Susan Waters, the executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee, has retired.
Waters, 55, has led the Vidalia, GA-based organization since 2013. Her last day was June 2.
Bob Stafford, the longtime manager of the Vidalia Onion Business Council, has been appointed the committee's interim executive director.
Committee chairman Troy Bland, chief operating officer of Glennville, GA-based Bland Farms LLC, says the committee plans a national search for Waters' successor. “Susan's done a phenomenal job for us over the years,” he says. “In conversations with me, she felt like it was time for her to move onto something else.”
Waters says she hasn't decided what she plans to do in retirement. “I plan to take some time off and make some decisions,” she says. “I do not have a lot of plans.”
Waters began working at the committee in 2009 as an executive assistant. Before joining the organization, she was a secretary for 16 years at the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. She also worked as a secretary for Farm Credit Services/ Ag Services.
Waters' retirement comes toward the end of the Vidalia harvesting season. Growers usually begin harvesting in late April and typically finish by mid-June. The onions are stored in drying rooms before shipment. Shipments from storage usually run through late August.
With oversight by the United States Department of Agriculture, the committee administers Federal Marketing Order #955 for Vidalia onions. Handlers pay a 13 cents-a-box assessment which supports industry marketing programs.
Waters succeeded Wendy Brannen, the group's longtime executive director who in 2013 left to work as director of consumer health and public relations for the U.S. Apple Association, based in McLean, VA.
Source: PerishableNews.com