Stories

Capacity Building

  • Ines Polonius: Leadership Development

    Ines Polonius spearheaded the merger of Community Resource Group and alt.Consulting to form Communities Unlimited, which offers infrastructure services and economic entrepreneurial growth strategies in seven states.

    As Executive Director of alt.Consulting, Polonius worked with hundreds of small businesses in manufacturing, distribution, service and retail. Among the services Polonius...

  • Justin Maxson: Generational Transition

    From 2002 to 2015, Justin Maxson served as President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Kentucky, where he supported and generated innovative development strategies, including small enterprise lending and technical assistance solutions, energy efficiency support strategies and targeted research and policy efforts aimed at creating benefits for low-to-moderate...

  • Stephanie Tyree: Youth Burnout

    Stephanie Tyree has served as Director of Community Engagement and Policy at the Hub since November 2012. The statewide non-profit organization’s mission is to engage communities and providers in an intentional, aligned and continuous system of community development. Before joining the Hub, Tyree worked as a community organizer and state policy coordinator in the southern West Virginia...

  • Maureen O'Connell: Generational Transition at SOCM

    Maureen O’Connell worked at SOCM for 35 years, 16 as Executive Director. During her tenure, SOCM expanded from a five-county grassroots community organization focused on coal (Save Our Cumberland Mountains) to a statewide organization working on a host of local, statewide, regional, and national issues of environmental, social and economic justice (Statewide Organizing for Community...

  • Bill Kopsky: Long-Term Change

    Bill Kopsky became Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel in 1999.

    The Panel helps Arkansans improve their communities and develop policy solutions by taking collective action and building coalitions. In 1998, it organized the Arkansas Citizens First Congress, a coalition of 58 community organizations advocating for progressive policy change in Arkansas. The...