Gayle Manchin Drops By Washington State Community College

MARIETTA, OH — Washington State Community College was honored to host Gayle Manchin today. She's Senator Joe Manchin's wife, but more importantly, she's also a federal co-chair for the Appalachian Regional Commission or ARC. She was nominated by President Joe Biden and sworn in on May 6, 2021.

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The Appalachian Regional Commission serves 420 counties across 13 states stretching from Southern New York to Mississippi. West Virginia is the only state that is completely inside Appalachia. WSCC President Dr. Vicky Wood spoke to ARC about high-tech and robotics jobs that they are able to offer through new programs. She said they were glad to see folks from ARC as well as the governor's office of Appalachia today.

"Both of those entities were gracious enough to believe in our vision and provide us some financial backing."

Wood said this was an opportunity to showcase what they've been able to accomplish with their financial support.

"It was exciting because they're thrilled with the work that we've done."

Gayle Manchin said, as the new federal co-chair for ARC, that she was encouraged by what she saw in Marietta.

"I'm making an effort to visit the states that are in our ARC to learn more about what they're doing, about how our ARC is being a good partner in projects that we're doing."

She said visiting WSCC was a great opportunity to see the programs that the ARC has invested in.

"I'm very proud that we are a partner in this and I am proud of what we are able to do to encourage young people to go on in education, and know that they're going to get job skills that are right here and good-paying. Jobs so they can stay here raise their families, and help grow their community."

Manchin said the goal of this tour is to look at what's being accomplished in the ARC states, and how they can share resources to bring everyone in Appalachia up.

"I think our states work very hard to create opportunities within their ARC region. What I would like to see is rather than having 13 states working independently, seeing how much 13 states could work together. How can Kentucky support West Virginia? Tennessee? Virginia? Pennsylvania?"

She said the idea is to join efforts so we don't have to recreate the wheel in every state.

"If they have a program here that can train workers for Kentucky, why not?"

Manchin said these states sharing education and job training resources can not only be good for Appalachia, but it can also be a good model for the rest of the country.

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