Five local government and civic leaders from Bryan County recently graduated from 2011 Multi-Day Training Program through the Board of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development.
Bryan County leaders included District 4 County Commissioner Carter Infinger, Pembroke Mayor-elect Mary Warnell, Jeff Ahearn with Georgia Electric Membership Cooperative, Marilyn Page with the city of Pembroke and Pembroke Downtown Development Authority Board member Jeanne McCormick.
Class participants represented a number of professional and nonprofessional economic development fields, including elected officials, public servants, business leaders, educators and social service providers from Coastal Georgia. The curriculum provides insights into the complexities of economic and community development on the local, regional, and state levels.
Created in 1993 by then-Gov. Zell Miller’s Development Council, the academy assembles a cross-section of economic development professionals and resources to provide this training in all 12 service delivery regions in Georgia.
“One of the goals for the multi-day regional academies is to encourage multicounty cooperation,” said Corinne Thornton, 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.”
Georgia EMC and Georgia Power provide facilitators for the program, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs provides staff support to this important program.
The next Region 12 Georgia Academy for Economic Development will begin in September 2012. For more information, contact Teresa Concannon at (912) 536-5723.