By Traci Phillips Kayla Lewis, an 11-year-old girl from Charleston, WV, spent 12 hours baking cookies and sweets for the first annual West Virginia Kids Business Expo. The morning of the event, she arose at 6 a.m. and began baking more than 200 of her Sweet Day Cookies to be showcased at the expo in the TransCanada Building…
By Randi Weingarten When most of the coal companies pulled up stakes and abandoned McDowell County, WV, decades ago, they didn’t leave much behind except pain and poverty. Pride, however, remained. The good people of this part of rural America went from enjoying middle-class livelihoods to enduring sky-high unemployment, some of the nation’s worst health…
By Elizabeth Riffle It’s not often you see bison or buffalo on a menu in Appalachia. It’s even more rare to dine with the beasts surrounding your table. Riffle Farms in Terra Alta, WV, is the proud purveyor of some of the highest quality grass-fed and finished bison in the region. In September, owners Jimmie…
By Kevin Fields This article is part of a companion series to “Crisis Management: Seven Steps to Prepare Your Organization,” which appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of West Virginia Executive. In 2018, author Doris Kearns Goodwin published Leadership in Turbulent Times. In this book, she focuses on four of the U.S.’ most influential presidents:…
By Sarah Harris The state of West Virginia is full of hard-working individuals. West Virginians pride themselves on being strong, driven people who care deeply about their communities. One way in which they do this is by coming together every year in April to support Autism Awareness Month. Businesses, organizations and citizens partner to put…
Described as a picture of uneven economic recovery by economist John Deskins, director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, the Mountain State continues to see healthy growth in some areas and economic weaknesses and population loss in others. By revitalizing some of West Virginia’s oldest neighborhoods, the state’s blueprint communities are attempting to turn the tide on this pattern.