Arkansas Advanced Energy Attends 2026 Arkansas Rural Development Conference
As part of the Powering Arkansas coalition, Arkansas Advanced Energy staff attended the 2026 Arkansas Rural Development Conference in Jonesboro. The conference brought together local officials, economic development leaders, workforce partners, infrastructure experts, and community stakeholders from across the state to discuss opportunities and challenges facing rural Arkansas.
Throughout the conference, AAE staff engaged in conversations focused on energy affordability and reliability, workforce development, infrastructure investment, resiliency, and emerging opportunities. AAEF board members Andrea Allen of Arkansas State University and Chris Heigle of Arkansas Northeastern College served as speakers and discussion leaders during the event, while AAE Director of External Relations Ebony Mitchell delivered opening remarks. Todd Shields, Chancellor of Arkansas State University and an AAE member, was recognized as Rural Advocate of the Year.
When asked about what determines whether a workforce program will be scalable or stuck in pilot mode, Heigle said,“It’s gotta be organic. Often we see a pot of money and say, ‘The state has $20 million dollars out there, let’s all write a grant’. But there are very specific requirements for that pot of money, so you try to fit what you’re doing into that solution, and the truth is it doesn’t work…. But if you go to an individual - say you have a good state legislator - and you say, ‘Hey, Mike, I’ve got a problem, I need you to go find me some money’. Then when you go find money for that solution, that’s organic….That’s not just higher ed; that’s cities, municipalities, the county, everything. And the other thing is, we’re trying to create solutions for everyone. It’s a race toward the middle. So we need hyper-specific solutions for our strengths in our communities. We’re all different, we all have different strengths. We need solutions for those strengths.”
Conference discussions highlighted growing interest across rural Arkansas in workforce and apprenticeship programs, infrastructure modernization, building efficiency, community resiliency, and financing tools that support local investment and redevelopment. At the Powering Arkansas booth, staff connected with stakeholders from local government, economic development, engineering, construction, workforce organizations, and nonprofit partners, with many conversations centering on the challenges rural communities face related to energy costs, aging infrastructure, regulatory processes, and long-term economic competitiveness.
Several conference sessions closely aligned withongoing work by both AAE and Powering Arkansas across Arkansas, particularly around workforce development, community revitalization, infrastructure planning, and economic resilience. Sessions attended included discussions on apprenticeships, workforce development in rural Arkansas, community asset redevelopment, and economic district coordination.
The conference reinforced the importance of ensuring rural communities are positioned to benefit from Arkansas’s evolving energy economy while maintaining affordability, reliability, and strong local engagement.
