On Thursday, June 25 Powder River Basin Resource Council will continue its webinar series, Reclaiming & Growing Wyoming’s Future, providing education, tools, and resources available for a planned transition to a new, diversified Wyoming economy. Each session features different panelists with specific areas of expertise in transitioning resource-dependent communities.
In this second webinar, Tools to Diversify Wyoming’s Economy, Jack Morgan, Program Manager for the National Association of Counties (NACo) County Innovations Lab and Brett Schwartz, Associate Director for the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation will discuss how other communities have begun transitioning their economies. Wyoming State Senator Fred Baldwin will moderate the panel.
During this session, Morgan and Schwartz will explain how rural coal-reliant communities in the West and in Appalachia are setting a new course in a variety of ways, including through workforce development and retraining, entrepreneurship, outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, renewable energy, and more.
The webinar is free but requires advance registration, and attendance is capped at 150. Registration is available at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3309388570158436363. This June 25 session will begin at 10 am and features a panel discussion followed by a question-and-answer period.
Anyone with an interest in understanding how Wyoming’s communities can transition from dependency on resource extraction to a healthy, diverse economy is encouraged to attend any or all of the webinars. The third session, Securitization: A Finance Tool for Energy Transition, is scheduled for July 7 at 10 am, and the fourth and final session, Funding Wyoming’s Economic Transition will be July 21 at 10 am. Registration links will be available soon on Powder River’s website.
For more information on the webinar series, visit www.powderriverbasin.org, email mirwin@powderriverbasin.org or call 307-672-5809.
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June 25 Webinar Speaker Bios:
Jack Morgan serves as a Program Manager on National Association of Counties (NACo) County Innovations Lab team, providing best practices research and technical assistance to the nation’s 3,069 counties. Jack handles resilient economies and communities programming and his current work focuses on economic diversification and revitalization in rural and coal-impacted communities, disaster resilience, and energy planning and development. He also serves as the NACo staff liaison to the National Association of County Planners. Jack has been with NACo since 2015 and previously served as a Policy Analyst at Friends of Southwest Virginia, where he focused on regional tourism & asset-based economic development initiatives.
Brett Schwartz, serves as the Associate Director for the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation, leading their economic resilience and diversification training portfolio. He has been with the NADO Research Foundation since 2012, and his primary work focuses on assisting regions with planning, designing, and implementing their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies. Previous projects have focused on promoting economic diversification and workforce development initiatives in coal-reliant communities across the country. Brett organizes and leads trainings, peer exchanges, and workshops and develops webinars, publications, and other resources covering topics such as regional planning, asset-based economic development, entrepreneurship, community engagement, and other areas.
