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Recent Articles from Stephenie Overman
Getting down to business
In the late 1990s, Jennifer E. Clift was working as a secretary when her supervisor encouraged her to continue her education. She began taking business classes at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. “I wasn’t in a settled place,” she says. “I was not a traditional student. I was working full time, plus pretty […]
A step up the ladder
Internships often help college students learn what they want to do as a profession by expanding their horizons, providing on-the-job experience or helping them change paths to follow a new passion. For instance, an internship helped Virginia Commonwealth University student Oscar Kemp discover that his interest in domestic social work applied just as well to […]
Fighting back
Inflation and supply chain problems have pushed up the price of citric acid by 200%. That’s a problem for Crystal Wellman because citric acid is a primary ingredient in bath products she sells at Sugar + Spruce, her bath, body and skin care products shop in downtown Fredericksburg. Wellman could try just raising prices, but […]
Hitting home
“The stereotypical view is that every young lawyer wants to work from home,” unlike their older peers, observes Victor O. Cardwell, principal and chairman of Roanoke-based Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black PLC. Indeed, 51% of baby boomer attorneys report being eager or very eager to get back to the office, but just 22% of their millennial […]
Watershed moment
Hampton Roads is besieged by hurricanes, nor’easters and full moon tidal surges, but it’s not just coastal Virginia homes and businesses that are threatened by increased flooding. “Climate change is causing the state as a whole to deal with flooding and flood- related issues. It impacts a lot of people throughout the state,” says Michael […]
New IDA director is no stranger
When Kristy Johnson moved to Halifax County from Georgia in 2008, the community welcomed her family with open arms, she says. Now she has the opportunity to return the favor as the new executive director of the county’s Industrial Development Authority. Johnson’s no stranger to the organization. She’s worked for the IDA since 2009 in […]
JMU-led pact seeks to increase labor participation
The Shenandoah Valley’s economy is rebounding, but the region is struggling with a poor labor force participation rate, even compared with the national rate of 61%. In Augusta, Bath, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, only 50% of potential workers are actually employed, says Jay Langston, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, calling […]
Plastics company to revive textile mill site in Hurt
At the site of what was once a Burlington Industries textile mill in Hurt, Staunton River Plastics is building a 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Staunton River Plastics is the first tenant for the newly named Southern Virginia Multimodal Park, says Linda Green, executive director at the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance in Danville. Burlington Industries, once known […]
Roanoke plant still empty after FreightCar America exit
More than two years after FreightCar America left town, eliminating about 200 assembly jobs, the buildings once occupied by the railcar manufacturer in downtown Roanoke remain empty. Chicago-based FreightCar America opened its Roanoke plant in 2005, leasing space at the East End Shops, a locomotive workshop and maintenance complex of about 900,000 square feet of […]
Pittsylvania, Danville governments see labor gap, too
Businesses aren’t the only organizations finding it difficult to hire employees. Amid dropping state unemployment rates and a nationwide labor shortage, Danville and Pittsylvania County have been seeking new ways to interest people in working for local government. Pittsylvania’s Board of Supervisors approved $1,000 employee referral and sign-on bonuses in July, says Holly E. Stanfield, [&helli[...]
