2021 North Carolina Rural Summit

The 2021 Rural Summit is The North Carolina Rural Center’s signature policy-advocacy event, will taking place on March 15-17, 2021. Accounting for the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, this multi-day, virtual event is expected to attract hundreds of people from across North Carolina and beyond. The Rural Summit will call attention to a number of public policy issues and priorities affecting our state’s rural people and places, with a special thematic focus on entrepreneurship and small business development. Additional policy issues on the event agenda include: broadband, healthcare, social determinants of health, water and wastewater infrastructure, regional collaboration, racial equity, and communities mobilizing for change. You will not want to miss this informative and action-oriented policy change event.

Shadi Eskaf is presenting as part of a panel of on water and wastewater infrastructure and the real cost to economic development. The session provides a thorough overview of the financial, structural and sustainability issues that plague North Carolina’s water and wastewater systems, especially in rural areas. Panelists will highlight the importance of regional partnerships and infrastructure maintenance and renewal as critical components for sustaining the economic engine of our small towns.