Marion County Development Commission Director Carla Eysink has been appointed by Governor Reynolds to serve on the Empower Rural Iowa Initiative. Eysink tells KNIA/KRLS News she’s honored to be selected to serve, and she’ll be working on similar initiatives at the state level as she does locally.

“I’m going to be serving on the committee called Invest. What that means is, that group is going to be really focused on rural housing, rural business development, and entrepreneurial startups. This gives us a voice, and we can also share what our challenges and gaps are. A lot of times in many initiatives, we find there’s a gap where there’s funding for this, but not funding for that, or there’s policies or rules that hinder growth. This way, we’re able to have a voice in decisions that are being made at the state level.”

Eysink has served as Marion County Development Commission Director for 25 years, and works with businesses and communities within Marion County to advance the area’s economy. The Governor’s ERI initiative is a partnership with the Iowa Rural Development Council and is co-chaired by Lt. Governor Adam Gregg and IRDC Chair Sandy Ehrig.