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West Virginia University (WVU) and Ascend West Virginia are lending work space at no cost to the West Virginia First Foundation (WVFF) in Morgantown, Fayetteville, Elkins, Martinsburg and Lewisburg.
Ascend West Virginia was founded in 2021 by Brad D. Smith and his wife, Alys as part of their Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative (OEDC), which aims to utilize the state’s outdoor assets to improve the economy and enhance the quality of life for West Virginians through outdoor recreation.
Brad Smith, of Kenova, is an American businessman, and university administrator serving as President of Marshall University. From 2008 to 2018, he was the chief executive officer of Intuit, an American multinational business software company that specializes in financial software.
He initially returned to his home state in March of 2019 to open a “Prosperity Hub,” in Bluefield, West Virginia, aiming to bring 200 to 500 new jobs to the economically burdened southern coalfields.
Smith was named President of Marshall University in Oct. 2021. That same year, he and his wife founded Ascend West Virginia, a program that provides comprehensive incentives for remote workers to spend time making West Virginia home.
According to Danny Twilley, the Assistant Vice President of Economic, Community and Asset Development at the OEDC, Ascend West Virginia was born from a partnership between the Smith’s philanthropic Wing to Wing Foundation, the West Virginia Department of Tourism and WVU.
“We are blessed to have these locations and spaces that serve our vendors and serve as community gathering spaces throughout the state,” Twilley said.
Twilley said the OEDC is supporting the West Virginia First Foundation with these spaces because the First Foundation’s mission aligns with the work the collaborative is doing.
“We’ll do anything we can to help support the West Virginia First Foundation because it aligns so directly with our university’s land grant mission and with the OEDC and Ascend’s community-driven approach to our work,” Twilley said.
Twilley said by offering these conference and working spaces at no cost, OEDC is helping the WVFF utilize its funds for the state’s opioid recovery.
“This money came at a great cost to our state,” Twilley said. “So we want to make sure that it gets every penny, every dollar gets leveraged to its fullest.”
The Executive Director of the WVFF, Jonathan Board said in a press release that access to these working spaces will help the foundation accomplish its mission.
“I want to thank WVU and the Ascend WV program for their generous contribution of office space,” Board said. “Having these outreach locations will allow the Foundation to be present within communities in every region of the state as we focus on serving the people who most need help.”
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.
