MDC
Hetal Patel is an experienced professional focused on leadership and community development within rural areas. Currently serving as the Rural Forward NC Program Manager at MDC since September 2021, Hetal provides facilitation, consultation, and leadership coaching to support local leaders. Previously, Hetal held the role of Rural Forward NC Partnership Manager at the Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation from May 2020 to September 2021, contributing similar services to enhance community initiatives. Prior to that, Hetal was the Executive Director/CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Eden, overseeing its operations and mission fulfillment. Additional experience includes serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Corporation for National and Community Service, a Family and Consumer Science Agent with NC Cooperative Extension, and various internship roles related to nutrition and community engagement. Hetal holds a degree from East Carolina University, completed in 2016.
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MDC
MDC is a nonprofit founded in 1967 and based in Durham, N.C., that equips Southern leaders, institutions, and communities to improve economic mobility and advance equity. We bring together foundations, nonprofits, and leaders from government, business, and the grassroots to illuminate data that highlight deeply rooted Southern challenges and help them find systemic, community solutions. Our approach uses research, consensus-building, and programs that connect education, employment, and economic security to help communities foster prosperity by creating an “infrastructure of opportunity”—the aligned systems and supports that can boost everyone, particularly those who’ve been left behind, to higher rungs on the economic ladder. Since 1996, MDC’s landmark State of the South reports have shaped the economic agenda of the region, shining a spotlight on historic trends, deep-rooted inequities, and solutions that offer rural and urban communities a path forward. MDC is supported by grants and contracts from foundations, governments, and the private sector. Learn more at www.mdcinc.org.