Neighbors of Natchitoches Parish, I am excited to announce my candidacy for Natchitoches Parish President in the upcoming fall election. I have chosen to run as I believe I bring a unique mix of established and proven leadership, project and program management, and team and relationship building.
Our family moved here to Natchitoches Parish in 2013 after almost 10 years living in Alabama while I served in 75th Ranger Regiment and its subordinate units. I served as the Senior Military Instructor at Northwestern State University’s SROTC program from 2013 to 2015. After retiring with over 23 years of service, 9 combat deployments, and a career filled with personal and professional development and leadership opportunities I went to work for Raytheon on Fort Polk (now Fort Johnson) managing a team of people at Peason Ridge. The contract changed on the 1st of January 2019 and I found myself quickly promoted through the corporate chain working as a Program Director managing Department of Defense (DoD) contracts both here in Louisiana and internationally.
My corporate experience has developed my ability to dig deeper into issues and develop solutions. It has immensely honed my ability as it pertains to writing proposals for new and ongoing business ventures as well as finding opportunities to secure revenue to fill gaps. I also collaborated with Central Louisiana Technical Community College (CLTCC) and NSU to develop a pipeline for students who may be interested in working for DoD contracts as Information Technology (IT) professionals. This is an effort which my team didn’t solely benefit from. This solved a solution Fort Johnson has been facing for years in terms of finding qualified IT professionals and keeping them while also benefiting Natchitoches Parish by putting some of our young talent to work in a high demand industry while they remained residents of the parish.
I’m not going to promise roads. It’s not sound to make promises which we know there is a chance we can’t keep. I will acknowledge our parish is facing immense infrastructure challenges, and the roads are only one piece of the pie. We have towns which have lost funding for their water system and telephone companies who have made decisions not to repair cell towers in remote areas while simultaneously denying parishioners home installed telephone service for new builds.
What I will do is assure you I will utilize my professional experience to build relationships centered in trust and confidence beginning with our parish government and expanding to agencies which can help toward righting our infrastructure situation. Solutions are not found in a linear approach. I am not the status quo. Finding a solution to what we face lies beyond looking for grants; it lies in helping garner business interest in our parish, leveraging our strengths, and understanding our economic situation in the parish.
I want to find solutions and firmly believe I bring a unique set of leadership attributes, team building experience, and professional skills to do so. This isn’t about me. What effects my neighbor, effects me.
I’d love to have the opportunity to represent you in service of our parish.
