NEWS

Photo Note: See end of release for link to a photo of White.

Former Appalachian Regional Commission head to lead economic development program for rural, small N.C. towns

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government has appointed Dr. Jesse L. White Jr. to help structure a new program providing economic development assistance to rural and small towns across North Carolina.

The program will focus on training and research for community economic development professionals, elected and appointed public officials, and other local leaders involved in community development. It will broaden work in community development, housing issues, zoning and land use planning, and public finance that is already ongoing through the school’s Institute of Government.

"Jesse is the ideal person to help plan and implement a program in community economic development," said Michael R. Smith, school dean. "His experience at the Appalachian Regional Commission and Southern Growth Policies Board has given him an unparalleled understanding of the issues and challenges facing our most distressed communities. We are excited to have Jesse as a colleague."

White comes to the school from a nine-year presidential appointment as federal co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission in Washington, D.C. The commission is a federal-state partnership working to bring economic development opportunities to more than 400 mountain communities in 13 states. White led the commission in launching four regional initiatives in telecommunications, export trade, leadership development and entrepreneurship, and is widely crediting with successfully reinvigorating the agency’s effectiveness.

Before his work with the commission, White consulted for clients as varied as the City of Charlotte, AT&T Corp., the South Carolina Executive Institute and the Commission on the Future of the South. In 1990, he was a fellow at the Institute of Politics and taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. For eight years White was executive director of the Research Triangle Park-based Southern Growth Policies Board, an interstate compact organization serving 13 states and Puerto Rico. That board produces a wide range of economic development research for the governors, legislators, and its 60 citizen members.

Nationally recognized as an expert in modern Southern politics, White has spoken and published extensively on issues of Southern economic development, the changing Southern economy and urban-rural cooperation.

White, a graduate of the University of Mississippi, was a Marshall Scholar and earned a master’s degree from the University of Sussex, England. He earned a doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Government, White will play a strategic role in developing the structure of the new community economic development program working with school and UNC faculty members, state officials and other key players in economic development across North Carolina. The new program will continue to be housed in the school’s Institute of Government, which provides teaching, advising, research, and publishing services for state and local government officials in North Carolina.

The School of Government was created by UNC-Chapel Hill in 2001 with a mission of improving the lives of North Carolinians by helping to enhance their state and local governments. It houses two main components, the 70-year-old Institute of Government and the master of public administration program. Information about the school and its programs as well as links to local government resources are available at www.sog.unc.edu.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/admin/white_jesse.jpg

School of Government contact: Ann Simpson 919-966-9780 or simpson@iogmail.iog.unc.edu
News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593