The Board of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development has announced the graduates of its 2014 Region 10 Multi-Day Training Program. The sessions were held at Darton State College in Albany. 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 counties in Southwest Georgia. The academy provided each of the 28 graduates an opportunity to gain a unique understanding of the complexities of economic and community development on the local, regional, and state levels.

The 2014 GAED graduates from Thomas County are Ann McCrickard, tourism chair for City of Boston; Dennis G. Lee, Southwest Georgia Technical College vice president for Economic Development; Amanda Maxwell, City of Boston Downtown Development Authority; and Christina Reneau, Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce assistant director.

“I am honored that I had the opportunity to be a student in the Georgia Academy for Economic Development Training Program. The networking opportunities I experienced will be invaluable as we work to make our service region more attractive to business and industry,” Lee said.

Created in 1993, the academy assembles a cross section of economic development professionals and resources to provide this training in all 12 service delivery regions in Georgia. The Board of Directors of the Academy represents public and private economic development organizations and agencies from across Georgia. Since its organization, the academy has provided training for thousands of professional and non-professional economic developers around the state and, since 1998, the academy has been offered annually. Scott Purvis of the Georgia Power Georgia Company and Jenny Robbins from Georgia EMC provide facilitation and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs provides staff support to this important program.

“One of the goals for the multi-day regional Academies is to encourage multi-county 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.”

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 business recruitment and retention, tourism product development, downtown development, planning, and other essentials for community success. In addition, the curriculum features specific leadership skills such as consensus building, ethics in public service, collaborative leadership and other segments needed for effective community leadership in economic development. Local elected officials receive certification training credits through the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Municipal Association for completion of this program.

SWGTC offers more than 80 certificate, diploma and degree programs. Many of these programs provide training for some of the nation’s fastest-growing career fields including nursing, automotive technology, clinical laboratory technology and criminal justice technology.

For more information on the accounting program at SWGTC, call 229-225-4096 or visit www.southwesgatech.edu.

Spring Semester 2015 begins Jan. 6.