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KENTUCKY: RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ECONOMIC CHANGE

Kentucky has provided resources and labor to better the world for decades.

In the face of a changing world that resists stripping the land of resources and instead looks to people to provide economic relief, where are our laborers going to land?

Kentucky to the World is partnering with the Commonwealth’s own Sam Ford who has built a career in publishing and technology at bastions like MIT & Simon and Schuster to tell the story of our economic future.

The trials, the tribulations, the mountains we must climb. They’ll all be captured here.


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“Kentucky: Resilience in the Face of Economic Change” Series Premiere Now Streaming on KET

We’re excited to announce the first installment of our newest multimedia storytelling series, “Kentucky: Resilience in the Face of Economic Change,” is now available for digital streaming on Kentucky Education Television’s site. 

The series, in collaboration with MIT Comparative Media Studies Researcher and AccelerateKY Executive Director Sam Ford, highlights stories of innovation in a state where core 20th-century economic drivers like coal mining, tobacco farming, traditional manufacturing, and transportation have faced significant disruption in the first two decades of the 21st century. 

The premiere features our Resilience Initiative's kickoff event in August of 2021 at Waterfront Botanical Gardens where Sam spoke with a panel of thought leaders to discuss personal stories focused on the realities of Kentucky’s evolving economy and discussion on how to move forward to achieve innovative economic and workforce development in the Commonwealth.

Stream the series premiere on KET here.

 

SAM FORD

Sam Ford , a Kentucky native, works on models, strategies, and implementation for media innovation, audience engagement, cultural intelligence, and storytelling experimentation. He has provided these services to a wide range of organizations, including ViacomCBS/Simon & Schuster, Univision/Fusion Media Group, WNYC/New York Public Radio, ORB Media, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Journalism and Communication, Poynter, and the American Press Institute. Sam is also a fellow with Accelerate Kentucky, a research affiliate with MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, a Knight News Innovation Fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and co-author of the 2013 book Spreadable Media, with Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green. His writing has appeared in publications from Harvard Business Review to The Christian Science Monitor, and he began his career as a Kentucky Press Association award-winning rural journalist. More at his site.

 

COLLABORATORS

 

RUSTY JUSTICE

Charles “Rusty” Justice has been a business owner in Eastern Kentucky since 1985. His various business investments include companies that provide services related to engineering, land development, telecom, software development, and broadcasting. He holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Kentucky in Mining and Civil Engineering. He represented the state of Kentucky in the entrepreneur’s role as part of the first domestic cohort at the MIT Sloan Global Management Schools’, “Regional Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program” and a founding member of AccelerateKY.  Rusty combines his love for business with a deep appreciation of Appalachia’s rich heritage.  He works to leverage his capabilities to grow the local economy through diverse projects with cultural value that celebrate the Appalachian identity and promote its future. Rusty currently resides in Pikeville with his wife, Linda. They have one daughter, Elon.

ALISON DAVIS

Dr. Alison Davis is the H.B. Price Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky and the Executive Director of the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK). CEDIK is an integrated engagement/research center housed within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. CEDIK’s mission is to build engaged communities and vibrant economies. Dr. Davis leads a team of fourteen engagement and research staff to support CEDIK’s five priority areas: economic development, leadership development, community health, community design, and arts engagement. Her research program focuses on infrastructure investment, rural healthcare access, and economic development. Her engagement programs utilize workshops, trainings, and educational materials to highlight the importance of community engagement, land use planning, infrastructure development, regionalism, and the impact of changing public policy on communities. 

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VIJAY KAMINENI

Vijay Kamineni is Chief Innovation & Technology Leader at Logan Aluminum in Russellville, Kentucky, where he leads organization-wide transformation activities through process innovation and digital initaitives, including Logan’s Smart Industry/I4.0 initiative. He has led a range of continuous improvement and software development programs at the company since coming aboard in 2009. Vijay is also board president of AccelerateKY, a nonprofit focused on connecting, informing, and inspiring others in support of Kentucky’s capacity for innovation, and was a member of a statewide, cross-sector Team Kentucky that became the first U.S. region ever accepted to MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP). Prior to joining Logan, Vijay led innovation initiatives elsewhere in the U.S., as well as in India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, and is currently pursuing his MBA in Strategic Management at Temple University’s Fox Business School.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Blog
Robotics, Automation, and the Future of Work in Kentucky
Robotics, Automation, and the Future of Work in Kentucky

And while this could be an unnerving development for many who have already felt the consequences of massive economic transformations in the past 50 years, Dr. Daniela Rus, Director Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, predicts that Kentucky is uniquely poised to integrate the use of robotics seamlessly and equitably.

Read More →
CEDAR Prepares Eastern Kentucky Student-Leaders for a Future Beyond Coal
CEDAR Prepares Eastern Kentucky Student-Leaders for a Future Beyond Coal

Because so much of CEDAR’s programming had to do with how coal as an industry needed to be supported, its gradual but now overpowering absence necessitated a shift in focus and in practice. So with a pretty substantial name change and a totally new concentration, CEDAR would begin to support students and educators in ways that would impact their communities directly.

Read More →
LEAVES OF CHANGE: CANOPY KENTUCKY REWRITES THE BOOK ON BUSINESS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH
LEAVES OF CHANGE: CANOPY KENTUCKY REWRITES THE BOOK ON BUSINESS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH

Canopy Founder Scott Koloms closed the program with a big declaration. Their mission was to make Kentucky rank first on a brand new kind of list instead of continuing to rank towards the bottom of those old lists. Canopy was created to make Kentucky the leader of the nationally growing Better Business Movement.

Read More →
LIFE OR DEATH IN APPALACHIA: SOAR’s Urgency of Connecting Rural Kentucky to the World Wide Web
LIFE OR DEATH IN APPALACHIA: SOAR’s Urgency of Connecting Rural Kentucky to the World Wide Web

Centrally, SOAR aims to promote entrepreneurs, small businesses, educators, and, above all, residents of Eastern Kentucky as the region recovers from the decline of the coal industry. Their primary goal is to introduce a new high-speed internet infrastructure across the region, one that will provide substantial economic, educational, and health benefits.

Read More →
Bit Source Rewrites the Code in Coal Country
Bit Source Rewrites the Code in Coal Country

As our culture and economy continue to become more connected digitally, thought leaders in Appalachia have identified an opportunity to help an economy reliant on coal transition into a more technologically resilient future. From this model, Rusty Justice and Lynn Parish started Bit Source in 2014, an organization responsible for upskilling and reskilling former coal miners to make custom software and applications for clients across the globe.

Read More →
From Immigration to Innovation: Vijay Kamineni Manufactures a More Resilient Economy for Kentucky
From Immigration to Innovation: Vijay Kamineni Manufactures a More Resilient Economy for Kentucky

Originally contracted by Logan Aluminum to work in their IT department temporarily, Vijay Kamineni has steadily advanced the ranks, earning titles like Development Team Leader and Business Transformation Leader. He now heads the company as a Chief Innovation and Technology Leader. And as he’s ascended to lead the company forward in its digital future, his focus has remained the same: to seek out and identify ways that new technologies can improve processes for both the worker and the work.

Read More →
The Bluegrass Boomerang Can Finally Die
The Bluegrass Boomerang Can Finally Die

Traveling to Boston or Austin or San Francisco to brag about all the smart people Kentucky has produced in the last 40 years isn’t going to change the way the world sees us. Working together to build a new economy for the Commonwealth will.

Read More →
From Coal Mining to Data Mining: Rusty Justice Leads Appalachian Innovation
From Coal Mining to Data Mining: Rusty Justice Leads Appalachian Innovation

It was never a hard decision for Rusty Justice when the coal industry began to show serious signs of sliding. Rather than obsess on the end of an economic, regional and cultural identity, he looked to the future. Always an entrepreneur, he soon found opportunity in a workforce that was highly skilled, disciplined and capable of adapting to new technologies.

Read More →
OUR STORIES ABOUT THE HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF WORK IN KENTUCKY
OUR STORIES ABOUT THE HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF WORK IN KENTUCKY

Truly collaborative efforts must be forward-looking, cross-region, and cross-sector. They must foster, facilitate, and act as a catalyst for developing a culture and capacity for resilient, deliberate innovation. And they must be about designing futures in which all of us can see ourselves. (It’s understandably hard to be excited about a future you don’t see as available to you.) These futures should not merely be open to--rather, I’d argue we’d all benefit when they are significantly driven by--initiatives from voices and communities too often left out of that discussion--innovative efforts/voices from rural communities, communities of color, refugee populations, LGBTQ perspectives, and other groups who have too often not been given equal opportunity to dream what the future might be.

Read More →

 

RESILIENCE DOCUMENTARY VIDEO

Video
MIT Sloan School Lecturer Phil Budden on Narrative in Economic Development
Why Mindset Is More Important to our Identity Than our Jobs
Artificial Intelligence Is Here Now
Lifelong Learning and Reskilling for Job Security in the Digital Economy
The Digital Divide and Internet Infrastructure in Kentucky
MIT Media Theorist on Storytelling and The Future
The Future of Kentucky with MIT Media Theorist Sam Ford
Embracing Resilience In Kentucky's Workforce
Coal To Coding Entrepreneur Rusty Justice on Going from Coal Miner to Tech Worker

CONSIDER A GIFT

Nothing shapes the possibilities we dream and t he solutions we discover quite like stories. And, who better to help us t ell the story of the future of Kentucky than individuals who are working toward building it? These stories will inspire people throughout Kentucky and beyond to see what’s possible, and t o think about a future for themselves here.

KTW, in collaboration with MIT Comparative Media Studies researcher Sam Ford, has launched this new initiative which, over the coming year, will include:
Live Events, Television Specials, Digital Stories, and Educational Programming. This work will culminate in a full-length, nationally-distributed documentary, created by Kentucky to the World.

If you are inspired by theses stories please consider a gift that will help support our efforts to capture some of the most innovative and interesting stories across the state.

TITLE SPONSOR | $30,000

Customized benefits package to be negotiated with the Title sponsor.

PRESENTING SPONSOR | $25,000

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Designation and logo placement on live event programs during the year

  • High visibility on-site presence at all live events; includes signage  in venue

  • Opportunity to introduce speakers at one of the live or digital events

  • Photo opportunity with presenters

  • Customized added value opportunity, such as a VIP reception before or after one of the programs

  • Custom ticket package with VIP reserved seating for invited guests when applicable

  • First opportunity for tickets for employees when applicable

  • Logo placement in any publications and other promotions, digital and live

  • Logo on KTW’s website and social media properties related to this initiative

  • Logo on documentary productions

COMMONWEALTH SPONSOR | $20,000

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Designation and logo placement for  live event programs during the year 

  • High visibility on-site presence at all live events; includes signage in venue

  • Custom ticket package with VIP reserved seating for invited guests when applicable

  • First opportunity for ticket purchases for employees when applicable

  • Logo placement in any publications and other promotions, digital and live

  • Logo on KTW’s website and social media properties related to this initiative

  • Logo on documentary productions

BLUEGRASS SPONSOR | $15,000

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Designation and logo placement for live event programs during the year  

  • High visibility on-site presence at events; includes signage in venue

  • Custom ticket package with VIP reserved seating for invited guests when applicable

  • First opportunity for ticket purchases for employees when applicable 

  • Name/ logo in any publications and other program promotions, digital and live

  • Logo on KTW’s website and social media properties related to this initiative 

  • Logo on documentary productions

CUMBERLAND SPONSOR | $10,000

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Designation and logo placement for live event programs during the year  

  • High visibility on-site presence at events; includes signage in venue

  • Custom ticket package with VIP reserved seating for invited guests when applicable

  • First opportunity for ticket purchases for employees when applicable 

  • Name/ logo in any publications and other program promotions, digital and live

  • Logo on KTW’s website and social media properties related to this initiative 

  • Logo on documentary productions

LIMESTONE SPONSOR | $5,000

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Two tickets to each live event with VIP reserved seating when applicable

  • Sponsor listing in any publications and other program promotions, digital and live

  • Sponsor listing on signage at all live events

  • Sponsor listing on KTW’s website pages related to this initiative

SUPPORTING SPONSOR | $2,500

  • Listing on all KTW programs aired on Kentucky Educational Television (KET)

  • Sponsor listing in any publications and other program promotions, digital and live

  • Sponsor listing on KTW’s website pages related to this initiative

contact@kentuckytotheworld.org
502.897.3819

SPECIAL THANKS TO RESILIENCE INITIATIVE SPONSORS

 
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Support the work of Kentucky to the World.

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