About Us
Here in gorgeous High Point, North Carolina -- the Furniture Capital of the World -- we at FindYourFurniture.com are trying to help you consumers make the very best home furnishings purchasing decisions possible!
About Jackie Hirschhaut
Jackie Hirschhaut is the Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing for the American Home Furnishings Alliance, where she directs the 200-plus-corporate-member, non-profit organization’s consumer marketing program and serves as a liaison to the journalists who cover the semi-annual High Point Furniture Market each Spring and Fall.
Jackie, who has authored books on wedding planning, has won prestigious awards like the 2008 WOW Education Award by WithIt (Women in the Home Industries Today), and two “Golden Thinker” awards in 2007 from the North American Precis Syndicate.
She is Chair of the 2011 Professional Conference, a member of the Advisory Board of Bauder College in Atlanta, and a Professional Advisory Board Member of the Department of Communications at Appalachian State University. She also is a judge for the American Society of Furniture Designers’ Pinnacle Show and the International Woodworking Fair’s Design Emphasis Awards.
Before joining the AHFA in 1998, Jackie was Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Elegant Bride consumer magazine for nearly a decade. She also held a variety of editorial posts at Furniture/Today and its sister publications for six years, earning the 27th Annual Editorial Award presented by the Dallas Market Center.
She began her career in retail management as a home textiles buyer at Woodward & Lothrop in Washington, D.C., following graduation from the University of Rhode Island with degrees in journalism and marketing. She is a graduate of the Institute of Organizational Management, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
About Pat Bowling
Since 2000, Pat Bowing has been Vice President of Communications for the American Home Furnishings Alliance, which supports more than 350 member manufacturers, importers, and suppliers to the residential furniture industry.
Pat oversees AHFA’s expansive print and web communications materials. She assists in handling inquiries from consumer and business journalists plus, in collaboration with Jackie, responds to consumer inquiries via FindYourFurniture.com.
For more than 10 years, she managed the official Press Center for the High Point Market, which hosts the hundreds of journalists who cover the international home furnishings show each spring and fall. She has presented nearly a dozen seminars and webinars on preparing market press kits and maximizing press exposure during markets. (Pat still serves those journalists who cannot attend the market by writing product trend reports that are emailed during and after the markets.)
She is a 25-year veteran of the home furnishings industry, having worked as a writer, editor, publisher, and association executive. Pat has BA degrees in journalism and religious studies from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., and completed one year of graduate study at Konan University in Kobe, Japan.
About AHFA
As an effort by the world's largest and most active trade association solely dedicated to the advancement of the United States' furniture industry, the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) has served as the premier authority on information related to furniture in the United States. Learn more about AHFA at www.ahfa.us.
What’s more, AHFA represents more than 200 of the industry's leading manufacturers who make everything from bedroom and dining room suites to upholstered sofas and chairs to outdoor furniture.