COLUMBIA, Mo. — The director of University of Missouri Extension’s Community Economic and Entrepreneurial Development (ExCEED) program, Sharon Gulick, is the newly elected president of the international Community Development Society (CDS). Gulick assumed the one-year leadership role at the professional group’s recent annual conference in Cincinnati.
“I welcome this opportunity to lead my fellow community development colleagues,” said Gulick. “Nationally and internationally, CDS members and their communities are facing extreme challenges working to overcome the hardships dealt to communities and regions by current economic conditions worldwide.”
CDS—based in Columbus, Ohio, and founded 43 years ago at the University of Missouri—provides leadership to professionals and citizens across the spectrum of community development. Members represent a range of fields including education, economic development, health care, social services, government and utilities. Its members come from 33 countries, with more than 80 percent of those members practicing in the United States.
As director of ExCEED since 2006, Gulick leads a multidisciplinary program that cuts across all Extension program areas. It focuses on re-energizing local economies and works directly with community leaders and volunteers to improve approaches to community economic development.
“ExCEED provides leadership, training and research to help develop new educational programming for community economic development and entrepreneurship,” said Gulick.
From 1986 to 2006, Gulick worked in small business development and entrepreneurship with the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
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