Rural Community Development & Leadership
The Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Development and the Nonprofit Resource Center at Murray State University are proud to introduce the Rural Community Development and Leadership lecture series. This series is a comprehensive, year-long approach to strengthening rural communities across West Kentucky and the wider region. Through a combination of sustained cohort-based learning, community-engaged leadership development, and a culminating regional summit, this initiative builds the skills, connections, and capacity rural leaders need to drive meaningful, lasting change.
This series is grounded in the belief that rural communities thrive when local leaders are equipped, empowered, and connected to one another, and the recognition that, currently, this is often not the case. By integrating education, collaboration, and community-based action, the Rural Community Engagement Initiative supports both individual leadership growth and collective community advancement.
Rural Development and Leadership takes a holistic approach to rural capacity building, blending theory, practical skills, development, and collaboration exploration. Participants engage deeply with topics such as:
- Leadership in Community - Understanding one's own strengths, values, styles, and blind spots. This includes such basic skills as "How to say 'no,'" a skill often lacking in intimate, rural communities
- Community-Centered Interest - Identifying shared priorities and ongoing local initiatives. This includes a realistic assessment of the current state of each community and an achievable plan for the future.
- Appreciating and Working with Differences - increasing the ability to collaborate across perspectives. This includes avoiding the two fatal traps of "We've never done that before," and "We've always done it this way."
- Moving to Action - Facilitating meetings, advancing ideas, and launching projects. This may include personal strategic consultation with relevant specialists within the university.
- Quality of Life and Economic Development - Connecting leadership to broader community goals. Incorporating all of the above, communities begin to think aspirationally about the community they want to live in.
The cost of the RCDL is $250 per participant (minimum of three participants per community). Register online by July 1, 2026. Lunch will be provided at each seminar. Limited space is available. The leadership series could be canceled if the minimum participation is not met.
For more information, contact Chris Wooldridge, Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Development Director, at cwooldridge@murraystate.edu or 270.809.2495, or Dr. Elise Kieffer, Nonprofit Resource Center Director, at ekieffer@murraystate.edu or 270.809.3307.