Marit Stiles has been promoted by ACTRA to the position of national director, public policy and communications from her previous posting as the actor organization’s national director of research.

She assumes the role immediately, ACTRA announced Friday.

She replaces Joanne Deer, who held the position for four years. Deer took a position at NOW Communications, a Vancouver-based advertising company.

Stiles headed the research team for seven years, and participated in the negotiation of all of ACTRA’s major collective agreements, including the National Commercial Agreement, the Independent Production Agreement and the broadcast agreements involving the NFB, CBC, and CTV. She has also represented ACTRA on a variety of multi-organization working groups, such as the Canada Media Fund Working Group.

Stiles likely has a busy workload, as ACTRA is set to begin bargaining a new Independent Production Agreement with the CMPA and the APFTQ next week.