Local court reporter installed as ICRA President

Brook Blackwell, RPR, CRR

Brook Blackwell, RPR, CRR

Brook Blackwell takes association’s reins

VIENNA, Va., June 26, 2014–The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters and captioners, today announced that Brook Blackwell, RPR, CRR, an official court reporter, has been installed as president for the Iowa Court Reporters Association (ICRA).

Blackwell, a graduate of AIB College of Business, has worked primarily as an official court reporter since 2001. She is currently assigned to the Hon. Rose Anne Mefford with the State of Iowa Judicial Branch in District 8-A, which covers multiple counties including Mahaska. Blackwell is an Iowa Certified Shorthand Reporter and holds the nationally recognized certifications of Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) and Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR). She currently resides in Oskaloosa with her husband and two children.

ICRA currently has approximately 235 active members from both Iowa and nationally, representing official reporters, freelancers, closed captioners, and CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) providers. Official reporters are employed by the State of Iowa and work in the courtroom, reporting hearings, trials, and other matters that requires a formal record. Freelance reporters are self-employed or work for a reporting firm and primarily report depositions, sworn statements, and other situations that require an official legal transcript, such as arbitration hearings or other formal proceedings. Closed captioners primarily work from home and provide closed-captioning services for television stations. CART providers are reporters who provide realtime services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, oftentimes in schools, colleges, and churches.

ICRA serves its members on a variety of issues, ranging from proposing new legislation to providing reporters continuing education; however, one of its current issues is student outreach, due to the upcoming shortage of official reporters. It is estimated that within the next 10 years, 60 percent of the current official reporters in Iowa will either be retired or eligible for retirement. AIB no longer offers the court reporting program; however, DMACC will be starting the program at its Newton campus this fall.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of court reporters is projected to grow 10 percent from 2012 to 2022.

For more information, visit NCRA.org. Career information about the court reporting profession—one of the leading career options that do not require a traditional four-year degree—can be found at CareersInCourtReporting.com. For information about captioning, visit www.CaptioningMatters.com.

For more information on the court reporting profession in Iowa, please visit www.iacra.org.

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