President
Joann “Jo” Wade

Jo provides leadership and direction to a great CVB Team, which most often doesn’t need direction.  Jo’s main responsibilities are: explaining the economic importance of visitor spending to Lafayette – West Lafayette; working with the attractions, facilities and organizations locally and statewide to help market, promote and develop tourism spending; and staying within the budget.  Much of her time is spent on community relations and being involved with committees and organizations to help spread the word about Tippecanoe Tourism.

Jo grew up in West Lafayette and is a graduate of Purdue University, she lived in several other Indiana towns and Madison, WI, but she has mainly lived and loved this area. Jo has two children both enrolled at Purdue University.  She and her husband have a giant schnauzer dog named Riese whose job it is to make sure they both get out to exercise several times a day. 

Lisa Morrow

Vice President
Lisa Morrow

Lisa handles the business end of things for the CVB.  She uses her years of experience with the Bureau to provide guidance and keeps a keen eye on finances. She helps ensure that the office is organized and running smoothly, is always looking for ways to make things better and to save the LWLCVB money.  She coordinates the updates and printing of the LWLCVB brochures, along with advertising placement.  She is responsible for all accounting functions, including tax returns, statistic information and helps produce any other reports that are needed.
 
Lisa and her husband have two wonderful daughters and a handsome black lab. She enjoys reading, playing golf, traveling with her family, flower gardening and everything about the great outdoors.

Ashley Simpson

Partnership Development and Sales Manager
Ashley Simpson

Ashley’s role is to generate additional leads especially with the individual travel market. Working with area stakeholders to develop stronger partnerships and networking opportunities to generate additional visitor spending in the community. Assisting to make the visitors stay nicer by enhancing the experience during their stay with: gift baskets, spouse programs, tours, finding speakers, putting maps together, giving brochures or providing assistance. She strives to enhance their stay, make them stay longer or return sooner. This includes educating our partners on what is available and making sure we have the correct info on our website or through brochures and materials that can be accessed through the web.

Ashley is our newest staff member and started out with us as a Visitor Information Specialist. She is a recent Purdue grad and lifelong resident of Tippecanoe County.  Ashley graduated in Hospitality and Tourism Management with a minor in Art History. She loves to travel and explore new places and has been to many destinations in the US and overseas. Ashley also enjoys scrap booking, crafts, history and art.

Judy Ryan

Customer Services Coordinator
Judy Ryan

Judy ensures that visitors are greeted upon their arrival by either Visitor Information Specialists or herself. She is responsible for assisting visitors, answering and handling the phones, scheduling Visitor Information Specialists, part-time staff and volunteers and seeing that the supply of state and local brochures are maintained.  Judy also is responsible for training of the Visitor Information Specialists and maintains quality control of those workers. She also works with the Sales Managers to help keep accurate lead information. Tours of the Tippecanoe County Court House are arranged through Judy. She also handles coordination of our website additions, deletions and trouble shoots Internet problems along with the Vice President.

Judy and her husband like classic cars, she has a beautiful classic t-bird convertible. They also enjoy traveling and spending time with their extended family. 

Visitor Information Specialists -
Front Desk Staff

This includes all the part time staff, generally Purdue Students and Interns. They are the face of the Visitor’s Center to a visitor’s perspective. The duties of the Visitor Information Specialists are to assist visitors as they come through the door, call on the phone or email requests; they keep the Visitor’s Center running seven days a week.  Also included in their duties are keeping the brochure racks stocked and taking on special projects as assigned, such as proofing and researching information for newsletter articles and new brochures.

For the most part our VIS staff are Purdue students, who often have not grown up in the area and they work hard to get to know the community and directions in order to be able to answer all the visitors questions or to be able to find where to find the answer.