Chamber Picks New Director

DAYTON - After Claudia Nysoe and her husband, Dain, moved back to Dayton two years ago, she told him the position of Chamber of Commerce director seemed like the most interesting job in town.

So when Lisa Ronnberg announced in December that she would leave the chamber to join the Columbia County's Public Works Department, Nysoe applied for it, and late last week, she got it.

"This is the perfect job for me," said Nysoe, who learned on Thursday that she was chosen from among 14 applicants to lead Dayton's foremost business organization. "I'm ready to go."

Chamber President Bette Lou Crothers said her board hired Nysoe because she impressed them as a real people person and team builder whose background seemed like an ideal preparation for the job.

"She's going to be a delightful employee," Crothers said. "She has a strong history of doing events work, and she has worked with small and large businesses."

As executive director, Nysoe will manage the dayto day affairs of a group with about 200 members in Dayton and Waitsburg, which does not have its own chamber. The group's biggest fundraiser, Brix & Brew, is just around the corner in March, so Nysoe will be expected to hit the ground running.

She began Monday with her first day's activities ranging from a meeting with Mule Mania organizer Bobbi Chambers to an after-hours Chamber reception to introduce its remodeled Main Street office.

A veteran marketing specialist, Nysoe, 57, has roots in the Touchet Valley. Her grandfather Claude Pennell, whom she was named after, was once Grand Marshal of the Walla Walla Fair. Her mother, Hazel Pennell, grew up in Prescott, and husband hails from Dayton.

Nysoe herself was born and raised in Sunnyside. After graduating from high school she went to Evergreen State College in Olympia the first year it was open. There, she met Dain. The couple was married a few years later and moved to Dayton. They lived in the town for five years. Dain Nysoe worked for Green Giant until he was offered a job as chamber director in Pendleton and after that, got a similar position in Bremerton.

The couple then lived on the Westside for many years.

In 1994, when her sons were older, Nysoe took her first job as an account rep for the Kitsap Newspaper Group. A year later, she joined AT&T Media Services as an account executive and stayed there until the turn of the decade.

In 2000, Nysoe became marketing manager for Charter Communications/ Wave Broadband in Port Orchard, a job she had until the second half of the decade. A short career as a real estate agent followed, but during the past several years, Nysoe took care of her elderly parents. While her mother has since passed away, her father, Richard Jacobson, now lives at Wheatland Village, a retirement community in Walla Walla.

Much of Nysoe's special events experience comes from her years as an active member of the Rotary Club in Port Orchard of which she was president in 2007. She was also a member of the Port Orchard and Silverdale chambers of commerce, a committee member of the Kitsap Home & Garden Expo and the sponsorship chair for the 2007 Relay for Life.

The Nysoes have two sons. Brent, 35, lives in Seattle where he works as a manager for Sysco Foods on contracts with the cruise lines that use the Port of Seattle as a seasonal base. He and his wife have a 6.5-month daughter, Anna.

The Nysoes' younger son Tyler, who is 32, is a sales representative for a medical equipment company and lives in Maple Valley. He and his wife, Laura, have a 1-year-old son, Julian.

Claudia and Dain Nysoe live in the log cabin built by the Peabody family that founded the Dayton Chronicle. They have two "Harleys." One is a black Cocker Spaniel. The other a black motorcycle by the same name on which the couple makes day trips and, occasionally longer journeys.

In mid December, Ronnberg announced she had been hired as the business manager for the Columbia County Public Works Department headed by director Drew Wood. Though she enjoyed her four and a half years at the chamber, Ronnberg said she needed a local position with better pay and benefits.

Ronnberg, who started her new job at the county after the holidays, was on hand Monday to help Nysoe and assistant Amber Phinney with the transition.