The AFTRA/SAG office will lose another stalwart this June when assistant executive director Kit Woods retires from the union office after a tenure of 19 years.
Unlike Eileen Willenborg who will remain part-time at the union office, Woods and her husband will set off in their new 26-foot mobile home “and travel wherever we can drive,” she said.
The search is on for her successor.
“I suspect we are going to hire someone with familiarity with our industry and contracts,” said Willenborg, who added that incoming executive director Eric Chaudron “will want to build his own team, and might want to restructure the staff and possibly change the title Woods has held.”
Chaudron will interview the candidates and make the new hire decision in concert with Willenborg.
Woods said she will train her replacement before she leaves, and when that person comes aboard will determine her departure date of mid to late June.
Woods has racked up a total of 33 years working for AFTRA/SAG. A native of Vermont who grew up in Massachusetts, she joined the then two-person Atlanta office as a receptionist in 1978. She had risen to the position of executive director when she moved to Chicago in 1991.
Fortuitously, the Chicago office had an opening and she was immediately snapped up.
“Change is good and I’m thrilled to have this new chapter in my life to enjoy,” said Woods of her forthcoming retirement, “I don’t want to regret anything.”
