STRIMA Conference Staff Awarded with DOAS Leadership Award
Members of the DOAS Risk Management and Communications and Marketing teams were awarded with the November 2025 DOAS Leadership Award for their leadership that directly led and indirectly supported various areas of the 2025 Sate Risk and Insurance Management Association (STRIMA) Conference. The award was presented to Shaistha Begum, Vicki Medlock, Shane Barrow, Todd Crisp, Susan Setterstrom, Wade Damron, Nedra Westmoreland, Hiram Lagroon, Madeline Shank, Cassie Alston, Marcellina Scott, Lloyd Williams, Charles “CG” Lawrence, Derek Wade, Nyota Reed, Ann Thompson and Karen Harris.
More than 300 risk management professionals from across the U.S. gathered in Jekyll Island, Georgia on Sep. 7 – 11, 2025, to attend the 50th STRIMA Conference. This year’s conference was made possible in large part to, Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS), Director of Risk Management, Wade Damron who volunteered to serve as the STRIMA host chairperson for the State of Georgia. “I am so very humbled and so proud to have this opportunity to share in the 50th STRIMA Conference at this amazing, hot, sweltering, beautiful facility located on one of Georgia's prized natural gifts, St. Simons Island,” said Damron.
STRIMA is a non-profit organization that was established in 1974 in Atlanta to bring together risk and insurance managers of state governments into an organization to promote the advancement of risk management principles and practices in the public sector in all 50 states. The National Conference is designed to ensure that public sector peers have one annual opportunity to promote their programs, meet and renew relationships all while enjoying numerous educational opportunities. Each year the conference brings educational training sessions, centered around emerging trends, and risk and insurance management compliance strategies. This year, professionals from over 33 states were in attendance.
In addition to training sessions, the conference offers professionals networking opportunities, vendor exhibits, and team building activities. The conference is held in a different city each year, but to mark the significance of the 50th STRIMA conference, the committee decided to host the conference where it all started, in the State of Georgia. “I have been attending STRIMA routinely since my arrival at DOAS in August 2014, to stand here today with the knowledge that STRIMA’s early beginnings sprung from conversations a Georgia risk manager was having with his peers in 1974, knowing that in 2005 another Georgia risk manager hosted the STRIMA conference at this exact location,” said Damron.
Next year, STRIMA will host their conference in Knoxville Tennessee further advancing the annual conference tradition and strengthening the impact of risk and insurance management professionals across the country. To learn more about STRIMA and the STRIMA conference visit https://strima.org/.