After the departure of its long-time executive director, the National Drowning Prevention Alliance has named an interim replacement.
Adam Katchmarchi, the organization’s highly visible leader for nine years, left last month after the organization learned of an unexpected and significant reduction in funding and he disagreed with the Board’s chosen response plan. The parting was characterized as respectful and amicable.
At the time, NRPA leadership said it would seek an interim executive director as it nailed down a detailed strategy for moving forward as it awaits the next rounds of funding. The group quickly did so, naming another safety-advocacy veteran – Alissa Magrum -- to start in the post shortly after Katchmarchi’s Sept. 15 departure and the loss of another full-time staffer.
Magrum hails from two prominent drowning-prevention organizations – Austin, Texas-based Colins Hope, for which she served as the executive director of for 14 years; and Families United to Prevent Drowning, an organization made up of families who have lost loved ones to drowning.
In those roles, she has worked with and been affiliated with NDPA for approximately 15 years. “I’ve been a colleague and friend of Adam’s for over a decade,” Magrum said. “A lot of the reasons I stepped into this role was to continue the work that he, the board and members of NDPA have been working so hard toward to prevent drownings.”
Magrum will serve in a part-time capacity at least until the organization’s fiscal year ends in June, 2025, after which the organization will assess how to move forward with the position.
“We continue to be a resource for anyone working in water safety and drowning prevention, for families who have been impacted by drowning and entrapment,” she said. “We’re going to be strong and maybe have a little shift in structure and resources, and we may have to reprioritize some of the things we do, but we’re still here and dedicated to the mission.”
NDPA’s conference will take place as scheduled, February, 2025 in St. Pete Beach, Fla., co-located with that of the Association of Aquatic Professionals. Additionally, the organization plans to continue leveraging its website, ad campaigns and programs begun under Katchmarchi’s watch.
“We’re alive and well, and we’re just regrouping and shifting,” Magrum said. “We have some slightly different resources than in the past, and that’s okay. We have all these amazing assets, which include our website, which is a huge resource hub for the field, for parents, for our alliances and partners.”
Magrum entered the world of drowning-prevention advocacy after the 2007 drowning of 4-year-old Colin Holst, her child’s friend. After volunteering for two years with the organization at its beginnings, she took the role of executive director. In her time with the organization, she developed “Water Safety with Colin & Friends,” a water safety curriculum available in English and Spanish.
She also co-founded Families United to Prevent Drowning, a group made up of families who have lost loved ones to drowning. During her tenure with that organization, Magrum played a key role in advocating for passage of Texas’ Cati’s Law, which requires care organizations to acquire written notice from parents stating whether their child can swim and to put U.S. Coast Guard-approved lifejackets on those children.
Magrum has also written a children’s book for drowning prevention, co-chaired NDPA’s Advisory Board, and contributed to the National Water Safety Action Plan by serving on its Water Safety Education Working Group.
In the last couple years, since finishing her time with Colin’s Hope, she has served as a consultant, among other things traveling to places such as Honduras to teach skills to help safeguard children against drowning, especially in open water.
She said her years collaborating with the organization has helped in this transition period, at a time when she’s meeting with partner organizations every day to shore up their connections.
“We’re going to look at leaning on our alliance, assessing and looking at our partners and thinking about how we can work even better and more deeply with our partners,” she said. “We all have super powers, and I think one of mine is relationships and partnership building. So that’s somewhere I want to put the focus, and that takes time.”
