By Judith Roberts
Ruston – for the second time in less than a year – has a new economic development director.
Jade Sumrall West, a two-time University of Southern Mississippi graduate, will replace Phillip Smart, who left the position last month for a job in Bienville Parish.
West previously served as project manager in Hattiesburg’s Area Development Partnership, which was focused on business retention, recruitment and expansion. Before that, she worked as an economic research policy analyst for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce.
Now, newly married, she returns as a Louisiana resident to help with Ruston’s economic development.
“I had been in touch with some north Louisiana economic developers, letting them know that we would be moving,” West said. “One of the developers passed along that the city of Ruston was looking at hiring. Honestly, I think it was a perfect timing and God thing that it all worked out. We kind of took a leap of faith moving to a new place, not really knowing anybody, just trusting the process of finding a job and then for an economic development position to be open seemed to line up perfectly.”
West said she was very excited about coming to Ruston.
“I think it’s a vibrant college town with a lot of charm,” West said. “I think there are some parallels between Ruston and Hattiesburg. I do think working in that college town environment, I’ll be able to translate some of those best practices into the city of Ruston. I’m excited about getting plugged in and getting to know all the great people and see what all the town has to offer and then see what I can take from that and find out the best ways to plug in and see what economic development efforts will be most fruitful for the city and parish.”
In the coming weeks, West said she will be looking to the community for input as well.
“Every town has its own charm,” she said. “I would love to get feedback from community business leaders and business owners and seeing what they’re interested in and what they’re hoping to see as development spurs over the next one to five years, seeing what their goals are for the business and parish.”
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said while he hated to lose Smart, he has full confidence in West.
“As soon as he told me he was going to take another position, we immediately started looking for a replacement and talking to people in the industry,” Walker said. “We found a young lady who fortunately for us had just moved back. (She) has a great resume, went to Southern Miss, got her master’s in economic development there. That’s a very, very, very respected school.”
Walker said Smart and even his predecessor Ray Watson had been working on a number of projects that West should see to completion.
“We have quite a few projects,” Walker said. “We’ve been working on some of them for literally four years, and some of them are just now getting to the finish line. I’m very excited to have her on our team.”
