Coming out of her box

Life came full-circle for Erin Hoffpauir. She grew up on her family’s cattle farm in Vidrine and has moved back home next door to her father after being named the new executive director of Evangeline Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Commission.
Between the time she was herding cattle and moving back home, Hoffpauir moved away to West Monroe where she graduated high school from West Ouachita High. She then came back to the area to attend LSUE for two years before going back to Monroe to obtain her bacherlor’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Upon completion of her education, Hoffpauir went to work in her career. “I focused mainly in retail management,” she said. “I did local store management, and then I moved on to multi-unit management as well as opening new stores and project management through big box companies.”
Hoffpauir’s retail experiences have led her to open a store in Lafayette for Torrid as well as opening stores in places like Chicago, Boston, and Tupelo, Miss., for H&M. She has also run her own retail business.
She explained her background has led her to “experience a lot of really cool things and to understand budgets and payroll.”
Now that she is back home, Hoffpauir wants to bring many of her past experiences with her into her new role. Included in her bag of tricks that she brought with her is the use of an online presence especially on social media.
“Social media and an Internet presence are a big focus for me because that’s how I can touch a lot of people when I can’t get out to a lot of people,” she said. “I want to utilize social media to get the word out and tell people on a global level about us and about what we have to offer. What we have to offer is heart, love, heritage, and culture.”
While maintaining the online presence, Hoffpauir will also employ face-to-face methods of running her organizations. “I’m going to do my best to put my boots on the ground and get out there to meet people,” said she. “I want to see what they need and what are the needs of the parish.”
Hoffpauir’s new role will give her an opportunity to give back to the parish she calls home and loves. “I am so happy to be back home and am thrilled to give back to my parish,” she expressed. “I want to take what we already have and make it bigger to get people to know what we have. I want everybody to fall in love with Evangeline Parish.”