As previously posted on Conduit Street, the 2013 Rural Action Assembly will be held October 17 & 18 at Ripkin Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland. It’s not too late to register!
Rural Maryland faces many complex challenges, including access to quality healthcare and an insecure economic future. This conference will discuss many of these issues, and participants will collaborate to identify solutions and determine a course of action for addressing these problems.
Conference highlights include:
- Keynote by Chuck Fluharty, president and CEO of RUPRI
- Closing plenary: “Creating a Unified Policy Playbook for Rural Maryland,” with Patrice Kunesh, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- “The Looming Crisis of Full Employment,” featuring Mark Lautman, founding director, Community Economics Laboratory, and author of When the Boomers Bail: How Demographics Will Sort Communities into Winners and Losers (watch this intro video)
- A session on the Affordable Care Act implementation in Rural Maryland
- A legislative panel and outlook on the 2014 Maryland General Assembly Session, featuring Chairman Norm Conway, House Appropriations Committee, Chairman Thomas “Mac” Middleton, Senate Finance Committee and Senator David Brinkley, Senate Minority Leader.
- A Maryland state agency leaders panel, featuring: Secretary Buddy Hance, Department of Agriculture; Secretary Dominick Murray, Department of Business & Economic Development; Raquel Samson, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; and Secretary Ray Skinner, Department of Housing & Community Development
- “Increasing Community Prosperity by Increasing Capacity,” presented by Craig Schroeder, senior associate at the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship in Lincoln, Nebraska
- IGNITE Rural Maryland closing session, featuring topics discussed in the conference and other issues that resonate with Rural Maryland.
For more information, contact Charlotte Davis, Executive Director of Rural Maryland Council at 410.841.5774.
