What CREF Means to Me

Stacy Bartnik

Industry relations manager, Intertek, and CREF trustee-at-large

CREF plays a vital role in strengthening the industry by helping develop the next generation of skilled professionals, Bartnik says.

"While technology and vehicles continue to evolve, one constant remains: the need for safe vehicles on our roads. CREF supports this mission by providing students and schools with the resources, funding, and opportunities they need, ensuring a pipeline of well-trained, high-quality talent for a sustainable future.

"Over the years, we have continuously reviewed and refined our strategic plan to ensure we are effectively fulfilling our vision and mission. While many organizations are doing important work in our industry, our success depends on maintaining a clear and focused approach.

"Our “North Star” is career placement, achieved by preparing skilled, job-ready individuals to enter our industry. Staying committed to this focus enables us to make meaningful progress toward our goals.

"At the same time, we recognize that our work is never complete. Rather than defining a single greatest achievement, we remain committed to looking ahead and striving to do more. This mindset drives CREF to collaborate with industry stakeholders and support the schools, instructors, and students who are essential to the future of our industry."

Mark Claypool

Industry relations and strategic partnerships leader

Since its inception, Claypool says, CREF has had the goal of helping collision repair shops meet their entry-level needs.
"That's a tall order, even after 35 years. I continue to hear, even today, that the industry's biggest challenge is finding qualified entry-level employees. CREF helps, but it requires a concerted effort by all segments of the industry to invest in this initiative if CREF is to be successful in meeting this foundational goal. And shops need to partner with the schools and participate in the training on an ongoing basis, not just call the school when they need to hire. Those that do participate will get the choice of the best students coming out of these programs.

"We launched the AdvanceTech curriculum that met the ASE NATEF standards and helped qualify schools to become ASE certified training programs. We also created a passport type booklet that accompanied the curriculum. We called it PACE: People Actively Creating Employability. Instructors could sign students off on their competencies and then the student could present that to potential employers. In addition, we rallied the industry around supporting the students representing the SkillsUSA team at the WorldSkills Competition and did an entire PR campaign with posters and brochures shops could use to help with recruiting."

Brenda Hogen

Vice president, strategic accounts, PartsTrader LLC, and CREF chairman of the Board of Trustees

CREF is essential to the long‑term health of the collision repair industry, Hogen says.

"It serves as a bridge between education and industry by ensuring schools and students have access to modern equipment, relevant training, and clear career pathways. At a time when technician shortages impact shops, insurers, and consumers nationwide, CREF helps build a sustainable talent pipeline. Greater industry support is critical because workforce development is a shared responsibility. When insurers, OEMs, suppliers, and repairers invest together, the entire industry benefits."

CREF’s greatest achievement, she says, "has been evolving into a results‑driven foundation with measurable, scalable impact. Today, CREF is at an all‑time high in sponsorships and donations, reflecting growing industry confidence and engagement. Most notably, the Donation Exchange platform has been a game changer, allowing schools to connect directly with suppliers for vehicles, tools, equipment, and materials. This innovation is dramatically expanding CREF’s reach, accelerating support to classrooms, and transforming how resources flow from industry partners to the next generation of technicians. We look forward to the continued partnership of our donors and sponsors and look forward to continuing to support the industry in our mission." 

Chuck Sulkala

Past president, Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Assocation/CREF Trustee emeritus

While CREF was formed during his term as I-CAR chair, Sulkala, he credits belongs Jeff Silver in seeing the need for a dedicated nonprofit arm to strengthen industry education.

"Jeff was truly on top of it and had the foresight that I-CAR could be the industry leader to bring better OTJ education not only to the technicians, but also to the schools that were teaching how to become entry-level technicians."

At the time, Sulkala recalls, one of the biggest challenges was that many graduates from technical programs arrived with minimal practical skills. CREF addressed that by helping create more consistent, industry-aligned curriculum and giving instructors better tools to teach what shops actually needed.

"CREF was also very involved in trying to help bring greater professionalism to the instructors. That is also one of the things that the Sulkala Family fund within CREF will be getting more involved with doing in the years ahead."

That focus continues, he says, including efforts like the Sulkala Family Fund supporting student access to national competition.

"We became involved because Jeff showed us a way that we could become far more involved and effective in bringing new talent into this industry. And that impact continues to grow."

CREF's biggest value is consistency, Sulkala says. With a standardized, OEM-informed curriculum, schools across the country teach the same core material, which gives the industry confidence in what entry-level technicians know when they graduate.

"That has cut the OTJ training significantly and has also allowed the entry-level tech to gut up to speed for pay much quicker than in the past," he says. "It has been a benefit for everyone."

CREF's greatest achievement, Sulkala says, has been to unite the industry for a common goal of developing skilled technicians.

"Whether it was repairer or insurer or supplier, we all needed people who had some degree of technical skills. If each segment decided to simply take care of themselves, then the other segments were always thinking there was a degree of bias in that person's opinion or effort. What CREF has done is to bring this united effort together, in and of itself not the easiest of tasks, but now with combined funding, we continue to try and provide the best for us all."

The work isn’t finished, he says, and the opportunity now is to build on that momentum — continuing to invest in training while also ensuring technicians are valued, supported, and retained. Without that follow-through, we risk losing the very talent we’re working to develop.

Russ Thrall 

Publisher, CollisionWeek

In the early 1980s, Thrall recalls, his high school guidance counselor steered him away from a career in the collision repair industry — even though his father owned and managed repair facilities.

"That prejudice against the skilled trades was driving a generation of young people away from rewarding careers, even as the industry faced a looming technician shortage," he recalls. "It's why I jumped at the chance to volunteer with the Foundation at its founding: schools were still relying on curriculum from the 1960s — that had to change."

"CREF's greatest achievement "is the constancy of its vision paired with the evolution of how it has delivered on it over the past 35 years. The early curriculum work professionalized what schools could teach. The transition to a philanthropic model — building industry financial support for grants and scholarships for schools and students — laid the foundation for what CREF does today: more than $14 million delivered in 2024, reaching students in nearly 1,000 schools."

"More industry support for CREF means more students who never get told, as I was, that this work isn't worth doing. Every dollar the industry invests in CREF comes back as a better-trained colleague entering our industry."