The Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA) has named Stacey Phillips as the marketing and communications coordinator effective immediately.

“In her new role, Stacey will be instrumental as CIECA continues to promote the adoption of BMS (business message suite) standards,” said Fred Iantorno, executive director of CIECA. “Her expertise in marketing and communication strategies will help CIECA communicate its mission to develop and promote electronic communication standards that allow the collision industry to be more efficient.”

The BMS is CIECA’s comprehensive set of electronic communication standards for the collision industry.

“BMS provides the industry with a greater ability to protect the customers’ personally-identifiable information,” said Clint Marlow, CIECA’s chairman of the board and claim innovation director at Allstate. “It is used for the exchange of collision industry messages and data across multiple organizations and networks and allows organizations to transmit only the data required for the application without transmitting ‘un-needed data.’ On behalf of CIECA’s board, we welcome Stacey and look forward to having her help engage the industry with information and educational opportunities.”

Phillips has more than 20 years of experience helping companies communicate their vision. She has worked for a wide range of businesses and fields including technical industries such as automotive, engineering, and oil and gas, as well as consumer-focused magazines, newspapers and websites. She is the former assistant editor at Autobody News and continues to write articles for the collision repair industry.

Phillips, an award-winning writer, is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a double major in journalism and political science and earned an honors thesis in environmental politics. She has co-authored two books, including “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops,” which was released in 2017.

“As e-commerce has become a bigger part of our daily lives, the flow of data among trading partners has expanded as part of the repair process,” said Phillips. “The next few years will present an amazing opportunity to help unite the industry in a common cause: the adoption of standards. I’m excited to be part of this challenge and help build a solid foundation to achieve great results for this industry.”