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The foundation for the George Voinovich Academy’s (GVA) Leading in Appalachia program began in a basement in 2019.

Led by the Academy’s principles, Mark Cappone, Jay Johnson and Sarah Mitchell—and in partnership with John Carey, the director of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia—more than 50 attendees from across Appalachia discussed options for the program in a lower-level meeting room at the 91̽�� Inn and Conference Center in Athens. The Academy staffers hashed out the curriculum based on the group's interests.

“We ended up focusing on four things,” says Johnson, director of the George V. Voinovich Academy for Excellence in Public Service. “Collaboration, advocacy, leadership, and communication.”

Based in Dublin, the GVA is an offshoot of the George Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service that helps build leadership capacity for public service employees. The Academy partners with elected and appointed officials, local governments and agencies, local development districts, non-profit organizations, and others to identify opportunities and drive programming that supports community efforts in Appalachia.

With the overall theme of “Community Engagement,” this year’s Leading in Appalachia program consists of nine free monthly workshops that started in March and will finish in November. The topics covered include Asset Mapping, Trauma-Informed Leadership, and an Insider’s Guide to Nonprofits.

This year’s participants are also working on a capstone project, volunteering with the , a non-profit organization based in New Straitsville, as they prepare for their annual Little Cities Day on Oct. 12.

Due to COVID restrictions, 2024 is the program’s first year of entirely in-person training.

“It’s been great connecting with different folks who are leading in different industry sectors and on the nonprofit side as well as in governmental relations,” says John Stabler, an economic development specialist in Jackson County. “With the resources we've received, it’s helping us find solutions to problems we have in common.”

Mitchell, the curriculum, instruction and assessment manager for the Voinovich Academy, says the program usually admits 30 participants; this year, 17 counties in Appalachia Ohio are represented. And now, with nearly 150 alumni, a point of emphasis in the coming years is to foster connections between cohorts and expand the program’s outreach.

“I would love to do two cohorts per year eventually,” she says. “We need to find the people in this region who may have never considered themselves leaders before.”  For more information,  please see the Leading in Appalachia website.