On August 14, 2025, MAX convened our Leadership MAX Class of 2025 members for our Economic Development Day, presented by Amazon. The day began with opening remarks from Leadership MAX Class of 2025 chairs John Helton, President & CEO, CareerRise, and Breezy Straton, Vice President, Elevate Douglas and greetings from MAX Board Hosts for the day Marion Phillips, Research Manager, Georgia Power Economic Development, and Brett Lacy, Managing Director – Workforce Solutions, Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). Special thanks to Georgia Power for hosting our class at the Georgia Experience Center.
Jennifer Zeller, Director of Strategic Solutions with Georgia Power Economic Development, led our first session as she provided an economic development overview and spoke on key trends to watch. Following Zeller, Leadership MAX Class of 2025 program chairs Helton and Straton provided candid insights on how workforce development and economic development align and intertwine. The day proceeded with connecting with some of Georgia’s top leaders in economic development, such as:
- Kristi Brigman, Chief Economic Development Officer, Metro Atlanta Chamber
- Charlie Moseley, Director, Statewide Economic Development, Georgia Power
- Bob Kosek, Division Director, Georgia Department of Economic Development
- Samir Abdullahi, Executive Director, Select Fulton
- Chris Pumphrey, Executive Director, Elevate Douglas
- Misti Martin, Deputy Commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development
- Matt Colvin, Director of Economic Development, University of Georgia
- Dr. Barbara Wall, Deputy Superintendent, Georgia Department of Education
Special thanks to each of these leaders for sharing their time, expertise, and insights with our class members and providing an inside look at how economic development is achieved in Georgia through dynamic partnerships at the state and local levels.
John Werkman, Economic Development Manager with Amazon Web Services (AWS), presented a real life case study on how AWS works with community based organizations in Douglas County and beyond to address its workforce development needs for its data centers. The class also heard from Cynthia Waters, Project Manager with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and Lt. Felicio McDowell with the Cobb County Fire Academy on how their organizations are partnering with WorkSource Cobb to meet their workforce needs through a conversation hosted by WorkSource Cobb CEO Sonya Grant.
Straton capped the day with facilitating a group exercise around leveraging our strengths to build high performing teams, using the CliftonStrengths assessment tool.
Our heartfelt appreciation to our program chairs, board leads, and speakers for coming together to create such an impactful and incredible learning day for our Class of 2025. And special thanks to Amazon, our Presenting Sponsor, Goodwill of North Georgia, our Silver Sponsor, and program sponsors Georgia Power and Select Fulton – for making this work possible.
If you have not already done so, click here to meet our Leadership MAX Class of 2025!
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Leadership MAX provides an exciting opportunity for workforce developers to grow within the workforce development community and develop into a community of peer leaders who will solve problems together in the years to come. Designed especially for developing leaders in the workforce development field, this cohort-based leadership development program is as an extension and evolution of our commitment to provide high-quality professional development and network-building opportunities for our members. Click here to learn more.