To help you get to know who’s who in Illinois tourism, ITN profiles an industry leader each month. This month, we introduce the bureau’s very own Jan Kemmerling, acting local tourism division manager and manager of performance, planning and research.

Jan Kemmerling serves dual roles as the acting local tourism division manager and manager of performance, planning and research for IBOT. In her dual roles Kemmerling is responsible for overseeing the bureau’s Springfield staff, which manages the seven IBOT grant programs, totaling nearly $23 million in FY’04 alone. She also manages the bureau’s budget, Opportunity Returns projects, and other projects on behalf of the deputy director. Lastly, she’s responsible for directing and managing the domestic and international travel and tourism research projects and evaluating the tourism programs.

Prior to rejoining IBOT in September 2002, Kemmerling served for six years as principal of Tourism Research and Development, a tourism research-consulting firm, which provided services to state, regional and local tourism agencies. In addition to these duties, Kemmerling worked for the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, serving as associate director for tourism development. Prior to that, she served for seven and a half years as the research and grants manager for IBOT at DCCA (now DCEO).

Kemmerling has directed and been involved in a number of tourism marketing and research projects for the state of Illinois, as well as other destination marketing organizations throughout the country. Some of these projects are the development and implementation of a statewide heritage tourism program, a best practices analysis of state tourism development programs, and an assessment and evaluation of Illinois’ tourist information centers.

Active in many industry organizations, Kemmerling is a member of the International Travel and Tourism Research Association and the Travel Industry Association of America, and serves on the Travel Industry Association of America’s Research Committee. She previously served as secretary of the board for the Texas Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association.

Kemmerling’s extracurricular interests include watching NASCAR Nextel Cup races and her favorite driver, Jeff Gordon — in fact, she attends about five races a year. Putting her interest in high gear when she can, she enjoys working for The Racing Experience, a stockcar driving school where people can drive real Nextel Cup cars around different speedways across the country.

Kemmerling attended Illinois State University majoring in business administration, and resides in Springfield with her daughter, Tracy, and granddaughter, Rayna. She also has a son, Troy, who lives in Austin, Texas.