Ernie Stetenfeld is president of Stetenfeld Associates, LLC, a Madison, Wis.-based consulting firm providing a wide range of communications services to meet the strategic and tactical needs of business, association and nonprofit clients. Stetenfeld also works as the director of community relations for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul – District Council of Madison, a nonprofit charitable organization serving neighbors in need in Dane County, Wis.
Until mid-2005 Stetenfeld was vice president of corporate relations for AAA Wisconsin, the motor and travel club serving the state’s nearly 600,000 AAA members. He left AAA Wisconsin to found Stetenfeld Associates after nearly 18 years of directing the club’s public-policy advocacy; public, media, government, community and member relations; traffic-safety services; member magazine production; and Web-site development. Stetenfeld feels his most significant work while he was with AAA was marked by the success of advocacy efforts on the part of the club and partner organizations for Wisconsin’s graduated driver licensing law. The GDL law has been helping to reduce deaths and injuries among teen drivers and their passengers in Wisconsin since 2000.
Stetenfeld is immediate past president and a current board member of the Safe Community Coalition of Madison and Dane County. He is also a member of the Pastoral Council for the Catholic Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. Other positions have included:
- Chair of the Wisconsin Safety Belt Coalition
- Chair of the Wisconsin Highway Users Conference
- President of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin
- President of the Wisconsin Public Relations Forum
- Advisor to the Wisconsin Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association
- Member of the Wisconsin Council of Safety Advisory Board.
Stetenfeld’s awards include:
- 2005 “People Who Shine” Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bureau of Transportation Safety of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
- 2005 Difference Maker Award from MADD Wisconsin
- 2001 Friend of Transportation Award from the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin
Stetenfeld holds a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Drake University and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and comparative religions from Northwestern University. He is licensed in Wisconsin as a lobbyist.
