branding, development, and redevelopment.

Bill Houghton is a marketing strategy, research and sales leader with experience as President and Chief Marketing Officer at leading destination communities. As Managing Principal of Community Marketing Advisors, he has strategically redeployed resources for clients and co-founded a research study produced with the American Express Study of Affluence and Wealth.

From 2013 to 2017, he directed Kiawah Island’s Marketing agency, re-focusing its real estate marketing strategy and staffing for the oceanfront community’s new ownership group. In mid-2017, Kiawah Partners tasked him with revitalizing absorption efforts at Park City’s Red Ledges; under his leadership, 2018 saw sales increase by 31% to record levels. He had previously orchestrated a successful rehabilitation of Savannah’s Landings Company, America’s largest community-owned real estate firm; in his 3-year contract as President, his efforts yielded $55 million in community sales growth and one of the best net income years in Company history.

Bill’s previous roles include eight years building and leading the Marketing Department at Reynolds Lake Oconee (14,000 acre lakefront community, Ritz-Carlton); founding the PR Department at a national tourism ad agency; and being named to Golfweek’s “40 Under 40 in the Golf Industry”. In the 1990s, he founded and ran the largest golf publication in Philadelphia – the region where Bill grew up, and where he earned his MBA at the Wharton School.

Ben Keal is Director of Sales and Operations for PCR, the nation’s top online information resource for affluent and age-targeted consumers researching master-planned, lifestyle communities.

He works with developers and homebuilders,along with ad agencies, HOAs, and real estate professionals to generate leads, build awareness, and produce ROI for their respective communities. Each year, Ben and his team help clients connect with more than one million web visitors with privately developed communities featured on PrivateCommunities.com. Since 1996, more than one thousand communities across the nation have benefitted from advertising on PrivateCommunities.com.

Daniel Keir has served as Director of Sales for RPI Media & Ideal Living since 1998. During that period, he has gained a unique perspective on the retirement and resort real estate industry, which he has used to help hundreds of developers and home builders achieve their sales and marketing goals. Keir also played a major role in RPI’s emergence as the nation’s preeminent relocation resource, featuring live Real Estate Expos, a powerful on-line presence and the acclaimed Ideal Living magazine. These efforts have helped tens of thousands of affluent buyers find the retirement, vacation or second home of their dreams, resulting in billions of dollars of real estate sales for the developers and home builders who rely upon his experience and expertise. Keir is a 1996 graduate of NC State University with a degree in Civil Engineering.

Misty Galloway is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science degree in the College of Communications. Misty began working at Fairfield Glade in the development and construction division, Fairfield Homes, in 1998 as a Real Estate Sales Associate. She was promoted to Sales & Marketing Director in 2004 before taking the helm of the division as General Manager of Fairfield Homes in 2007 as well as fulfilling the role as principal broker of the company’s resale division, Glade Realty. Misty has served on the Fairfield Glade Community Club Board of Directors since 2011. Additionally, she began serving on the Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors in 2020 as well as serving on their Retiree Recruitment Committee and Economic Development Council in years past. Misty’s real estate license also has the designation of Seniors Real Estate Specialist® (SRES®), a designation which imparts the knowledge and expertise to guide homebuyers and sellers over the age of 50 through major financial and lifestyle transitions.

Andre` Nabors has served as the Tourism Development Manager for the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film & Sports Development since July 2010, supporting sustainable efforts to market and promote the state’s natural, historic and cultural resources; and provide technical assistance to communities, non-profits, and tourism related entities for development to improve tourism product and visitation across North Carolina.

In fall of 2011, the NC Division of Tourism was delegated to market the North Carolina Certified Retirement Community Program which Andre’ now oversees.

Michael Notartomaso is the president of the Hilton Head Group, Inc. and CEO of Vacation Time of Hilton Head Island, Inc., both located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Vacation Time of Hilton Head Island, Inc. offers real estate brokerage and marketing services throughout the South Carolina Lowcountry and provides vacation rental services for 250 beach-oriented villas owned by the company and individual investors and property management for an additional 600 villas as well.

The Hilton Head Group and its affiliated companies have been involved in the business of resort and community development, for its own account and that of its principals as well as for private investors and development clients since 1976. The Hilton Head Group has developed projects throughout the southeast including amenity-oriented condominiums, master-planned communities, and seniors housing developments. The company provides turnkey development expertise for startups including feasibility, acquisition, strategic planning, product development, financing, construction, marketing, sales and operations.

Current development projects include single-family residential, assisted living and 55+ communities.

Kristy Peters has worked in the destination and private community industry, consulting for direct marketing and CRM strategy. In 2001 Kristy co-Founded and developed Focus3 SalesManager™ a cloud-based contact database system designed to support sales and marketing automation, contact management, list management, email distribution and analytics.

Kristy started in 1992 at Albemarle Plantation, Hertford, NC (Controller, Marketing and Systems Manager); consulted at multiple communities for Resort Management Associates (Direct and Database Marketing), and consulted for Ginn Real Estate Company for 9 years, as Director CRM Strategy/Real Estate Division and Direct Marketing Consultant for multiple Ginn communities through out the southeast United States, Bahamas, and St. Thomas. While at Ginn she lead the development of their Launch and Inventory Manager systems for large onsite sales event management; Tour Manager client web-portal (Direct Marketing portal); and Mail Manager System, an online direct marketing management system for marketing managers and vendors.

Based near Raleigh, North Carolina, Kristy graduated from Kaplan University (B.S. Management/Applied Management, Summa Cum Laude) and attended Valparaiso University (Music and Accounting).

Kevin Sexton, a veteran economic development and tourism professional, is the Director of Tourism and Community Affairs for the Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association.

Mr. Sexton started in his Hot Springs Village role in January, 2018. Previously, he was the senior regional manager and director of the Community Development Division for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. He served Central portions of Arkansas including the capital city of Little Rock with their community and economic development efforts as well as dually serving as the Division Director.

Mr. Sexton has spent a career promoting Arkansas to others around the world and is now solely focused on highlighting the tourism appeal of Hot Springs Village’s scenic 26,000 acres. Mr. Sexton was with the AEDC for more than a decade. Before that, he served as a group travel consultant with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

A Bryant, Arkansas native, Mr. Sexton graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in Business Administration. He has certification as a Professional Community and Economic Developer from the Community Development Institute at the University of Central Arkansas. He is also a graduate from the Economic Development Institute through the University of Oklahoma, and he completed his basic economic development training at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Kevin currently serves as the Class Director of the Year 3 Community Development Institute at the University of Central Arkansas.

Rosie Vassallo is the Director of the Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation’s Retirement Attraction Program. She was formerly Executive Director for Madison The City Chamber for 13 years where she also served as the Retirement Director of the City of Madison, MS.

She was selected among the Top 50 Business Women in Mississippi and recipient of Who’s Who in Mississippi by the Mississippi Business Journal.

Rosie is a native Texan, from San Antonio, Texas and a graduate of Texas Christian University with a B.A. in Advertising Design. She is an accomplished artist winning a number of awards for her paintings and advertising designs.

Ramay Woody Winchester has served as Program Director for Retire Tennessee since 2006. She started the program under the Department of Economic & Community Development and was transferred to the TN Department of Tourist Development in July of 2015. Since a retiree visits a location 3 to 5 times before making the decision to relocate, the Retire TN program naturally goes hand-in-hand with Tourism. Tennessee has become one of the top choices for retirement locations and TN Tourism is marketing counties to attract retirees to choose Tennessee as their home. Attracting and relocating retirees provides an opportunity for a community to both strengthen and diversify its economy, while at the same time becoming enriched with skills and experience. In addition to the program director for Retire Tennessee, she provides exciting training presentations on Customer Service and Hospitality across the state. She is also contact person for the Adventure Tourism Initiative. She started her state career in 1998 with the Department of Tourist Development and served as regional marketing manager responsible for tourism public relations before moving to ECD. She is a past Chamber of Commerce executive and brings years of chamber and tourism development experience to ECD. She serves on the Board as Past Chair for the American Association for Retirement Communities.