2021 Virtual Conference Session Information

Intensive Session:

“Bridging the Divide: Connecting Rural and Urban”
                     Peter Hille, Mountain Association & Dee Davis, Center for Rural Strategies

Session description:

In a time of global connection, rural Americans often feel more disconnection: disconnected from the economy, politics, and the culture driving the country forward. How do we find ways to reconnect to each other, the rest of the country, and the world? What values do we rely on? Where do we as East Kentuckians fit into a changing country? This session will look at the urban rural divide, how we bridge it, and what we hope to hang on to for the next generation.

Panelist:

Katie Kershaw is an actress and screenwriter from Hazard who was featured in the HBO series Mrs. Fletcher, and before that, Fargo. She was also part of the group at Second City.

 Sylvia Ryerson, now a doctoral candidate at Yale, is from an old east Kentucky family and lived several years in Whitesburg. She has done intensive research on urban inmates in rural prisons and just got funded to make a documentary film about those experiences.

 Cynthia Mil Duncan lives in California but spent a long time in Eastern Kentucky. Her book Worlds Apart examines rural poverty and why some rural communities do well and other don’t. She’s been a program officer at the Ford Foundation, founder of the Carsey Institute at UNH and now is a Senior Fellow with the Meridian Institute.

Justin Maxson was recently appointed by President Biden as Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at USDA. Justin was formerly the President of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, and before that was President of the Mountain Association (formerly MACED).

Moderator: Peter Hille, EKLF Board Chair and President of the Mountain Association

Breakout Session Choices

A) Digital Divide- Scott Surber, Kentucky Wired
B)  Resources to Rise Again, Paul Dole KECOC
C)  Women in Leadership- Kay Hammond, Appalachian Pregnancy Care Center with 
      Introduction by Lt. Gov Jacqueline Coleman
D)  Health Care in the Pandemic- John Rosenberg & Cara Stewart
E)  Getting East Kentucky Back to Work: Removing Barriers to Employment – 
Stefanie Kingsley Moderator
Evan Smith- AppalRed Legal Aid Litigation Director
Ernestine Weems/Melissa Quillen- EKCEP
Pam Bentley- Department of Corrections Regional Program Administrator