DRA Dispatch, News and Notes for DRA Staff

 

DRA is opening a new internal process for staff to join the Delta Leadership Institute (DLI) as Employee Fellows. Interested? Letters are due Tuesday, November 3, by end of day.

What you’d be signing up for. DLI is a nine-month program with six multi-day sessions held in communities across our eight states, including a trip to Washington, D.C. Fellows dig into infrastructure, workforce, government relations and regional collaboration alongside public, private and nonprofit leaders from across the Delta. Graduates join the Delta Leadership Network, which is more than 700 members strong.

Check the schedule. See session dates and host cities for the FY 2027 class on the DLI page before you apply.

How it works with your Professional Development (PD). DLI counts as your PD for the year. Program, travel and lodging costs come out of PD funds and required sessions count as official DRA business. You’ll still own your core duties, so you and your supervisor will need to plan coverage before each session.

Who can apply. Any full-time employee in good standing, from any department, office, location, level or length of service. You’ll need your supervisor’s support and the ability to attend every session and complete every assignment.

How to apply. Write a letter of interest to Executive Director Laura Veazey that covers:

• Why you want to do DLI and how it fits your growth at DRA
• What you’d bring to the cohort and how DRA would benefit
• Your commitment to finish the program

Pair it with a written endorsement from your supervisor confirming your performance, your ability to handle the time and travel and how your team will cover while you’re away. Send both directly to Laura by end of day Tuesday, November 3.

How fellows are chosen. Laura makes the final call with input from senior leadership and DLI staff. They’ll weigh your commitment to DRA and the region, leadership potential, job performance, the strength of your letter and the value of opening the door to staff across departments and levels. Seniority matters, especially between similar candidates, but it isn’t the deciding factor. The number of fellows depends on program capacity and PD funding, and supervisor support doesn’t guarantee a spot. This internal process is separate from the external DLI application. Not picked this year? You can apply again.

Once you’re in. Employee Fellows join as full members of the cohort, not as staff running the program. That means the same attendance, assignment and conduct expectations as every other fellow, while keeping up with your day job.

Voting is a privilege and a civic duty, and DRA wants every employee to have access to the polls. Executive Director Laura Veazey is granting all employees one hour of approved time off to vote in the general election on Tuesday, November 3.

• Timecard code: Use “VOTING.”
• Need more time? If long lines or other unexpected delays at your polling place keep you longer than an hour, let your immediate supervisor know.

Delta Summit & Delta Pipeline. This group will plan the Delta Summit, targeted for March 2027, and build out the Delta Pipeline, our effort to connect unfunded DRA applicants with other federal and philanthropic partners. The Pipeline will be one piece of the Summit and will carry on after it wraps. The Summit will also include the annual Local Development District (LDD) training.

Members: Laura Veazey, Thomas Hudson, Amanda Allen, Daniel Musgrave, Jessica Shappley, Jillian Morrison, Sea Talantis and Tamiya Howard.

Grants Management System (GMS) Implementation. This group will guide the rollout of DRA’s new GMS, the same upgrade GAO pointed to in its report this month. See below.

Members: Thomas Hudson, Staresha Hoskins, Darci Malam, Amanda Allen, Cheyton Pendley, Sea Talantis, Jillian Morrison, Christine Williams and Rosalyn McCorkle.

GAO’s newest report gives DRA a clean bill of health. Economic Development Administration: Better Coordination with Regional Commissions and Performance Management Needed (GAO-27-108496), released October 7, makes no recommendations to DRA. Its three recommendations go to EDA and the Denali Commission.

What GAO looked at. Congress asked GAO to review EDA and the federal regional commissions in the 2024 Water Resources Development Act. Over 18 months, GAO studied grant trends from FY 2016 to FY 2024, how each agency tracks performance and how well EDA coordinates with the commissions.

DRA by the numbers (FY 2016–FY 2024)

Measure	FY 2016	FY 2024
Grants awarded	107	121
Total awarded	$26 million	$68 million
Median award	$155,500	$450,000

Across all nine years, DRA awarded 946 grants worth $332 million.

Where we shine.

• Performance management. DRA “generally implemented” all three key practices GAO assessed: setting goals, collecting performance data and using it to make decisions.
• Data validation. DRA is one of five commissions that checks grantee-reported numbers through site visits and desk reviews. GAO also noted our guidance and training for LDDs and grantees.
• Real results. GAO visited a DRA-funded sewer upgrade in Louisiana that ended sewage backups in residents’ homes. Other DRA projects included a utilities extension that brought 25 jobs with a graphite processor and a Missouri training center that served 255 people across six counties.
• Research. GAO cited a 2021 study linking DRA counties to about $1,000 in added median household income.

Worth watching.

• GAO noted our current GMS limits analysis of completed projects. The new system planned for spring 2027 should help.
• DRA said coordination with EDA worked well on transferred-fund projects but has been limited since FY 2024. GAO wants EDA to build a formal coordination framework with all six commissions.
• The Delta region lost more than 2% of its population from 2016 to 2024, and labor force participation dipped.

Read the full report or the highlights page.