Speaker Information

[this list will be updated as speakers are confirmed]

• Bo Beaulieu
  Director, Southern Rural Development Center
  
  Dr. Beaulieu has been director of the Southern Rural Development Center, located at Mississippi State University, since August 1997 and also is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University. Dr. Beaulieu's professional efforts have been devoted to human and social capital resource issues in the rural United States and the South; the educational success of rural youth; and the expansion of civic engagement in rural areas. During his tenure at the SRDC, Beaulieu has initiated rural development policy briefs that have helped bring focus to the host of challenges facing rural areas of the South in the years ahead.
  
  
• Karen Dabson
  Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
  
  
• Mark Drabenstott
  Vice President and Director, Center for the Study of Rural America, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
  
  Dr. Drabenstott is a seasoned observer of the rural economy who has gained national and international recognition for his economic analysis and policy insights. He joined the Bank in 1981 and was named a vice president in 1990. Throughout his career at the Bank, Mark has been an ardent observer of the leading issues facing the rural economy and food and agriculture sector, publishing more than a hundred articles and editing five books. In October of 1998, Mark was named Director of the Center for the Study of Rural America. The Center serves as the Federal Reserve's focal point for research on rural and agricultural issues.
  
  
• Vaughn L. Grisham
  Director, McLean Institute for Community Development
  Professor of Sociology, University of Mississippi
  
  Dr. Grisham has taught for 35 years at the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. He has worked in leadership and community/economic development in more than 30 states and two Canadian provinces and has helped to establish leadership development programs in more than 300 countries in more than 20 states.
  
  
• Louise Hill
  J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership, University of Georgia
  
  
• Ed Jones
  North Carolina State University
  
  
• Mary Simon Leuci
  Community Development Program Leader, University of Missouri
  
  
• David Mills
  Senior Fellow, J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership, University of Georgia
  
  
• Bob McKenzie
  Vice-President, Alabama Center for Civic Life
  
  
• Glenn Muske
  Oklahoma State University
  
  
• Deborah Tootle
  Louisiana State University
  
  
• Mike Woods
  Oklahoma State University