County Commission | The Magazine August 2018 | Page 37

Q : What sparked the
technology summit?
The motivation for the Alabama
Summit on Rural Technology came
out of UWA’s Economic Leadership
Academy as an essential priority for
Sumter County’s economic future,
along with revitalization of the Black
Belt region. The summit became the
vehicle for bringing rural Alabama
together to begin to address the issue
of rural technology infrastructure and
determine avenues of collaboration to
meet this vital need.
Q : What results have you
seen so far?
The summit ended up having a
statewide impact through participation
of major organizations, state
government, economic development
agencies, rural community leaders,
elected officials and business groups
from across Alabama, which brought
together a new opportunity to build
a rural broadband alliance. This
alliance is being formed currently
and will stretch across the entire
Black Belt from the Georgia border
to the Mississippi border to provide
advocacy, strategic initiatives and
new partnerships in the public and
private sectors to address and secure
investment in broadband for rural
Alabama.
Q : How has your experience
as a county commissioner
affected your approach as a
university president?
County commissioners, like
university administrators, learn rather
quickly how to effectively work with
many diverse constituencies on
a broad array of topics, all for the
greater good. In the 12 years that
I served Marengo County as the
District 2 commissioner, I enjoyed the
opportunity of learning more about
the people I served so that I could
better understand their needs and
interests and, in turn, collaborate with
members of the community, my fellow
commissioners and many others
throughout the region and state to
align the resources that would
improve the quality of life for all people
in the county.
I can compare that role in many
ways to my role as president of
the University of West Alabama.
Everything that we do at UWA can
be considered service, and, as a
regional university whose mission is
to bring about positive change and
growth through education, service
and outreach, we serve many publics.
In my three terms as commissioner,
including serving as chairperson, I
was very involved with community,
economic and workforce development
activities, and those are all priorities
Architecture, Civil Engineering,
Municipal Engineering, Community Planning,
Environmental, Geotechnical, Landscape,
Surveying, GIS, Airports and Transportation
Goodwyn Mills Cawood
www.gmcnetwork.com
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