Georgia Power Senior Vice President Bentina Terry speaks at Regional Leadership Institute on Building a Healthy, Sustainable Metro Atlanta
Georgia Power Senior Vice President of Region External Affairs and Community Engagement Bentina Terry recently spoke on a panel for the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute with Michael Paris, President and CEO of The Council for Quality Growth. The two spoke on building a healthy Metro Atlanta region that is sustainable long into the future.
Terry spoke on the importance of focusing on our workforce and entrepreneurship and shared how Georgia Power and the Georgia Power Foundation is committed to making these investments.
Georgia Power is dedicated to exposing students to experiential learning opportunities on-site at the company’s lineworker training center and has partnered with the Atlanta Technical College to create an Electrical Lineworker Apprentice Certification Program. In its inaugural year, Atlanta Technical College held three classes and graduated 24 students with Georgia Power’s support.
Additionally, Terry shared that the metro region must continue to make physical investments in affordable and attainable housing and to focus on its effects on the workforce.
“We know that affordable housing is greatly impacting our communities and education equity, as well as opportunity, breaking the cycle of poverty and increasing literacy rates,” she said.
Terry went on to share that regionalism is a collaborative initiative that goes beyond one’s specific jurisdiction to ensure economic growth
“Sometimes common sense does not prevail in leadership and governance. In saying this I am not underplaying the vital importance of local leadership. In economic development, we know strong local leadership is what seals the deal for a project with a win or a loss,” she said. “However, on the community development and policy side, not thinking outside of county or city jurisdictions can be a tragic mistake for smart planning.”
In her role, Terry leads Georgia Power’s statewide external efforts to serve its 2.6 million customers by strategically partnering with local governments, development authorities, chambers of commerce, charitable entities and other stakeholders across Georgia to support and power our communities. She is also responsible for leading the company’s employee volunteer and giving efforts, fostering the company’s relationships in historically underserved communities including people of color, seniors, women and LGBTQ+ and leads the company’s social justice initiatives.
Original article courtesy of Metro Atlanta CEO. Published October 1, 2021.