IHEA-USA Names New Executive Director

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Article originally published in Outdoor Wire

The IHEA-USA (International Hunter Education Association—USA) is pleased to announce that Alex Baer has been promoted to Executive Director effective January 1, 2021. Alex, formally COO of the IHEA-USA, replaces David Allen who has retired as the Executive Director of the organization. Alex brings extensive experience working in the US outdoor industry and a strong passion for the IHEA-USA and its potential to promote, support, and lead efforts to expand hunting and shooting activities in the US.

Alex has shown a strong commitment to hunting and the outdoors as the COO for the last year at the IHEA-USA demonstrating a keen desire to dramatically expand the organization’s footprint as a leader in all things hunting and shooting in the USA. Alex is one of those “never sleep” kind of guys that are always seeking to improve and accelerate an organization’s impact and brings this attitude and drive to the IHEA-USA. Alex’s future list of projects and programs for the IHEA-USA is extensive, expanding focus to not only hunting safety, but also firearms safety. Alex plans to build upon the National R3 plan, has already secured two grant-funded National Research Projects, and looks forward to leading hunter education activities, aggressively promoting hunting and shooting as an exciting and valuable activity in the US, and building better tools for instructors and students enhancing hunting participation in all demographics

“This is an exciting time for our industry,” commented Alex. “Both the need to encourage new participants in hunting and the shooting sports and the industry’s ability to accept this challenge have never been greater. I see the education for tomorrow’s hunters and shooters continuing to expand into focused opportunities beyond a general education certificate. IHEA-USA will drive this evolution to uncover the interests and demographics of students and offer them relevant material to become safe, responsible, and knowledgeable participants.”

Before joining the IHEA-USA, Alex consulted on projects for private industry as well as the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports as well as the National Wildlife Turkey Federation. Prior to that, Alex was the Sales Director at onXmaps contributing to their significant growth for 5 years while also acting as R3 Coordinator for onX where he built partner relationships with conservation NGOs, industry associations, and state and wildlife organizations. The IHEA-USA is extremely pleased to have a professional as dedicated to the R3 movement as Alex at its helm.

For more information on this release, contact Leaha Thomas [email protected] or Mike Thomas [email protected].

About the IHEA-USA: The International Hunter Education Association – USA (IHEA-USA) is the professional hunter education association affiliated with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service hunter education programs. The programs employ 55,000 instructors, many of whom are volunteers, teaching hunting and shooting safety and responsibilities throughout the United States.