Bekki Parris and Becky Smyth are seated, with Chuck Scragg of Georgia Power, Peggy Allgood, Eddie Lumsden, Niki Knox of Georgia EMC and Mike Pennington, Academy Board Member and Executive Director of the Georgia Economic Developers Association, standing behind. (contributed)
Class participants represented a number of professional and non-professional economic development fields, including elected officials, public servants, business leaders, educators, and social service providers from 13 counties in Northwest Georgia.
Floyd County graduates were Peggy Allgood, Cave Spring City Council; Eddie Lumsden, chairman of the Floyd County Commission; Bekki Parris, Rome Community Development Department; and Becky Smyth, Rome Parking Services Manager.
Created in 1993 by then-Governor Zell Miller’s Development Council, the academy assembles a cross section of economic development professionals and resources to provide this training in all twelve service delivery regions in Georgia.
“One of the goals for the multi-day regional academies is to encourage multi-county cooperation,” said Saralyn Stafford, executive director of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development. “Many times the participants discover the issues facing their community are the same as those facing other communities in their region, and can then combine limited resources to address the issue.”
The academy’s multi-day program, taught one day a month over a four-month period, includes training in the basics of economic and community development, plus specialized segments on entrepreneur and small business support, tourism product development, downtown development, quality planning, redevelopment and other essentials for community success. In addition, the curriculum features specific leadership skills such as consensus building, team work, ethics in public service, collaborative leadership and other segments needed for effective community leadership in economic development.
Georgia EMC and Georgia Power provide facilitators for the program, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs provides staff support.
For more information on the program, contact Leamon Scott at 706-234-4571 or by email at leamon.scott@dca.ga.gov.
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