2020 ESS – ARD & SAES Meeting and Workshop

Speaker Bio  |  Click to return to meeting home page

Rachel Welborn

Associate Director
Southern Rural Development Center

Rachel Welborn is the Associate Director for the Southern Rural Development Center, which serves the 13 Southeastern states. She has devoted over fifteen years to helping communities face difficult community issues through a combination of facilitation, strategic planning, education, and grant writing. Her current responsibilities fall within the realms of fostering civic engagement, facilitating regional planning initiatives, and strengthening capacity of communities around challenging issues such as poverty. She co-authored Turning the Tide on Poverty, a community-based civic dialogue process, and has also chaired the Extension Committee on Policy and Operations team exploring Civil Dialogue on Race Relations, resulting in Coming Together for Racial Understanding initiative. Additionally, she has led the Stronger Economies Together initiative, Leaders in Economic Alliance Development project, and launched CREATE BRIDGES which focuses strengthening rural retail. Welborn is certified with the International Association for Public Participation.