Debra Hansen is with Washington State Extension Service. She helped present an innovative rural event, the Rural Pathways to Prosperity conference aka Rural P2P. In fact, they created a model for a distributed in-person and online rural event that you really want to borrow for yourself. Debra talks us through the process and shares the lessons […]

  John Shepard is a rural connector. He keeps tabs on what lots of different people and organizations are up to, and he shares a lot online. I admire his role as the Vice-chair of the Small Town and Rural Planning Division of the American Planning Association, bringing rural planners together to share ideas. John reminded […]

Lucas “Lu” Nelson and I met in Washington DC, where we were advocating for rural broadband, coordinated by the Rural Broadband Policy Group. Lu works on rural policy for the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Nebraska. I’ll admit that I think policy discussions can be pretty dry and frustrating. But Lu makes it interesting. […]

  Jeff Reid heads up the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative at Georgetown University in Washington DC. You may wonder why an urban university like Georgetown decided to take on rural entrepreneurship. I wondered. Jeff explains that and more, before we turn to his own rural roots and perspective. (Hint: Jeff earned his Bachelor of Science in business administration […]