RuralRISE

Rural Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Builders

White Paper Preview: Rural Internet and the National Broadband Plan

Data from the Pew Research Center reports only 58% of adults in rural areas have high-speed broadband connection at home, as opposed to 67% of adults in urban areas and 70% of adults in suburban areas. And according to the 2016 U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one-fifth of the United States population (61 million people) resides in rural areas of the country.

Broadband accessibility has become a fundamental part of our everyday lives and is often recognized as a need for effective modern living. But since so many people in America (especially in rural areas) lack broadband access, there is a high level of inequality when it comes to who reaps the benefits of the internet.

The pandemic revealed just how critical broadband access has become: as our nation weathered the pandemic shut-downs with a shift to virtual work, learning, and living, rural communities have had notable challenges keeping up.

In one mid-pandemic survey by Satellite Internet, 29% of respondents said their current internet connection has difficulties supporting WFH or online learning and over 30% use a hotspot or mobile tethering at home to get internet access (which is often slower and more expensive than internet plans available in urban areas). 

Rural communities are an integral part of the American economy, security, and identity. Outfitting these communities with broadband resources invests in their potential.

National Rural Broadband Plan 2022; image of a laptop in a field of yellow grass.

Through the National Rural Broadband Plan White Paper, RuralRISE and RuralRISE Tech provide insight into broadband provision gaps, inform policymakers targeting these issues, and encourage the distribution of broadband resources. 

Topics Covered & Questions Raised

Our National Rural Broadband Plan White Paper has been informed through research, review, surveys, and collaborative efforts with partners. In July 2022, we gathered consumer feedback to make our representation of community needs even more robust! 

Broadly, topics covered in the white paper include: 

  • The urgent need for the implementation of broadband resources and how the economics of rural America are driving the need for broadband, providing unique opportunities for success,
  • Existing infrastructure that can – and should – be leveraged to expand broadband tools (e.g. public infrastructure as well as public institutions),
  • Administrative options for broadband provisions, and 
  • The greater impacts of inaccessibility on certain rural groups such as Indigenous communities and LGBTQ+ individuals.

The logistics of broadband expansion come with considerations that are critical to the process and this White Paper raises important questions such as:

In what ways is a lack of broadband access contributing to our country’s digital divide?
What is the cost of deployment to providers versus the cost to consumers? And how can the cost be impacted (or offset) through federal assistance programs or private investors?
What are the logistics of choosing the “right” infrastructure for broadband deployment?
What are the unique challenges faced by rural and remote areas that will directly impact the expansion of broadband infrastructure?
What types of partnerships are effective in deployment?
How do we best address the current disproportionate impact of access on marginalized communities?

To help us answer these important questions, we could use your help.

Thank You For Your Feedback!

This white paper will be used to inform the public and policymakers. We want to represent diverse viewpoints and be inclusive in our representation of the issues facing rural communities.

The conclusions and recommendations in this white paper are still being finalized. Thank you to everyone who added their comments and helped us round out this white paper. Stay tuned to RuralRISE this fall when we release the final version of the paper!

Broadband Funding is Coming. Now What?

This guest post comes from Maggie Drummond-Bahl, the Senior Program Officer at Maine Community Foundation, working with donors and other partners to improve the quality of life for all Maine people.

More funding is (finally!) coming to support better broadband connectivity.  What can we do to ensure that rural and remote communities can maximize this much-needed investment? What role should funders play?

For rural states and communities – and the people and businesses that live and work in them – federal funding through the Economic Recovery Act to expand high-speed internet is welcome news. That news is sweet indeed after a grueling and heartbreaking year of COVID-19 when our ability to connect virtually was more important than ever. 

Before we can jump at this opportunity, though, we have work to do. And we need to do it quickly. Here are some thoughts about how we can approach this unprecedented opportunity to become better connected than ever before.

Work to build community capacity

Successful broadband expansion often starts with a few committed champions, much like entrepreneurial ecosystem building often begins with a few key connectors. Champions can identify and recruit others to create broadband committees or working groups and help launch a conversation. 

Two women sit with their backs to the camera at a community event.

Bolstering these local and regional planning efforts can help educate community members about what they need and what goals they share as a community.

Local efforts can, with limited resources:

  • Conduct community surveys, 
  • Host meetings, 
  • Engage with local organizations, institutions and businesses, 
  • Develop maps, 
  • Talk to providers, 
  • Evaluate options, and 
  • Eventually make progress toward implementing infrastructure.

All of these steps are essential, so the community knows what it needs and wants – and more importantly why – long before large-scale funding is available.  

Leave no person behind

Successfully building even a fiber-to-the-premise network isn’t enough. We must consider who can afford the service and how to ensure that people can access devices to connect.  

Children work on a science project in their classroom. Ensuring equitable broadband access for all children is imperative.

The digital divide is about more than the lack of broadband infrastructure itself — it’s about ensuring equitable access to high-speed internet for everyone in our communities.

Broadband committees, working groups, and community outreach should meaningfully include a broad range of people: students, low-income families with children, older people, Black, Indigenous and other people of color, entrepreneurs working from their homes, and critical institutions in our communities.

We should constantly ask ourselves: 

  • Who is not at the table? 
  • Who is not being served and why?  

This pandemic has made painfully clear the inequity in our systems, especially the ability to connect to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet. When we’re all involved in the conversation, we all benefit.

Forge meaningful partnerships

In Maine, a place that prides itself on a certain hearty independence, building trust across institutions, between communities and government, between neighboring towns, and even between customers and providers, has been critical as we move forward.  

A group of four colleagues stand together, with two people shaking hands.

A great example is the growth of the broad and diverse stakeholder coalition, the Maine Broadband Coalition. The coalition was founded as an ad-hoc group with scarce resources several years ago to elevate the voices of broadband users in policy and other conversations. 

The Coalition now regularly communicates and shares information with over 2200 people — up from just 220 when we made our first grant to the group in early 2019. 

The Coalition is also the home of several unifying initiatives including a successful bond campaign in 2020, a new statewide speed test campaign, and an annual conference where communities and partners share their learning and connect with one another.

We’ve also seen great partnerships emerge between social service agencies serving vulnerable populations and digital literacy experts placing hotspot tablets into the hands of people who need them — along with 24-7 technical assistance.

Coordination between funders is another highlight, where our own grantmaking has been informed and bolstered by our state partner, the Connect Maine Authority, and other private foundations and donors. 

This has allowed flexible early-stage capital to move planning efforts, community engagement, and digital inclusion. These are just a few examples, but partnership is the secret sauce for all. 

Be flexible and entrepreneurial

It has become abundantly clear that the solution for one community is not likely to be the solution for another. We should all strive to be nimble and support varied approaches to increase connectivity.  

An illustration of a computer with the words "stay connected" is painted in yellow on a turquoise blue wooden background.

Here are a few examples of what this looks like in communities around the state:

  • A municipal broadband utility was the right approach for several communities in remote Downeast Maine — and they were the first in the state to try it. 
  • Other communities are pursuing dark-fiber, open-access networks. 
  • Some needed to add WiFi networks on Main Street or upgrade routers at the library for public access. 
  • Still others are opting for an upgrade with an incumbent provider.  
  • And some communities are experimenting with affordability funds to support households that struggle to afford monthly service costs.  

One of our strong nonprofit partners in Maine (Island Institute) has developed a playbook for communities that emphasizes an effective community process without predetermining the outcome.  

All options should be on the table and partners should constantly adjust to support community needs and priorities.

Funders: now’s the time to stay at the table

As a community foundation with a small percentage of discretionary funding available, we initially did not think we could meaningfully support the work of expanding broadband. If we didn’t have the scale of funding to invest in infrastructure and it is really the role of government anyway, we wondered: what could we contribute?  

Other small and mid-size funders might feel the same, especially now that we know significant federal funding is coming for broadband investment. But now is the most important time for philanthropy to stay engaged. 

That Maine Broadband Coalition started as an informal, ad hoc network. Targeted investments in organizational capacity have turned a passionate and loosely affiliated group of stakeholders who care about the benefits of broadband into an active and growing coalition. 

The end result is a group that elevates the voices of all who depend on good internet in statewide policy discussions, supports communities through a train-the-trainer model, and acts as a convener to deepen our collective understanding of the connections between broadband and the community, economic, and climate resilience work we all care about. 

We can use whatever level of capacity we have to support community planning efforts, build the strength of organizations and coalitions doing the work, get ready for emerging opportunities, and raise our voices to advocate for better connectivity.  

Now is the time to stay at the table, and pull up a few extra chairs for others to jump in.

On April 15, please join us at the first RuralRISE Technology Summit, a virtual event that will include expert panels, real-world success cases, and networking — all focused on the critical development of broadband and the people and organizations driving the effort. 

Register for the Summit (April 15, 2-5 p.m. EST), and make sure to tune in for our fireside chat about the creative partnerships that are helping to close the digital divide in Maine!

3 Crucial Areas of Focus for Rural Small Business

This guest post comes from David Ponraj, founder and CEO of Startup Space (startupspace.us), a social enterprise working with economic and community development organizations across the country to create digital connections to entrepreneurship resources while also providing data and systems for resource management.   

Why focus on small businesses? Is the impact worth the effort? What’s in it for economic development organizations? 

According to Brooking Institute, “rural small businesses have been found to generate wealth that stays in the community, build local leadership, and even contribute to population health” (read more). 

Investing in rural small businesses is good for the entire community, state, and nation. 

However, rural small businesses lack the tools and resources needed to build and grow. And the pandemic has not made it easy on our rural communities. 61% of rural small businesses felt unsupported by federal government policies, according to the “Principal Financial Well-Being Index” survey of business owners. 

If we want to bring back rural America, we need to focus on supporting rural small businesses. Some of the key areas of focus:

  1. Access to Capital
  2. Access to Broadband Internet
  3. Access to entrepreneurship resources

Let’s take a closer look at each of those three areas of focus.

Access to Capital

Small businesses everywhere struggle to find capital that can fit their needs in terms of speed, cost, and total amount of capital. 

A marble building facade reads The Union Banking & Trust Co.

Red tape, high interest rates, and lack of microloans force small businesses to turn to loan sharks and online lenders who engage in predatory lending. 

According to the Federal Reserve, 40% of rural counties lost community bank branches between 2012 and 2017. This sets the small businesses back even before they start. If entrepreneurship is about wealth creation, then access to right-sized capital is essential to creating value for the small business owner and enabling them to earn a living. 

Access to Broadband Internet

An example of support, one Southern Virginia town is leveraging creative partnerships united by its fiber network to boost the creation and development of its small businesses. 

In partnership with Microsoft TechSpark Virginia and with state support, Mid-Atlantic Broadband founded the SOVA Innovation Hub in 2020. This 15,000 square-foot nonprofit center for innovation and entrepreneurship features coworking and meeting space, entrepreneurship and digital skills training, and access to technology experts and experiences. 

Three women in masks are seen sitting inside the newly opened SOVA Innovation Hub space.

The partnership envisions the community hub will spark economic transformation in the small Virginia town of 8,142 that was once reliant on tobacco. The hub is the first new building to open in downtown South Boston, VA, in 40 years. 

The strategy for the South Boston ecosystem outlines six key goals:

  1. Connect entrepreneurship resources
  2. Support existing business growth and innovation
  3. Develop entrepreneurship training programs to nurture aspiring entrepreneurs
  4. Expedite access to capital
  5. Expedite broadband expansion
  6. Fund and facilitate implementation to ensure flexibility and sustainability

In addition to training programs, grant funds are being used to create a virtual hub with digital infrastructure through Startup Space. SOVA’s digital hub on the Startup Space platform enhances access to the nonprofit’s programs and resources, including a “resource compass” to help entrepreneurs navigate all of the resources available through regional support organizations. 

The digital hub makes entrepreneurship and business support services and resources available on-demand through the SOVA website or through an application that can be downloaded on any mobile device. 

It is the community’s “one-stop shop” for entrepreneurship and helps SOVA behind the scenes to organize the local ecosystem.  

To drive long-term development of the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem, the GO Virginia state board awarded the nonprofit partnership a major grant to support entrepreneurship training, youth entrepreneurship, and increasing access to capital. 

Access to broadband is fueling this innovation; creative partnerships are helping to realize its full potential to achieve economic growth. It’s a compelling point of reference for rural economies to develop strong entrepreneurial ecosystems (more on local strategies from Main Street America and the Brookings Institution). 

Access to Entrepreneurship Resources

Small businesses everywhere need access to the resource community to start and grow their businesses. We launched Startup Space in 2018 with the singular focus of better connecting small businesses to resources in the community. 

A graphic courtesy of Startup Space shows a man with white hair standing in a garage, with text reading "Unlock Opportunities. Create equitable access."

In rural communities, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that resources are often distant and the density of business services (for example, lawyers, accountants, and web developers) is sparse or located hundreds of miles over in an urban community. 

This creates a unique challenge for rural entrepreneurs who need the same support network as their urban counterparts to build a thriving business. 

We countered this by mapping the local ecosystem and broadening the radius to help rural small businesses easily find the resources they need. We also focus on giving select resources within the community a clear designation so the intended underserved entrepreneur can easily find dedicated resources and support. 

Technical assistance can also be hard to come by for rural entrepreneurs. By providing a virtual platform, we can bridge the divide and bring some of these resources right into the home of the small business owner. 

When technical assistance is combined with access to capital, small business success rates go up dramatically. 

Investing in What Rural Businesses Need

So what’s next for rural America? And what can your organization do to help support local businesses in these three key areas?

We are doing our rural small businesses and our nation a disservice by not recognizing the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in rural America and allocating appropriate resources to quickly address these challenges. 

Rural small businesses are the backbone of our rural economy and if we want a strong and vibrant economy, we need to invest in building out the infrastructure that rural communities need. (Read more about why rural America isn’t fully connected yet.)

This April, join us at the first RuralRISE Technology Summit, a virtual event including expert panels, real-world success cases, and networking — all focused on the critical development of broadband and its utilization in rural economic ecosystem strategies. 

Register for the Summit (April 15, 2-5 p.m. EST), followed by a social hour hosted by our team at Startup Space. 

About Startup Space
Startup Space is a leading community platform that helps connect entrepreneurs to resources in their communities while also providing data analytics and management systems for community builders. For more information, visit https://www.startupspace.us or contact us at media@startupspace.app. The podcast, “Breaking Down Barriers,” featuring entrepreneurial ecosystem builders, is available at: https://startupspace.captivate.fm

RCAP and Smithsonian Launch Coming Home: Stories from Main Street

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) and the Smithsonian Institution recently launched “Coming Home: Stories from Main Street.” 

The partnership between RCAP and the Smithsonian Institution provides new opportunities for youth in rural America to tell their community’s story and to become leaders in its future. 

Coming Home is a project that invites young people to learn about their rural communities, document local history, and foster meaningful discussions about their community’s future. The result is a vast array of dynamic multi-media projects that connect youth voices to local discourse. 

This partnership between RCAP’s Rural Homecoming and the Smithsonian’s Museum on Mainstreet (MoMS) celebrates rural America’s voices. 

The collaboration encourages youth connection and storytelling to celebrate the history (and future) of rural America. 

The Origins of Rural Homecoming

RCAP recognizes the value in rural voices and the deep connection individuals feel towards their hometowns.

Rural Homecoming: Join in a national celebration of rural communities

RCAP started Rural Homecoming to reconnect young people who have moved away from rural communities with the innovation and opportunity in their hometown. 

Rural Homecoming celebrates rural communities’ uniqueness and amplifies rural voices on a national level. 

Both RCAP and the Smithsonian focus on uplifting these voices by giving youth the tools, resources, and guidance to learn about their community’s past and shape their future. This unifying goal of celebrating rural supports the partnership between RCAP and MoMS. 

How to Get Involved

Communities can participate in Coming Home in two ways. 

1. Sign up through the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street website

Communities participate by composing storytelling videos of their town’s rich history through tools and resources provided through Coming Home. 

This program allows for rural youth to connect with their communities, expand technology skills, and form relationships with older community members. To apply, submit a proposal.

2. Download RCAP’s Rural Homecoming Toolkit

To celebrate RCAP’s Rural Homecoming, communities can utilize RCAP’s free toolkit to help plan a virtual or in-person event or tell their community’s story in creative ways. 

The toolkit provides ideas and resources to adapt an annual celebration like a fall festival or create an entirely new event that connects individuals with their communities. Any community member or organization can plan Rural Homecoming events.

A small downtown area at sunset, with 3-story buildings on either side of a tree-lined 2-lane road lined with parked cars.

When Are You Coming Home?

Rural Homecoming and Coming Home both provide an opportunity to tell local stories through national platforms.

RCAP and MoMS see the deep connection individuals feel towards their rural communities. “Coming Home: Stories from Main Street” provides communities with the tools and support to amplify this connection. 

This partnership helps rural communities celebrate and share what makes their hometowns unique. By uplifting these stories, Coming Home honors rural America’s history and helps to shape the future. 

Did you grow up in a rural community? Are you living in one now? RCAP and the Smithsonian want to hear from you! Let’s build the future of rural, one story at a time.

Rural Roundup: Entrepreneurial Challenges & Opportunities

Over the past 4 months, RuralRISE has interviewed a series of ecosystem builders about 2020 and the changes COVID-19 has wreaked on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The stories and advice they shared are worth their weight in gold for these tumultuous times.

But what about the entrepreneurs? Without talking to them, our interview series would be missing half of the story. 

Along with the challenges of 2020 have come new opportunities. And every entrepreneur knows that when the status quo breaks, someone needs to be there to help people transition to what’s next.

That’s why we reached out to a few rural entrepreneurs to get their take on what’s going on in their area of the United States.

We asked them three questions:

  1. What is the biggest opportunity or challenge you see as an entrepreneur, at this particular moment in time?
  2. What have you done to either a) take advantage of this opportunity, or b) thrive despite the challenge?
  3. What entrepreneurial support or resources have been (or would be) most helpful to you during these times?

Let’s hear their stories!

Reggie & Lori Cole: Owners of Natural Bliss Health & Wellness Store

Reggie & Lori Cole: Owners of Natural Bliss Health & Wellness Store

White Hall, Arkansas

There’s an old adage, “necessity is the mother of invention” so during this time of Covid-19 so many people have been negatively impacted with layoffs and business closings. 

This season of distress has resuscitated old dreams and brought to light new ideas, especially in the area of entrepreneurship.

It’s important to use that passion to fuel those ideas and take advantage of different loans, grants and programs geared to small business owners.

We absolutely realized that changes had come. We knew that initially many people were not able to come out as much as before. We knew we had to find a way to increase our online sales so we revamped our website, added more products and even offered pre-shopping by having customers call in their orders pay by credit or debit card and have it ready when they or an appointee arrived (curbside service). 

We increased our social media posts to help advertise weekly specials and sale prices. We also took advantage of a new opportunity to upgrade our loyalty program for repeat customers and provide more much needed and appreciated discounts. We love to give back.

One of the most important resources we found was staying connected to our local branch of the Small Business Administration. 

They kept us up to date on available resources to help bridge the gap during that initial crunch.  We were told what to expect during the wait for federal funds and how to apply when the loans were made available as well. We also were alerted to different grant opportunities, local Business to Business Networking seminars and self help courses via Zoom.

The Generator has been a vital link to us being connected to business-minded entrepreneurs and also helped us stay connected to small businesses who have a desire to not only just survive but to thrive. 

There is power in numbers! The Bible even says, “In the multitude of counsel there is safety.”

Visit their website to learn more about Natural Bliss and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

Jennifer Litteral: President of Coffee Hound Coffee Co.

Jennifer Litteral: President of Coffee Hound Coffee Co.

Brewer, Maine

Major opportunities or trends normally happen over long periods of time and are difficult for small businesses to get into because larger corporations are poised having planned and speculated long in advance for those changes. 

However, the pandemic has shaken loose so many new trends and opportunities that are ideal for small enterprises because small businesses are nimble and can shift faster than larger corporations or companies. 

Like steering a huge tanker on the ocean they have to plan long in advance for their movements — where smaller boats can steer quickly around or to something in a split second. Small businesses are like the small boats and they are winning the race to these opportunities today.

Having the ability to be open and listen to real-time statistics about your industry is crucial at this moment in time to be able shift or pivot with purpose and direction. 

  • For the coffee industry the pandemic changed our customers to at-home baristas; 
  • The at-home coffee market is expected to grow to $15 billion in 2020; 
  • 40% of people working from home say they will continue to work from home even after COVID and 39% of those are willing to pay more for premium coffee. 

So, we were able to shift the focus of our company to meet the needs of our customers for their new normal with national at-home delivery through a new e-commerce platform as well as having our products available in grocery stores throughout Maine through a distributor as well as servicing Hannaford’s local program. 

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we are already courageous, smart and highly adaptable – but COVID has taken this to a level that has left many of us reeling. A normal day for a small business owner is to wear about 100 hats and we often don’t have time to look up and research what resources are out there. 

Even with my diverse background, I didn’t find the time to seek out the resource organizations in Maine – luckily one found me. To be included in the 2020 Maine Center for Entrepreneurs TopGun cohort was beyond valuable for our company to be in during a pandemic and while we were pivoting. 

I think the resources are out there and in multiple formats across many organizations. The questions are — can they more broadly get on the radars of small businesses when we might not travel in the same circles or online communities? 

Is there a way to combine and channel options in a simple to find and easy to digest format that is distributed or found where small businesses will take notice and utilize?

Visit their website to learn more about Coffee Hound and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

E. James White: CEO of LivestockCity, Inc.

E. James White: CEO of LivestockCity, Inc.

Mount Solon, Virginia

When the pandemic first came, people were stocking up on food, with supermarkets running out of food including meats.

One of the features we wanted to offer even before the pandemic was to provide a way for livestock farmers to sell their meats and animal products through our platform — sort of like “Etsy for farmers.” We call it “Farm Stores.” 

Unfortunately, we couldn’t complete this section in time during that food shortage, but as we are seeing an uptick in Covid-19 cases again, it’s possible we will get another chance to offer this service to farmers when there’s a real need. If not, we still think it is a good service to offer, especially for those that are looking for grass-fed or organic food products.

During this challenging time, we have been able to recruit talented interns and volunteers, as many internships were canceled this summer due to the pandemic. 

Since we are a remote team, we were able to easily take on remote interns that were a higher caliber than what we’ve seen in the past — and over the summer they really helped us advance our mobile app and web app development.

Our biggest challenge has always been financial, in order to pay for the help we need to develop our platform and products. 

We’ve had to be creative in bootstrapping in order to progress LivestockCity, but with funding we could significantly speed up the process and get our services in the hands of livestock farmers quicker. Without funding it will take longer, but we will continue to work towards completion for 2021.

Visit their website to learn more about LivestockCity and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

Kanesha Adams: CEO and Founder, EduScape

Kanesha Adams: CEO and Founder, EduScape

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

My biggest challenge at this time has been gaining access to capital. 

As a startup company, with an alternative learning platform, the market can be very competitive and in the absence of capital, it makes the struggle to grow and scale more challenging. 

On the flip side of it, as a minority-female founder, I have a unique lens for investors. 

I have been afforded the opportunity to work from home and build my small business, which has been a major turning point for my company. I have a small team, which also makes the work difficult, but I have a mission-oriented team who believe in the work we do, which allows us to combat our challenge. 

I have been really intentional about overcoming the areas of opportunities that I have been presented by building a network of advisors, and a support team who value me as an entrepreneur and my work. 

I have applied to pitch in a pitch contest and spend time daily seeking out additional knowledge opportunities by way of accelerators or incubators. I spend 2-3 hours a day on LinkedIn connecting with people who may be willing to support my business in any way. 

Having a mentor in this space with me has been the most helpful resource for me during this time. My mentor has been in the edtech space for about 20 years, and has shared some amazing resources, advice, and tips as I develop my plan to move forward. 

I have also connected to incubator advisors such as The Venture Center and Communities Unlimited (which is a CDFI that supports small business owners). Building a network is a resource that you can’t put a price tag on, and I have been really intentional on using my network. 

Visit their website to learn more about EduScape and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

What Will 2021 Bring for Entrepreneurs?

As you can see from these four stories (and those of entrepreneurs and small businesses across the US and around the world), 2020 has brought its share of challenges.

But these stories also demonstrate how resilient entrepreneurs can be. In a world where pivots were the norm prior to a worldwide pandemic, this kind of quick thinking and innovation is just what we all need.

As 2021 quickly approaches, these entrepreneurs serve both as a beacon of hope and a reminder of the importance of the work we all do. Together, we can make the most of any challenges the next year (and beyond) may bring our way!

This is the fourth in a series of interviews — stay tuned for the next installment! You can also catch up on the first, second, and third interviews.