At the heart of Dawn Noufer's job at the Texas Association of Counties is understanding counties' needs and proactively developing services to meet them. She is Senior Strategic Services Manager, and she oversees the TAC County Information Resources Agency (TAC CIRA), the County Relations Officers and the development of new services and resources for members.
"Dawn brings her A-game every single day and doesn’t get shaken when things change," says Lisa Garcia, Director of Membership and Strategic Services. "She's been at the forefront of our efforts to develop new services and increase cybersecurity for counties, and her adaptability and flexibility have kept us nimble to address members' changing needs."
Dawn joined TAC in 2015, first serving as Operations Manager in Communications, then becoming a Program Manager in Membership and Strategic Services. In late 2018, she began managing TAC CIRA and was promoted again in 2020 to her current role.
What’s your background?
I started my career as a legal secretary for the Travis County District Attorney's Office. I then moved into a communications role at the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, just prior to coming to TAC. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations from the University of Oregon, as well as a project management professional (PMP) certification.
How does Membership Services serve members?
In a nutshell, we support counties with services that help them serve their constituents. Our support and operations team provides hands-on support and training to members so they can get the most out of our services. TAC CIRA's core services are website and email hosting, and today we administer about 9,000 county email accounts and 176 county websites.
In a normal year, the County Relations Officers travel the state to meet with members, learn about their needs and challenges, and help connect them with the TAC services that would benefit them most. Although travel has been limited this year, I’m proud of how the CROs have stayed connected with members virtually to continue to support them.
What are you working on now?
Keeping counties secure is at the forefront of our priorities. We are preparing to upgrade our current email service to Microsoft Office 365, which offers robust and customizable security and spam filtering. Our support team is working to ensure our process for receiving and fulfilling support requests is secure and will help prevent fraudulent attempts to compromise a county's security. As the technology and security landscape evolves, our processes and standards must as well, all with the counties’ security in mind.
What is satisfying about your job?
Seeing the praise my team receives from our members is hugely fulfilling. To my team, this is more than just any job; they conduct themselves in a way that contributes to our mission and the success of the counties.
"Dawn brings her A-game every single day and doesn't get shaken when things change. She's been at the forefront of our efforts to develop new services and increase cybersecurity for counties, and her adaptability and flexibility have kept us nimble to address members’ changing needs."
Lisa Garcia, Director of Membership and Strategic Services
Working at TAC is very rewarding. I believe in our mission of uniting counties, and I get to see the positive impact our daily work has on those we serve. On a personal level, TAC has invested in me at every turn and I feel supported in taking intelligent risks that will benefit counties.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I love to cook, laugh with my husband, Paul, and walk my dog Luna while listening to podcasts. I was born and raised on Maui, Hawaii, but my parents are both from Texas (and on my dad’s side we’ve been Texans for generations), and I have relatives here, too. I moved to Austin after college and it quickly felt like home.
Where do you see Membership Services going in the future?
The exciting thing about Membership Services is that there isn’t one goal to reach and then "we're done." The essence of Membership Services is to evolve along with our members and to continuously seek new ways to serve them. We’re proud of how we’ve helped counties in the past several years, but we want to do more. We launched a survey about potential new services this summer, and we relaunched the survey this winter in an effort to hear from every county. Consider taking the survey, if you haven’t already, to let us know how we can serve you!