ERA PRESS RELEASE
April 1, 2026
Contact: Clare Kluck / Communications Director / ckluck@era.org
ERA Announces the Recipients of the 2026 Mark Motsinger White Pin Internships
ERA announces six internships for the summer of 2026
The ERA White Pin group is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Mark Motsinger White Pin Internships:
- Maya Gabbi, Chapman University — Ion Associates (Texas)
- Olivia Burchstead, University of Kansas — Cover 2 Sales (Maryland)
- Taedra Tsecaris, University of Connecticut — John E. Boeing Co. (New Hampshire)
- Mary Coakley, University of Massachusetts at Amherst — Coakley Boyd & Abbett (Massachusetts)
- Erik Timbo, University of St. Thomas — Cain-Forlaw Co. (Illinois)
- Gabrielle Tully, Milwaukee School of Engineering — Brainard-Nielsen Marketing (Illinois)
This is the fifth year that the ERA White Pin Group and ERA National have partnered to award internships to manufacturers’ representative firms in various regions of North America to help hire and onboard college students as interns during the summer or academic year.
“We are excited to welcome this cohort of summer 2026 interns and congratulate the rep firm recipients,” said Kingsland Coombs, CPMR, CSP, senior vice president at large for the ERA Executive Committee and chair of the White Pin Group. “These interns will bring a wealth of new ideas and raw potential that will spark innovation within our rep firms. I look forward to seeing the growth and valuable insights that will come from this collaboration.”
“We are thrilled to be awarding six internships for the summer of 2026,” stated Lori Bruno, CPMR, senior vice president of education for the ERA Executive Committee. “It’s rewarding to see our mission of advocating for the manufacturers’ representative role and cultivating young talent come to life. We look forward to building on this momentum and becoming even stronger!”
ERA launched the Mark Motsinger White Pin Internship program in 2022 as a way to help the rep community introduce the rep model to college students and attract, hire and retain young people to keep the electronics industry fresh and relevant. The program allows rising college juniors or seniors to work for a manufacturers’ representative firm over the summer months to gain a better understanding and hands-on experience of the electronic components industry.
The internship program was named after Mark Motsinger, president of Wallace Electronic Sales, who served as executive director of the ERA White Pin group for more than 16 years. Motsinger helped to define the educational role of the White Pin group and helped promote the hiring and onboarding of new college graduates into our industry.
Please join ERA in congratulating all the rep companies and interns!
Read more information about the ERA Mark Motsinger White Pin Internship program.
About ERA
The 91-year-old Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) is the international trade organization for professional field sales companies in the global electronics industries, manufacturers who go to market through representative firms and global distributors. It is the mission of ERA to support the professional field sales function through programs and activities that educate, inform and advocate for manufacturers’ representatives, the principals they represent and the distributors who are reps’ partners in local territories. For more information about ERA, visit era.org.