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“This partnership helps uplift rural communities in areas with struggling residents and economies, while also providing UVA students experiences that prepare them for careers and lives of service,” said Christine Mahoney, a Batten School professor of public policy and politics.

The successes are what UVA alumni Richard and Donna Tadler envisioned when they began the first of a series of gifts in 2019 to create and fund fellowships, internships and other connections between UVA, the Batten School and rural Appalachian communities.

Batten School professor Christine Mahoney says �鶹�ƽ�� work in Appalachian communities benefits that region, and also gives UVA students practical experience in public service. (Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy photo)

Richard Tadler said the results show investing in rural America pays off. He and his wife plan to extend their initial support of the Tadler Program on Impact Investing in Appalachia so work can continue. Mahoney directs the program.

They have also expanded the initiative. Their new gifts will fund the program for the next three years, adding support for entrepreneurs, a rural planning course, and a professional consulting position to help communities work through administrative challenges. 

The additional funding would also establish an endowment supporting a new professorship in rural economic development with a joint appointment at the Batten School and �鶹�ƽ�� College at Wise.

The Appalachian region, stretching from New York to Alabama, has stunning beauty and abundant natural resources, but is also recognized as America’s most distressed region, with high rates of poverty and disability, and the nation’s highest opioid addiction rate, according to state and federal data.

Community governments often are understaffed and under-resourced, leaving some unable to develop comprehensive plans, which disqualifies them from many federal funding programs. They typically have no trained grant writers, nor funds to hire them.

“One of the biggest barriers in local government, especially in rural communities, is capacity,” Dickenson County Director of Economic Development Dana Cronkhite said. “Having individuals who are not only capable, but also willing to assist at a high level, creates a type of support that is hard to fully describe.” 

UVA master’s student Sarah King says researching grants and creating proposals to help residents addicted to opioids was “transformative” for her and them. Her work focused on helping people in recovery find pathways to employment. (Contributed photo)

During the past two years, Cronkhite has worked with UVA public policy students and interns through the Tadler program. 

Their work has included grant writing, policy research, organizing a county job fair, creating social media and marketing content, and developing marketing materials for properties tied to economic development efforts. Those efforts have resulted in new grants and programs “that simply would not have happened without this partnership,” she said, including a new community business launch program and incubator, and two fire and rescue grants for the county. 

“Without question, it has been incredibly valuable,” Cronkhite said.

UVA student Sarah King’s time as a Tadler Fellow included a variety of assignments supporting Dickenson County, which recently received a state license for a new substance-abuse treatment facility. She developed grant narratives and proposals linking opioid settlement funding with housing grants, contributed to workforce development strategies and designed marketing and policy materials for an industrial park. King also helped the county secure grant funding for emergency services.

“I worked closely with local stakeholders to map recovery-to-workforce pathways, identifying policy barriers and opportunities to better coordinate housing, treatment and job placement service,” King, who is studying in the Batten School’s Master of Public Policy program, said. “This experience was transformative.”

Since 2019, more than 200 UVA students have received fellowships to travel to Appalachia, collaborating with communities like Dickenson and Buchanan counties, and with local leaders, investors and entrepreneurs. Thirty-six Master of Public Policy students in the Batten School have contributed some 17,000 hours of pro bono support to rural economic development efforts during that time.

“At a global-focused University, we believe it is also very important to work on nearby problems,” Richard Tadler said. “Appalachia is a region ignored by many that needs help to restart its economy. UVA undergraduates and Batten graduate students are now exposed to the region, help solve difficult problems and participate in a lifelong transformational experience.”