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In her job as an Area Development Manager for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, Kathleen Heady wears two very different hats. In one part of her job, Heady works with businesses and communities on economic development issues in a seven-county region of rural Wisonsin. In the other part, she works with women-owned businesses across the state.

Heady assists businesses in her territory that are interested in expanding or that are having problems. She helps out-of-state firms interested in locating in her territory to find suitable sites. She also conducts economic preparedness training programs for local officials in conjunction with the local utility, the state cooperative extension, and local economic developers. They teach participants how to work with businesses and introduce them to different kinds of assistance programs. In addition to the training, Heady gives presentations about the Department of Commerce’s programs and resources.

Heady’s responsibilities in her work with women-owned businesses include publicizing resources available to women entrepreneurs, helping women-owned business organizations develop trainings for their members, and compiling an annual list of the 50 largest women-owned businesses in Wisconsin.

Heady’s economic development interests extend beyond the day-to-day duties of her job. She is very active in a group called Wisconsin Rural Partners, which is part of a national organization called the National Rural Development Partnership. She has served as president of the state organization. The Wisconsin group’s current focus is organizing a rural summit for which they are bringing people together from around Wisconsin that are interested in rural development. As part of this effort, they are highlighting the top 50 rural economic development projects in the state.

Heady’s first job after graduating from DCRP was as economic development planner for the city of Rockford, Illinois. After working there for over four years, she was hired by the Wisconsin Department of Development as a Development Zone Manager. The Development Zone is Wisconsin’s version of the enterprise zone concept in which firms get tax incentives and other benefits for locating in distressed areas. After that, she managed Wisconsin’s Community Development Division for a couple of years in an appointed post as Division Administrator. When the Secretary of the department left, she switched to another division and worked solely with women-owned businesses for a year and then began doing the Area Development work that she does today.

While at DCRP, Heady expected that after graduation she would work on economic development at the local level, which is what she did in her first job in Rockford. She says of her first job: "My job in Rockford was perfect. I learned a lot about economic development. We did a little bit of everything." However, she also likes her current work that is more at the regional level: "I really like what I am doing now because I work with both the communities and the businesses. I never knew that I’d end up working with businesses as much as I have. I actually like what I am doing more than what I thought I’d be doing."

Heady says the most useful things she learned at DCRP were in Ed Bergman’s classes on local economic development planning and employment planning. She also values what she learned in Mike Stegman’s real estate and affordable housing class because she learned about how financing deals works.

Heady thinks there’s a lot of opportunity in the economic development field. She sees the future of the field moving away from large company attraction to economic development that builds on local resources and strengths rather than giving companies everything they are looking for. She thinks that she will continue to spend the majority of her time working with firms that are already located in Wisconsin.

A growing part of Heady’s job entails working on employment and labor force issues, including helping companies find labor and working with non-traditional kinds of employees. For example, her department has a grant program that gives funding to companies that hire people with disabilities. She is also working more with companies that are trying to resolve labor issues and putting them in touch with what they need. She works with Wisconsin’s technical colleges to help people access training.

As the labor pool shrinks, Heady says companies will be trying to maximize the use of existing employees and use new technologies to make the most efficient use of the labor force. With a tighter labor force, economic developers need to become more creative in how they approach their work.