Meet the Lash & Associates Team
Marilyn Lash, M.S.W., President
Marilyn has over 40 years’ experience working with persons with disabilities and their families in medical, rehabilitation, educational and vocational settings. Her primary focus is supporting families and developing community programs along with user-friendly publications for families, educators, and clinicians. She is a founding partner of Lash & Associates.
Marilyn recently joined a team of specialists who facilitate retreats for wives of wounded warriors, which take place near military bases around the country. She is a former Chair of the Board for the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina and former Chair of the Brain Injury Advisory Council for North Carolina. She continues to share her insights as a keynote speaker at many brain injury conferences.
Marilyn has favored us with numerous quilt wall-hangings she’s created in her spare time, which are peppered around our offices. She also finds gardening relaxes her after a busy week here, and her yard showcases her green thumb.
Bob Cluett, CEO
Bob brings a special perspective with the skills that he developed during his corporate career in communication, marketing, direct-mail advertising and sales. As a founding partner of Lash & Associates, he focuses on sales and oversees the publishing of information about the consequences of brain injury among children, adolescents and young adults. Bob still remains hands-on in the printing/bindery department where his expertise is called upon frequently!
He is the former Chair of the Board for the BIA of North Carolina and a survivor of a childhood brain injury. Now retired, he still consults with staff on strategic planning and special projects
Keith McCraw, COO
Keith is our new Chief of Operations and brings over 30 years of experience in the printing industry to Lash & Associates. This further expands our capabilities to provide a much wider range of products and services to suit our customers needs, especially when it comes to custom printing.
He is the go-to guy to talk to for quotes, special orders, special deals and is responsible for the overall management and planning for the future of the company. Keith is the parent of 4 great children, one of whom is severely autistic, so he shares an insight into the world of brain disorders.
Bill Herrin, Creative Director
Bill is our “Right Brain” specialist here at Lash. With over 30 years spent in a field where many don’t survive five years, Bill’s ingenuity, original ideas, and crisp graphic design have kept him in the biz. He handles much of the marketing for Lash & Associates, and also is the primary graphic designer here. Bill has lived in the greater Raleigh/Durham (NC) area for 30 years, and currently lives in Youngsville, NC – among fields of soybeans and tobacco. Having grown up in rural western Pennsylvania, his retreat from suburbia to the countryside has been one that feels just right.
Robin Schunk, Customer Service Manager
Robin takes care of it all. She manages your order and gets it out the door on time and always with a little bit of “SWAK”. Using our computerized ordering system, she processes invoices, tracks payments, provides estimates for quotes, manages inventory and accounts receivable.
Lash & Associates Publishing/Training Inc.
This year of 2017 marks the 21st anniversary of our company. It started as a wish and a dream by a few people who had a vision of founding a publishing company specializing in brain injury that was different than the academic and medical publishers.
A new approach to information
We had all visited families in their homes and seen worn copies of articles on clinical practice and research studies that had been sent by well meaning professionals. Written in scientific and academic language, families were struggling to extract information they could use. When we had telephone calls from educators, we searched for articles with information that was useful, understandable and relevant. They were hard to find. Clinicians and therapists working in community programs were looking for therapeutic tools but didn’t have access to expensive journals and textbooks found in medical libraries. Even more disturbing was the scarcity of information on the effects of brain injury in children and youth. Most of what had been written was on adults with brain injury. This just didn’t make sense to us – what about the kids?
The company started in 1996 under the name of L&A Publishing. From the beginning, our goal was to develop products that were based on the best clinical practices and most recent research findings. But we wanted to do something different. We wanted to take out the jargon and present information in a style that was practical, user-friendly and could be immediately applied by readers. We came up with the format of what we called tip cards. These were pamphlets that summarized best practices and research findings and converted information into “tips” on questions to ask and strategies to use. Our first catalog had 4 tip cards. Who would have guessed that by 2012 we will have 100 tip cards on children, youth and adults?
Then we started writing booklets and manuals with more depth and detail but the same user friendly model. We quickly found a ready market and outgrew our space in our initial location in New Hampshire. Looking for a warmer climate, we moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina in 1998 and also got our new name of Lash & Associates Publishing/Training, Inc. Once we had developed a comprehensive product line on brain injury in children and youths, we expanded in 2005 to address adults with brain injury.
We keep growing!
The company has continued to expand each year. Our catalog on children, adults and veterans highlights our most popular products including tip cards, books, manuals, DVDs, and training kits. Our secure website includes over 200 products with full description and preview pages. We’ve come a long way since our first 4 tip cards!
In March 2010 we moved to new offices with a 2500 square foot warehouse. We now have distributors in Canada, Taiwan, Japan, and England. With our growth, we have new challenges to keep up with the pace. We added a customer service division, redesigned our website and launched a new blog that received The Best Blog on Brain Injury Award.
New printing department and services
We have a full service digital printing and bindery department. We are capable of producing all tip cards and books in house, full color, 2400 dpi. We’ve added color printers capable of producing over 8,000 color pages/hour, along with high speed folding and perfect binding equipment.
Along with this growth comes a great opportunity for our clients. We are now offering personalization and branding on our full product line. Yes, we will put your logo and information on our books and tip cards and do it at very reasonable prices and in full color… our products now become yours!
Let us know what you need
Our business today still operates on the same principles by which we started…
• practical information based on best practices and research
• user-friendly style and formats for multiple audiences
• affordable prices
We are constantly looking for the next best good idea. We count on our customers to give us feedback on our products and to tell us what we need to do next. So let us hear from you.
Marilyn Lash – President – mlyn@lapublishing.com
Bob Cluett – CEO – bcluett@lapublishing.com
Lee Horton – VP Marketing & Sales – leehorton@lapublishing.com
Kevin McCraw – Chief of Operations – keith@lapublishing.com
Bill Herrin – Director of Graphics and Design – bill@lapublishing.com
Robin Schunk – Customer Service Manager – orders@lapublishing.com
Lash & Associates Publishing/Training Inc.
100 Boardwalk Drive, Suite 150, Youngsville, NC 27596
Tel: 919-556-0300 Fax: 919-556-0900
E-mail: orders@lapublishing.com