Dyke excited about opportunity to return home to lead Albany-Dougherty EDC

ALBANY — As a native of the region, the sole finalist to lead the Albany-Dougherty County Economic Development Commission is familiar with the strengths of the area.

Jana Wadkins Dyke attended Lee County schools and has worked most of her career in south Georgia and Florida.

The EDC board announced earlier this week Dyke’s selection as the finalist for the position in Albany. The board will formally vote on her appointment in early November.

Since 2017, Dyke has been president of the Waycross-Ware County Development Authority. Prior to that, she was director of Mainstreet and Downtown Development in Sylvester and a realtor in Valdosta. She began her career in economic development as vice president of the Lee County Chamber and Development Authority in Leesburg.

Dyke said Albany and Dougherty County have a number of features that lend themselves to job creation and retention, including education with Albany State University and Albany Technical College. The Commodore Conyers College and Career Academy, commonly known as the 4-C Academy, includes robotics and other cutting-edge instruction in its curriculum, and Southwest Georgia Regional Airport are other bright spots.

The area also has a history as a manufacturing hub in the region.

“Obviously, you’ve got a strong base of manufacturing and industrial businesses in place, and so you have a skilled work force in place,” Dyke said. “There are many assets I believe you have in the Albany region.

“You’ve got great leadership and people who want to be involved.”

The area also has proved its resiliency by coming together to rebuild after a series of natural disasters that includes flooding and tornadoes, she said. One challenge she identified is the departure of young people from the area to attend college and never return home or move to larger cities after completing their studies.

“Obviously, in every community and every south Georgia community we fight the battle of keeping our young people home,” she said. Another concern is “making sure we have access to food in areas of the community that don’t have access to food right now. Each district needs the resources they need to be successful.”

While landing a big project like the $150 million Georgia-Pacific Corp. plant is a major event, promoting new small companies and supporting existing ones also is part of the formula.

“Eighty percent of business growth (comes) from businesses that already exist in the community,” Dyke said. “We can’t ignore those businesses.”

Dyke sees potential for creating small business centers in different parts of the city where entrepreneurs can rent office space with communications and other equipment and a shared boardroom where they can meet with clients.

“This is something I definitely hope the board would embrace,” she said. “One thing I would like to do, I would like to have community meetings in each district so all of the residents of each district have a say and are invested in what the Economic Development Commission will be doing.”

Dyke’s husband, William, is a Deerfield-Windsor School graduate and also native to southwest Georgia. The couple has two sons, Harrison and Tucker.

“It’s really coming home,” she said of the opportunity. “We’re excited moving forward and are definitely excited about coming back home and being involved in our community.”

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