THE RURAL CONNECTION
Tina Metzer
Vice President, National Center for Resource Development
SUPERPOWER: Catalyzing collaboration
Tina Metzer wants people to strike up conversations. In her years of working in nonprofits and volunteering, she’s seen how essential it is when working toward common goals to share information and experiences to achieve greater success in less time.
“People should be working together and building collaboration. Whether it’s in the rural space, in the broadband space, in the environmental—it’s bringing everyone together to look forward, because it’s difficult enough as it is without duplicating work and doing extra work.” If individuals and organizations can share resources and work collaboratively, she says, it not only strengthens the community but allows everyone to move forward more quickly.
“We found as we worked in rural communities in West Virginia and beyond that so many people had amazing things happening. For example, Arkansas has this amazing program, and it may not be a perfect fit for something in West Virginia, but you can use a good bit of that resource and save a lot of time and energy. Just learning from others’ mistakes can help a lot.”
Two of her particular passions are environmental matters and broadband access, issues that are impacting the lives and livelihoods of West Virginians every day. She works to push issues to the forefront and get problems solved as effectively as possible by fostering connections. “We shouldn’t be limited because of where we’re located, and that’s kind of how we got down this path. It was really based on entrepreneurship ecosystem development and building this community of practice and advocating for rural communities, rural entrepreneurship, and rural broadband.”
Metzer is fighting for better present conditions and a brighter future for West Virginia because she believes West Virginia and her people deserve it. “I never lost my accent, and I don’t attempt to hide it, because I think we should be proud of where we are from.”
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