An eleven-university consortium, led by the University of Vermont and consisting of research one institutions across the Northeast U.S. spanning Maine to eastern New York, planned to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for funding to create a Regional Innovation Engine (RIE).

The social justice and equality movement of 2020 represents a once in a 50-60-year opportunity to make meaningful change in a most persistent U.S. problem. Enormous amounts of goodwill exist across demographics for a reckoning that improves systemic conditions laid down by centuries of now-indefensible cultural assumptions. We know that all men and women are created equal and that social conditions, not race, determine the degree of human potential each citizen eventually contributes to their communities and this great nation. The lost human and economic potential is recognized by a majority of Americans as just plain wrong. What’s more, the pandemic of 2020 will require major efforts to rebuild our economy, providing a confluence of opportunity.

Two recent experiences provided satisfaction and brought back memories of friends, partners, and shared work that continues to pay off for Danville, Virginia, a community in which Nancy and I spent nearly seven of the most important years of our careers.

Transforming a rural region into a competitor in the global economy requires solving a series of problems simultaneously.