 Recently, President and CEO of the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Jordan Gibson, was accepted to join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Premier Business Leadership Program in 2024. The Business Leads Fellowship Program focuses on workforce initiatives, business strategy, and is a great opportunity to network with other chamber leaders around the country. Mountaintop News spoke with Gibson to hear more. So it's a great honor to even be selected for this. It's an application process. I think this is the ninth group, so it's an opportunity for me to network with individuals from all over the country. It's a fully paid, fully funded scholarship program. It gives me an opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. It's an eight-month program, so one month, or one day there. And then an eight-month program networking with folks from all over the country in economic development, chambers of commerce, workforce development, just learning all about and how you take an individual from early childhood education all the way through post-secondary education, and hopefully get a great workforce in the end. Gibson is honored to be able to represent Southeast Kentucky among his peers. He plans to use the experiences gained during the program to positively impact the local education system and economy. You know, we're always trying to define the next program that we can use to help elevate Eastern Kentucky. And so here with the Southeast Kentucky Chamber, it's a great opportunity for me to learn from folks all across the country to see what kind of type of programs that we can implement here to help the folks in Eastern Kentucky. Like I said, from early childhood education all the way through post-secondary and give them the skills and train them the ways that are going to be best for the future so that we can have a thriving economy here in Eastern Kentucky. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.