DRA November Highlights

DRA has selected 35 community leaders from across its eight-state service region to participate in the 2025 Delta Leadership Institute (DLI) Executive Academy, an extensive leadership development program that brings together public, private and nonprofit sector leaders from the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions. Representing Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, the 2025 DLI Executive Academy Fellows were selected through a competitive application process led by DRA’s eight state governors and federal co-chairman. 
 
“The Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy is an essential instrument for nurturing community placemaking and capacity building in the Delta region,” said Dr. Corey Wiggins, DRA Federal Co-Chairman. “This program will give this dedicated and diverse group of leaders the tools they need to drive change within and outside their communities and accelerate prosperity across the region.” 

To read the full story and to view the 2025 DLI Fellows, click here. 

Five health care facilities have been selected to participate in the 2024 cohort of the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) program, a partnership program between the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. 
 
Located in Arkansas, Illinois and Louisiana, five health care facilities have been selected to participate in the DRCHSD program, which provides technical assistance and support to critical access hospitals, small rural hospitals, rural health clinics and other health care organizations to enhance health care delivery within the Delta region. Members of the 2024 cohort include: 

• Mid-Delta Health Systems, Clarendon, Arkansas, a federally qualified health center serving Monroe and Arkansas counties; 
• Ferrell Hospital, Eldorado, Illinois, a critical access hospital serving Saline County;
• Michael Brooks Family Clinic, Ruston, Louisiana, a rural health clinic serving Lincoln Parish;
• Riverside Medical Center, Franklinton, Louisiana, a critical access hospital serving Washington Parish; and
• Plaquemines Medical Center, Port Sulphur, Louisiana, a federally qualified health center serving Plaquemines Parish. 

To read the full story, click here. 

Ribbon Cutting Held for New Mountain View Technical Center
 

Alumni of DRA’s Leadership Program Continue Education at Harvard University
 

Twenty-five alumni of the Delta Regional Authority’s (DRA) Delta Leadership Institute (DLI) Executive Academy recently participated in an executive leadership training held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nov. 12-15. 
 
Provided through an ongoing partnership between the DRA and Harvard University’s Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education, DLI alumni participated in a four-day course titled “Effective Leadership Across Sectors,” a leadership training program designed and led by Harvard faculty to move communities in the Delta region forward. The program is an advanced education opportunity offered exclusively to DLI alumni, who are members of the Delta Leadership Network (DLN) – a post-DLI community of nearly 700 community leaders representing public, private and nonprofit sectors from across DRA’s eight-state region.  

To view the 2024 DLN participants of the Harvard Kennedy School program, click here. 

On Nov. 19, staff members from the Green River Area Development District, Pennyrile Area Development District and Purchase Area Development District gathered for a Local Development District (LDD) training in Mayfield, Kentucky. 

During the in-person training, LDD staff members received valuable information from DRA employees Darci Malam and Daniel Musgrave regarding the agency’s critical infrastructure program and workforce development program. They walked them through the process of applying for the award programs and administering awarded projects. The training was hosted by the Purchase Area Development District.