Contributors

Dawn M. Bauman, CAE, is CAI’s chief executive officer. She previously served as CAI’s chief strategy officer and senior vice president of Government & Public Affairs in which she was the lead advocate for federal and state legislative and regulatory affairs and worked with hundreds of volunteer leaders throughout the country serving on CAI legislative action committees and CAI government affairs committees to advocate for strong and sensible public policy for America’s community associations. Bauman has been with CAI since 1996 and has dedicated her career to the practice of non-profit management and advocacy. She began her career with the American Cancer Society and has since served as executive director for The ALS Association (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Valley of the Sun, Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, National Society of Fund Raising Executives and Arizona Association of Defense Counsel.

Joni Lucas is editor of Common Ground magazine. Previously, she has held a variety of communications roles including reporter, editor, and photographer. She built a monthly magazine for a national professional association of workplace safety experts and most recently served as communications and marketing strategist for an organization serving eldercare communities throughout North America. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Joni lives in Rockville, Md., and is the proud parent of 3 young adults.

Tom Skiba served as CAI’s CEO for roughly 23 years. He retired in June 2025. As a senior association executive, he had more than 30 years of experience working with nonprofit and governmental organizations of all sizes. When he arrived at CAI in 2002, Tom led a comprehensive transformation of the organization, including a redesign of the membership structure, rebranding of all publications, documents, and other public materials, restructuring of the organizations governance with the implementation of John Carver’s Policy Governance Model, and selection and implementation of an entirely new association management system and web presence. Prior to his role as CEO, Tom spent 17 years working for the internationally-recognized management consulting firm KPMG Consulting Inc., where he provided critical business advisory support to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, including the American Cancer Society, The Retired Officers Association, American Petroleum Institute, and Smithsonian Institution. Tom is a graduate of William & Mary.