On Jan. 19, the Destination Imagination organization announced the appointment of five new members to its Board of Trustees, including Sue Shanks, Affiliate Director of Texas Destination Imagination and CEO of TXCPSO, an educational non-profit.

Prior to becoming the Texas Destination Imagination State Director, Sue was the coordinator of the Greenville Destination Imagination (formerly known as Odyssey of the Mind) and a teacher at Greenville High School. In 1998, Shanks accepted an administrative position with Dallas ISD and part of her duties included overseeing the Dallas Region Destination Imagination program. In 2002, she was selected to head of the Texas Destination Imagination organization as state director and CEO. Prior to Shanks tenure as State Director, Texas Destination Imagination had 1,820 teams. There are now 3,553 teams in Texas.

“As a board, it is our job to make wise decisions to steer the Destination Imagination program to grow and excel” says Shanks.

Destination Imagination is an international non-profit organization dedicated to fostering students’ curiosity, courage and creativity through open-ended STEM, fine arts and service learning challenges. “My goals are to encourage more growth in order to have more student participation in the DI program and to develop more and better ways to recognize the millions of volunteers around the world who work alongside students as Destination Imagination team managers, regional directors, as well as affiliate directors,” says Shanks.

The organization believes that the changes to the Board of Trustees reflect their expanded effort to close the skills gap currently separating k-20 education and the global workforce.

“It is an honor to serve on the international board of an educational organization/competition to help ensure the continuation of a competition that affects so many young people in positive ways,” she says.