(Center Twp. PA) Many were in attendance this morning at the Beaver County Recovery Summit in the CCBC Golden Dome to hear a variety of speakers discuss the recovery of Beaver County. The event started off with a message from Dr. Roger Davis followed by a segment entitled Beaver County Resiliency with speakers Helen Kissick and Daniel Rossi-Keen, PhD. County Commissioners Dan Camp and Jack Manning took to the microphones to discuss the reopening of the county along with video messages by Congressman Connor Lamb and Senator Bob Casey. Norm Mitry, President/CEO of Heritage Valley Health System gave his outlook on the post pandemic future followed by Jennifer Shoaf, Deputy Chief Academic Officer of PA Cyber, giving her thoughts on the things we can take away from the pandemic, socially and emotionally. Charles “Skip” Homan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Beaver County Partnership, Steven M. Ross, PhD Senior Research Scientist and Professor at the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University, and Senator Camera Bartolotta, for Pennsylvania’s 46th District, all took the stage to discuss building the future of education in Beaver County. The Beaver County Partnership Quality Education Council (QEC), joined in a collaboration with John Hopkins University to conduct interviews with superintendents, board presidents, college presidents, legislators, municipal leaders, business owners, and other community stakeholders. Their goal was to gather information on current cost, equity, and quality of education within the county. They were also trying to learn of any community structural, policy, and cultural issues that could impact education. Ami Gatts, John Tkach, Larry Nelson, and David A. Wytiaz, Administrative Director, Beaver County Career and Technology Center spoke on the future of workplace development during a segment that was moderated by John Goberish, Dean/School of Industrial Technology & Continuing Education, Community College of Beaver County. Bethany Williams gave updates on the work being done by the Beaver County Regional Council of Governments, followed by Lew Villotti and Michael Henderson speaking on business attraction in a post pandemic environment. Lisa Vesolich, Mike Rubino, and Dr. Cheryl King closed out the morning with a discussion of Non-Profit Resources & Reflections in Beaver County. The afternoon consisted of a couple more speaking points, one being the construction and and operations of the Shell Plant and the other being small businesses in our region. All together, the summit was a big success with a lot of informative information on where Beaver County currently stands and how it will continue to grow.
