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Recent Articles from Cathy Jett
Space race
Leaders of a regional engineering firm figured finding office space in the Town Center of Virginia Beach would be a breeze. Newspapers were reporting that demand for offices was down nationally. But that isn’t the case in the Hampton Roads area, where the office vacancy rate was 8.1% for the first quarter of 2023, according […]
Monogram Foods expands Henry County footprint
Responding to demand for more jerky and meat sticks, the Monogram Foods plant in Henry County has a $65 million expansion underway. Memphis-based Monogram Foods’ decision to expand the operation also factored in existing infrastructure and production expertise, says Scott Mills, executive vice president and snacking division president, calling Martinsville “a thriving community with a [&he[...]
Bridgewater College renovates main academic building
Bridgewater College students will notice dramatic changes in Bowman Hall when they return to campus on Oct. 4 after the fall semester break. The first phase of an $8.5 million renovation of the campus’s main academic building will be finished, and the basement and first floor will reopen. The redesigned classrooms and faculty offices will […]
Support system
James Madison University is where Angela Reddix says she found “my tribe, the godmothers of my children” — and also her future husband, Carl, whom she met on her first day on campus. “All those relationships came from JMU,” says Reddix, founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting […]
Chesapeake studying Greenbrier’s future
What’s the path ahead for Chesapeake’s Greenbrier community, a 12-square-mile area known as the city’s economic powerhouse? Consultants have been meeting with city departments, the business community and the public since January to craft a plan guiding Greenbrier’s future development. They also posted a survey on Chesapeake’s website that garnered about 1,640 response[...]
U.Va. Wise launches master’s degree in education
Like the rest of the country, Virginia’s public schools are suffering from a teacher shortage. In the 2022-23 academic year, there were 3,573 vacancies statewide, and more teachers are working with only provisional licenses, which don’t require teacher preparation courses. In Southwest Virginia, though, educators are signing up for a master’s degree in education that […]
Nurse training partnership to help with instructor shortages
Shenandoah University, Valley Health and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association have teamed up to tackle the Shenandoah Valley region’s nursing shortage by creating a program that can be replicated statewide. Called NextGen Nurses, the program will use semi-retired and retiring nurses as preceptors — experienced licensed clinicians who serve as teachers and coaches — [&hellip[...]
Shenandoah Valley Partnership launches capital campaign
Shenandoah Valley Partnership (SVP) is raising $1.7 million through its first capital campaign, Forward2028, to fund a five-year plan aimed at business and workforce attraction and retention. The region’s manufacturing sector alone has 3,100 job openings due to older workers retiring and companies ramping up production, says Jay Langston, executive director of the economic development [&hell[...]
Rural leadership institute aims to build local capacity
Virginia Rural Center Executive Director Kristie Proctor has long heard that the state’s rural areas were losing population and having difficulty cultivating local community leaders. To address the gap in local leadership, VRC, a Richmond-based nonprofit focused on fostering economic growth in rural areas, last year launched the Virginia Rural Leadership Institute (VRLI), an annual […[...]
Old Town Business league to upgrade or dissolve
Carla Clarke credits Old Town Business (OTB) league with arranging events that bring new faces into Today’s Cargo, the jewelry and gift shop she co-owns on Alexandria‘s King Street. “It’s bringing new people through your door,” says Clarke. The 40-year-old nonprofit business league champions Old Town’s business community through events like an annual cookie crawl. [&hel[...]
