World-Class Faculty Members Share Insights from their Experience

Lacy Beasley

President, Retail Strategies

Lacy Beasley currently serves as President and formerly as COO of Retail Strategies. She has been involved in retail real estate since 2005. Her experience with The Shopping Center Group and the Dickson County Chamber of Commerce prior to joining Retail Strategies provides her with the insight to understand the connections needed from the public and private side of the conversation.

A graduate of Lipscomb University, she earned a major in Marketing and Management. Beasley has served on committees with CCIM, EDAA, and multiple ICSC planning committees. In 2018 Lacy was named to the “Top 40 under 40” and “Top 40 Under 40 for the Decade” by the Birmingham Business Journal, included in the nationwide “Top 100 influencers in Commercial Real Estate,” and listed as one of Birmingham’s “Eight emerging Influencers.”

Dr. Adam Brooks

Assistant Director of Public Speaking, The University of Alabama

Woven into the advanced program is an interactive session on public speaking and communications. Adam leads the class with Dr. Alexa Chilcutt, through an effective communications session featuring individual class presentations and analyses. Public speaking and presentations are central to today’s successful professional. This half-day session focuses on delivery, mass communication, and rhetoric.

Dr. Shannon Campbell

Associate Vice President of Coastal Operations and Former Director Trent Lott National Center for Economic Development, University of Southern Mississippi

With local economic development private-sector and university broad-based experience, Shannon leads the “Strategic Planning: Lessons from Class Plans or the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” session.

As a dean, manufacturing expert and long-time entrepreneur, Shannon’s experience, coupled with class strategic plans, make for an unpredictable and informative session – utilizing actual class strategic plans as the learning platform.

Dr. Alexa Chilcutt

Director of Public Speaking, The University of Alabama

Woven into the advanced program is an interactive session on public speaking and communications. Alexa leads the class with Dr. Adam Brooks, through an effective communications session featuring individual class presentations and analyses. Public speaking and presentations are central to today’s successful professional. This half-day session focuses on delivery, mass communication, and rhetoric.

Kenny Coleman

Senior Vice President, Center Point Energy (TX)

Kenny Coleman brings more than a decade experience with The Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, to the AEDL class as he leads a session on effectively utilizing electric utilities in the job creation process.  Quite often, utilities have resources that can impact a community’s competitiveness, but managing those resources can be an evolving challenge.  A former professional baseball player, Kenny’s early team and competitiveness lessons are now ingrained in his approach to economic development.

Chad Driskell

Vice President for External Affairs, The University of Southern Mississippi

Chad Driskell currently oversees the government relations and external affairs portfolio at USM. With 20 years experience in governmental affairs and business, Chad has learned valuable funding and revenue enhancement strategies that are so important in these organizational budget challenged times. The lessons and best-practices can be applied to funding strategies for any size economic development organization.

Dr. Rita Kosnik

Professor, Management and Negotiations, Texas Christian University

With an extensive background in negotiation strategies, Rita leads the “Effective Negotiation Strategies” session. She has won several awards for excellence in executive teaching and is one of the most popular faculty for AEDL.

She is a trained mediator for the state of Texas and a corporate trainer in dispute resolution and negotiations.

Lisa Kuuttila

CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer, UNM Rainforest Innovations

Ms. Kuuttila joined UNM Rainforest Innovations, the University of New Mexico’s technology-transfer program, as President & CEO in 2003. She works with the UNM Rainforest Innovations’ Board of Directors in developing strategies for implementing UNM’s vision to play a vital role in New Mexico’s economic development and to be a leader in technology commercialization.

Ms. Kuuttila has more than 20 years of prior leadership experience in technology commercialization and licensing. Her prior experience also includes a consulting practice that provided strategic marketing and technology-transfer consulting services for a wide variety of well-known technology corporations, universities and foundations, including Stanford University.

Kate McEnroe

Veteran site consultant and education expert

Kate leads the “Talent Challenges and Opportunities” session, utilizing her vast experience working with communities on projects and workforce information.  In every survey, talent for a prospective company or an expanding business is at the top of the list of requirements.  Kate will examine what data/information decision-makers need to make the cut/final few and how communities can improve on both general talent information and RFP responses.

Alex Leath

Partner, Bradley Law Firm

One of the nation’s foremost experts on project financing and incentives, Alex’s session “Lessons from the Buffalo Hunt” focuses on successful and not-so-successful competition, lessons from a recent mega project, out of the box financing options and the incentives debate.

In addition to a successful economic development legal practice, Alex has been involved in some of the country’s major site location projects for organizations that include Volkswagen, Tesla and Amazon HQ2.

Dr. Ed Nichols

Certified Emergenetics Facilitator and former educator

Ed’s energetic and engaging opening session focuses on individual profiles of class members’ personality and professional traits and how to use those traits in economic development, communication, negotiation and everyday interaction.

Emergenetics is a leadership, planning and communication tool used in 22 countries and countless U.S. board rooms. Ed’s engaging approach encourages everyone in the class to explore his/her strengths and weaknesses in a fun, educational afternoon session.

Gregg Fraley

Consultant, Trainer, Facilitator, Author, Sought-after Speaker

Author of Jack’s Notebook, Gregg Fraley leads the class discussion on “Creativity, Innovation and Job Creation.” He is a much sought-after speaker having recently addressed the Site Selectors Guild.

Victor W. Hwang

Founder and CEO of Right to Start

Victor W. Hwang is founder and CEO of Right to Start, a new campaign fighting for everyone’s right to be an entrepreneur as a national policy priority. Previously, he was Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropy supporting entrepreneurs, where he managed a budget of $40 million. At Kauffman, he led initiatives that impacted over 200,000 entrepreneurs in 200 cities, including efforts in catalyzing capital formation, transforming economic development practices, launching a national policy roadmap, and breaking barriers for underserved entrepreneurs. Hwang is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Ken Haseley

Senior Counselor, The Ammerman Experience

Media relations and effective communication with the media are essential in today’s economic development environment. With sunshine laws and media transparency, the professional must be able to communicate effectively and in an understandable format. Ken’s half-day, interactive media training session includes individual class interviews, video examples and lessons from his years of experience.

Karl Kelly

Director of Operations, Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University

As a successful entrepreneur, professor, consultant and innovation guru, Karl combines his 35 years of experience to teach a class book session that examines the impact advanced technology, innovation and artificial intelligence will have on future job creation strategies. If you’re not thinking and preparing 10 years ahead, you’re already behind.

Karl also teaches applications from Technology Villages, a concept inaugurated in rural South Carolina. Based on the adage that every community has entrepreneurs who can create new jobs through innovation, technology or the execution of a good business idea, these lessons focus on entrepreneur centers in rural America.

Jim Roach

Executive Director, TCU Neeley Executive Education

Jim Roach joined TCU Neeley Executive Education as executive director in 2014. In this role, he is responsible for overall strategic direction, in-person & virtual program design & delivery, business development, marketing, and building strategic partnerships with businesses and alumni.

He is the recipient of multiple teaching awards and has designed and delivered courses on a wide variety of subjects that include adaptive leadership, executive presence & communication, learning agility, creativity, motivating & engaging people, retaining top talent, and building and managing the employment relationship.

David Rumbarger

President/CEO, Community Development Foundation, Tupelo/Lee County, MS

With 17 years leading Tupelo (a somewhat rural Mississippi area) to exceptional growth, David has learned and applied unique lessons about leadership in a complex, regional environment. Employing professional and personal lessons, David teaches the AEDL session “Leadership in the New Age of Economic Development.”

He also serves as mentor-in-residence for those who want to explore leadership applications in their individual settings.

Dr. Abbie Shipp

Associate Professor of Management, Texas Christian University

Throughout the week, AEDL focuses on professional and personal leadership. Abbie’s workshop “Influencing Change for Economic Success” examines the importance of change and how professionals can be change agents in their communities. At TCU, Abbie teaches classes on employee management and leadership with special emphasis on critical thinking initiatives for faculty and students.

In addition to academia, she has practical business experience having worked at the Boeing Company and TV Guide prior to teaching stints at Texas A&M, the University of North Carolina and Oklahoma State University.
Her session was a highlight for AEDL’s inaugural class.

Mark Williams

President, Strategic Development Group
Past Chairman, Site Selectors Guild

As one of the nation’s premier site consultants, Mark joins the AEDL faculty to lead a session on site selection in the new normal. With thirty plus years in government economic development and consulting, Mark brings a unique perspective to the class and will be sharing ideas and principles from his new book Corporate Site Selection and Economic Development.

John Juchniewiez

Chief Financial Officer, Berg Steel Pipe Corp

Berg Pipe is one of the world’s largest pipe manufacturers for the oil and gas industry and John, as chief financial officer, has a unique vantage point on the global economy.  This new session focuses on the economy and the swings that impact economic development in the U.S., especially from government policies that change with elections, a historic pandemic and the resulting impact on global supply chains and international manufacturing.

Debra Lyons

Principal, Lyons Workforce; Principal Strategist, Garner Economics

With twenty-five years in workforce development, Debra is now the principal with Lyons Workforce LLC and principal workforce strategist with Garner Economics.  She led the workforce development office in Georgia and served as VP Community/Economic Development at ACT, Inc. and authored the company’s workforce development initiative.  Obviously, her session focuses on workforce, especially in these unsettled employment challenges and the very key role economic development professionals play in the solution process.

Matt Kisber

President & CEO, Silicon Ranch Corporation

A former Tennessee legislator and commissioner of the state’s economic development agency, Matt launched a new career following his government service.  He co-founded Silicon Ranch and his team has developed the company into a national solar energy giant, with projects across the U.S.  Matt’s session will focus on the world’s growing reliance on electric vehicles and the ancillary support and infrastructure projects that accompany a reliance on non-carbon-based vehicles.