The next Chair of the NABCA Board of Directors, Kathie Durbin, Director of Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services (ABS), steps into the position with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
“I have a lifelong commitment to serving the community through hospitality,” Durbin explains.
She is not exaggerating. Durbin’s impressive, impactful career in the industry includes nearly every level and type of role.
In her younger years she worked as a bartender and restaurant manager in the D.C. and Montogomery area. “I loved that,” she says.
This early experience helped as she progressed into Executive Director of the Montgomery County Restaurant Association, where she helped develop certified alcohol beverage server training for the Restaurant Association of Maryland Hospitality.
Having already contributed greatly to Maryland’s on-premise industry, Durbin then went back to school to study social work. Specifically, she wanted to help those suffering from substance abuse, foreshadowing the large role she would later play in protecting public safety as ABS Director.
In 2002, she joined the ABS, creating the organization’s first community outreach manager. She not only applied for the position but also created its funding through successful grant requests. Once hired, she worked to improve how the ABS interacted with its business and customer community, including improved server training for the sake of protecting the public.
Durbin’s career continued to progress in 2005, when she accepted the position of ABS Division Chief of Licensure, Regulation and Education. Here, she supervised alcohol licensure, policy, education, legislative initiatives and compliance. She held this role for the next 15 years, advocating for laws that supported the county’s hospitality businesses.
In May 2021, Durbin was confirmed as the new Director of ABS, after serving as Acting Director for four months. A lifelong resident of the county where she rose through the ranks — from bartender to ABS Director — Durbin became the first woman to lead the department.
“It’s been a great journey,” she says. “It’s interesting dynamics because I’ve worked with lots of different perspectives in the alcohol industry.”
“I still feel like I’m working in the hospitality industry, even now that I’m in the government,” she adds.
In addition to its regulatory role, ABS is the wholesaler of beer, wine and spirits in the county, and operates several dozen retail stores. The organization employs about 500 staff in retail, warehousing, outreach and community engagement.
Durbin also brings her deep and diverse industry background to NABCA, where she first joined the board the same year she took over at ABS. Five years later, she is set to become Chair of the NABCA Board of Directors.
“Kathie’s breadth and wealth of experience in beverage alcohol spans public health to business development,” says Neal Insley, NABCA president and CEO, in a press release. “These are two important aspects of a control system that our board and their agencies manage regularly as they help the hospitality businesses in their communities thrive by communicating proper safeguards, regulation and policy for selling beverage alcohol.
“Kathie’s first-hand knowledge of this is invaluable as she brings this to her leadership role on the board,” Insley added.
Navigating the Industry
From Covid-19 to trade tariffs to changing consumer preferences — especially among Gen Z — there have been no shortage of recent challenges for the alcohol business.
“You never know it all,” Durbin reflects. “There’s always something happening in this industry. You have to have an open mind and sit at the table with other people, and always keep learning, because this industry is always moving. There is a cyclone around us that is always moving.”
When it comes to navigating these ever-changing challenges in Montgomery County, Durbin focuses on what she calls the four Cs: culture, collaboration, communication and customer service.
“Words matter, and what we put behind them matters as well,” Durbin says.
She sees all this as adding up to a partnership where she co-creates a business-friendly environment with licensees. For example, she points to a successful push years ago to change legislation so that producers could self-distribute within the area’s system.
Unsurprisingly, this program picked up during the pandemic, giving producers a convenient path to customers as on-premise business shut down.
“It moved quickly,” Durbin recalls. “We were able to take small listings from local producers from 70,000 to over 13 million. Many of these local businesses, especially distilleries, work well in our stores. It’s been really fun working with local businesses and watching them grow. We helped keep these businesses in business, especially during the pandemic.”
Another area Durbin where takes pride at the ABS is her loss-prevention program. “One of my priorities coming in was to beef up our self-auditing,” she explains. “We’re a government-run department; we should be digging deep for cost savings and preventing theft.”
This included enhancing the organization’s inventory controls.
“It’s nice to be on top of that and take a little bit more control,” Durbin says, “and it also helps us be more efficient for customers.”
Maintaining efficient relations with customers requires acknowledgement of the diverse populace that resides within Montgomery County.
“Three of our cities have been noted for their diversity,” Durbin says. “We have lots of materials for people, and they’re available in several different languages. It’s important that we remember the diverse cultural impact of alcohol.”
“We develop relationships and engage with those different cultures so that they understand what they can do in Montgomery County as a license holder,” she adds. “As a result, we have lots of different, wonderful restaurants” representing a variety of cultures.
Of course, with all these pro-business initiatives, Durbin and her staff do not lose sight that “alcohol is a drug, and we have to treat it respectfully,” she says. “That’s why we do everything we can to train bartenders and servers for free.”
Responsible service education includes virtual trainings in a number of languages.
“I’m really proud of all of that,” Durbin says. “It’s what we should be doing for our customers.”
The ABS continues to work on ways that keep the organization and its customers prepared for the modern, shifting market.
“We just started a new permit for spirits-based RTDs that are 8% ABV and higher,” Durbin says. “That’s never been sold in our beer and wine stores yet. They could still sell RTDs, just nothing over 8% ABV. We’ve already had 150 business apply for the permit already, out of the 400 beer and wine stores that we have.”
Naturally, none of this would have been possible without the ABS staff that work for Durbin.
“They’ve been incredible,” she says. “We couldn’t do what we do unless everyone here was working together with one goal in mind, and that’s keeping our community safe.”
“We keep getting better every year, and that’s because of the team,” she adds.
NABCA Collaboration
Durbin becomes Chair of the NABCA Board of Directors after already being a member of the association for the past 20 years.
“I feel like I’ve grown up in this industry as part of NABCA,” she says. “And I’m already used to thinking of control systems as being more different than just one type. Each has unique policies and enforcement strategies. Each control system really does reflect their own communities. They each still need to maintain those protective environmental strategies. And they bring to NABCA what they need to.”
“For example, for us, our liquor stores close at 10 p.m.,” she adds. “That may be different in other states. We’re always learning from NABCA Board members and NABCA staff.”
Among the perks of her long NABCA tenure, when Durbin has a question or concern, she can simply call or email and conduct a poll of NABCA Board members. “We’re always there to help and support each other,” she says.
NABCA is an invaluable place to brainstorm solutions in an environment where you can feel safe, Durbin reflects. “Everyone works together and shares their data and collaborates.”
This expands beyond the Board.
“We’re true partners now, people in the industry and the control systems,” Durbin says. “I see more of that occurring now and more often.”
Back to Words
Traditionally, every NABCA Chair enters their term with a theme. For example, outgoing Chair Becky Schlauch’s theme is “Forward Together, Stronger Tomorrow.”
What about Durbin? Considering her four C’s as ABS Director, it’s no surprise that her theme goes “back to words,” she explains. “I think of life as one big word cloud.”
Accordingly, her NABCA Chair theme is: “Connect, Respect, Elevate.”
“With ‘Connect’, it’s about building relationships as the way we work within the industry,” Durbin explains. “‘Respect’ is understanding that we don’t always understand each other, and therefore need to listen to people and meet people where there is a feeling of civility.”
“‘Elevate’ goes back to hospitality,” she adds. “Going the extra mile, doing it through education and leaving things better than how we found them.”
“Those three words, like the four Cs, are very important to me,” she continues. “Everything I do is in support of those words.”
Looking Ahead
Now as always in the industry, Durbin recognizes that “consumer preferences are forever changing.”
It’s important that control state executives identify these shifting trends. For instance: Lower-ABV and non-alc products seem here to stay, as younger customers increasingly reach for these alternatives.
“These are no longer just for Dry January,” Durbin says, “but whenever people want to be more health conscious.”
Along those lines, she is also watching the rise in popularity of organic and additive-free products. This has been particularly noticeable recently in tequila. And in general, she sees a move towards sustainability, not just in production but also in packaging: the choices that brands make in the materials used.
On an even broader scale, uncertainty has crept up again in the U.S. economy. Inflation is down but far from gone, as the Covid-19 hangover continues to persist. Meanwhile, a new administration in the White House means a new set of policy changes, including the threat of alcohol tariffs in a global trade war.
“The economy is important for all of us,” Durbin says. “All of us are on this rollercoaster ride together.”
The changeover in the White House has also seen a dramatic, sweeping reduction in the size of the U.S. government. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have already lost their jobs, with the threat of further cuts forever present. Located adjacent Washington D.C., Montogomery County is home to many people that work for the U.S. government, meaning that staffing cuts could affect the local economy.
Meanwhile, part of the reason behind President Trump’s tariffs is his goal of moving more manufacturing back into America. Altogether, the result is a time of transition an unease in the U.S. economy. How this affects the alcohol industry is much on Durbin’s mind.
“We need to understand what kind of premium products people will still spend money on,” she says. “What size are they going for? Are they going for premium products in smaller portions? Do we have to make more of those options available? There’s only so much shelf space that we have to work with.”
“We’re constantly relying on our data from Neilsen to see where we are, and where we’re going,” she adds. “We take stock on that. We need to be on top of that.”
It’s rarely easy getting on top of what is, by her own words, a cyclone around the industry that never stops swirling.
“Sometimes you might feel like your back is against the wall,” Durbin says, “trying to get products on the shelf while also having a social responsibility piece as well. We’re not going to give in to pressure, and we’re not going to promote irresponsible drinking habits.” “We have to stay vigilant,” she adds. “We have to keep adapting to trends and staying flexible. We have to allow ourselves to be innovative and responsive. We have to keep partnering and collaborating, we have to keep moving forward together.”
Kyle Swartz is editor of StateWays. Reach him at kswartz@epgmediallc.com. Read his recent piece, 8 Beverage Alcohol Trends in 2025.
