Business and community leader Bruce Dusenberry was elected on Monday (January 25) to serve as 2021 Chair of the Tucson Airport Authority Board of Directors.

The election was part of the board’s first meeting following the annual meeting of all TAA members. Due to COVID-19 concerns, both meetings were hybrid meetings. Most of the authority’s active members participated remotely while Dusenberry, out-going chair Taunya Villicana and a limited number of others, including TAA leadership, were in socially-distanced venues in the terminal at Tucson International Airport (TUS).

Other TAA board officers for 2021 are: Vice Chair Mike Hammond, founder and principal of Cushman & Wakefield/PICOR Commercial Real Estate Services; Secretary Keri Silvyn, partner in Lazarus & Silvyn, P.C.; and serving a second year as treasurer is Bill Assenmacher, chief executive officer of CAID Industries, Inc.

Returning directors are Rob Draper, president and dealer principal of O’Rielly Motor Co. and O’Rielly Chevrolet; Judy Rich, president and chief executive officer of TMC HealthCare and Tucson Medical Center; and Phil Swaim, president of Swaim Associates Ltd.

Two new directors joined the board Monday; Sally Fernandez, president of Safety Dynamics, Inc., and Todd Jackson, a partner in the law firm of Oden & Jackson, P.C. Fernandez has been an authority member since 2004 and Jackson since 2014.

“I am honored to be elected as TAA Board Chair and fortunate to work with an experienced and highly capable Board of Directors,” Dusenberry said. “Although the aviation industry and airports across the country continue to face unprecedented challenges due to the global pandemic, our TUS and RYN airports remain financially and operationally strong thanks to our amazing leadership team and staff, TAA membership and the resilient communities of Southern Arizona.”

A third-generation Tucsonan, Dusenberry was an attorney specializing in banking, business and real estate for 17 years, and was president of Horizon Moving Systems for 20 years until the business was sold in 2013. He is now the Manager of Horizon Moving Group, a commercial real estate enterprise.

Dusenberry has been active on the boards of civic organizations, including the DM-50, Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Tucson Metro Chamber and Sun Corridor, Inc.  He is also involved with charitable organizations, including JobPath Inc, Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation, YMCA, Pima Council on Aging and American Heart Association.

He is the second Dusenberry to lead the TAA Board. In 1981, his mother Katie was the first woman president, which was the title used before 1998. Nine years earlier she was the first woman to become an authority member.

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