Over the course of two recent meetings, members of the NERCRD’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), Board of Directors (BOD), and staff gathered virtually to review the Center’s research and outreach accomplishments during the past year and to establish programming emphases for the coming year.

The TAC meeting, held virtually on October 5, 2023, was chaired by Dr. Heather Stephens (WVU), who has served as the TAC Chair since 2019. The focus of this meeting was to review the Center’s work as it pertains to the broad priority areas set during last year’s meeting, and to make recommendations for the BOD’s consideration. The TAC recommended that the Center’s work in 2024 continue to address the broad topic areas of:

• Economic Development, Resilience, and Innovation
• Food Systems, Nutrition Security, and Agriculture
• Capacity Building and Facilitation

The TAC also recommended that NERCRD continue to prioritize the cross-cutting areas of:

• diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
• infrastructure
• climate change
• rural-urban interactions

As TAC Chair, Stephens presented these recommendations during a subsequent meeting with the BOD on November 2. BOD members discussed and adopted the recommendations in a BOD-only session chaired by Dr. Richard C. Rhodes III (URI and NERA). Rhodes has served as BOD Chair since 2019.

The annual BOD/TAC meeting historically has been held as a joint event in a different Northeast location each year. This year’s online format was proposed to allow for more robust discussion and participation, and to provide the TAC more time to discuss and reflect upon their recommendations before presenting them to the BOD.

Learn more about the people who serve on the BOD and TAC:

• NERCRD Board of Directors
• NERCRD Technical Advisory Committee