AMES – America’s Small Business Development Center Iowa (SBDC) has announced that Kimberly Tiefenthaler, North Central Iowa SBDC regional director, has been appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds to be a member of the Empower Rural Iowa Initiative serving on the Invest Rural Iowa Task Force. The two-year appointment began in September.

The Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative was created by executive order in July 2018. It is a partnership with the Iowa Rural Development Council (IRDC) and co-chaired by Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg and IRDC Chair Sandy Ehrig. The Empower Rural Iowa Act created three task forces, which develop recommendations for Reynolds in advance of each legislative session. The tasks forces are: Investing in Rural Iowa, Growing Rural Iowa and Connecting Rural Iowa. The Investing in Rural Iowa task force was created to address the rural housing shortage and develop strategies to support rural businesses and entrepreneurs.

More information about the initiative can be found at https://www.iowaeda.com/empower-rural-iowa/.

Tiefenthaler is the regional director of the North Central Iowa SBDC, which is hosted by Iowa Central Community College. She has been counseling businesses in Audubon, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Sac and Webster counties since May 2017.