News from the Ada Jobs Foundation
Press Release: Ashia Todd Joins Ada Jobs Foundation Team
ADA, OKLAHOMA – Ashia Todd joins the Ada Jobs Foundation (AJF) as the Startup Community Manager. Previously, Todd worked as the Member Services Director for the Ada Area Chamber of Commerce, and most recently as the Director of Alumni Relations for East Central...
Jordan Caldwell: Cybersecurity in an Insecure World
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker It took two days, but by the end, Jordan Caldwell had done it. He had accessed the executive floor of a two-billion-dollar company. They didn’t think it could be done. In fact, the company’s security team was sure it couldn’t be done. But they...
Newsletter 09.04.2022: Economic Development News for the Ada Area
Read the 9.04.2022 Newsletter HERE!
Unpacking Build to Scale: Encouraging a Digital Economy in Rural Southern Oklahoma
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Ada, We Have a Problem In 2019, Ada Jobs Foundation had a problem. Their staff had launched a series of successful entrepreneurship support programs, from workshops and networking events to pitch competitions. They had partnered with Pontotoc...
Newsletter 08.28.2022: Economic Development News for the Ada Area
Read the 8.28.2022 Newsletter HERE!
The Fire Station: Historic Ada Moves into the Future of Innovation
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker If you were driving down Broadway in Ada on August 3, 2022, you might have noticed a large group of people congregating inside the historic Central Fire Station, looking around, talking to each other, despite the rising heat of the day. What you...
Newsletter 08.21.2022: Economic Development News for the Ada Area
Read the 8.21.2022 Newsletter HERE!
Naresh Juneja: Innovating with a Breath of Fresh Air
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Naresh Juneja never intended to make Ada, Oklahoma his home. In fact, until his wife, Hursh, took a job with the Chickasaw Nation as Head of Enterprise Architecture and Innovation, IT, they had never even heard of Ada. However, it was a decision...
Adventures in Crypto: One Man’s Journey from Developer to Influencer
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker A year ago, if you would have told Jake Cantrell that he would be a full-time crypto influencer on Medium and YouTube that goes by the alias JCCrypto, he probably would have called you crazy. But here we are. Since September of 2021, Cantrell...
C3: Cougars, Curriculum, and Camp – Engaging Students with Innovation
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Selena Galbreaith showing off a basic catapult The high school cafeteria bustled with approximately thirty students around age five, and the air buzzed with excitement as they sent brightly colored fuzzy pompoms soaring across their tables. The...
What is Ecosystem Building?
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Many of us learned about “ecosystems” when we were in elementary school. We were taught that an ecosystem was an area where living and non-living things interact, or, as the National Geographic Society defines it, “A geographic area where plants,...
Ada Startup Workshop: How to Create Better Market Research
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker When the Ada Jobs Foundation updated their Economic Development Strategic Plan in 2020, they realized they didn’t want it to be a strategy to be a document that would simply sit on a shelf. Instead, they wanted to take a more dynamic approach,...
Press Release: Ada, Oklahoma Certified as Center for Workforce Excellence
ADA, OKLAHOMA – The Oklahoma Department of Commerce, members of the Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development and industry leaders, announced the certification of Ada as the most recent Centers for Workforce Excellence (CWE) under the Oklahoma Works...
Innovation Districts and a Knowledge Based Economy: An Interview with Jim Eldridge
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker June 8, 2022 I had the chance to sit down with Jim Eldridge, CEO of the Ada Jobs Foundation, to discuss his upcoming presentation at the IEDC Future Forum conference where he will be speaking about Rural Innovation Districts. The Ada Jobs...
Press Release: Sunnie Dawn Baker Joins Ada Jobs Foundation
ADA, OKLAHOMA – Sunnie Dawn Baker joins the Ada Jobs Foundation (AJF) as the new Ecosystem Digital Content Manager. Baker brings a wealth of community knowledge, creativity, and writing experience to an impactful role of telling the story of technology-based...