Over 100 community leaders from Arkansas and surrounding states participated in the 26th annual Community Development Institute (CDI) at the University of Central Arkansas. The event, held August 6-10, concluded with a special graduation and awards ceremony.
AT&T Arkansas was honored with the Friend of Community Development Award, offered each year to an individual or organization that demonstrates strong support for community development and CDI. Additionally, CDI Advisory Board Member Dr. Mark Peterson received the esteemed Bill Miller Award as recognition for his decades of conducting scholarly research and working with communities to help them realize transformative change.
Kelly Lyon, CDI Director, said, “In addition to the training provided at the institute, we celebrate individual leaders from each class. CDI is about learning and networking, but it’s also about our network supporting the participants’ and graduates’ efforts to apply that training in their own communities. Those who receive awards have demonstrated exemplary leadership here and are well positioned to be leaders in their organizations and home towns. ”
Craig Lindholm, Executive Director for Community Redevelopment and Grants for the City of Texarkana, Texas, and a student in the Ph.D. in Leadership program at UCA was awarded the Ernest Whitelaw Award. The Whitelaw Award recipient is chosen by his peers for dedication to the practice of community development, involvement in the CDI experience, and personal leadership and integrity. After the awards ceremony, 25 community and economic professionals graduated from CDI 2012.
The Community Development Institute Central, established in 1987 at the University of Central Arkansas, in Conway, Arkansas, trains community and economic development professionals in Arkansas and surrounding states. For more information about CDI, visit www.uca.edu/cdi.