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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is helping to revitalize the economies of small communities across the state through its internship program, the Carolina Economic Revitalization Corps.

The program is sending Lindsay Moriarty, a rising third-year dual-degree graduate student in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the department of city and regional planning, to work for 10 weeks with the Lumber River Council of Governments in Pembroke. The Lumber River region includes Bladen, Hoke, Richmond, Robeson and Scotland counties, along with 27 municipalities within these counties. Moriarty will provide research and grant-writing support for the commission as well as offer assistance for community and economic development projects.

“Lindsay will be a valuable member of our team this summer, as she eyes opportunities to improve economic development in our part of the state,” said Jan Maynor, regional planning director for the Lumber River Council of Governments. “We are glad for the opportunity to put Lindsey to work seeking funding, forming connections between regional partners and taking on other roles that will help build the Lumber River COG region.”

During her past two years as a student at Carolina, Moriarty has served as a health impact assessor for the Carolina Center for Public Service and as a study coordinator for Duke University’s Chronic Disease Epidemiology Research Group.

With degrees in anthropology and sociology from the University of North Florida, Moriarty has also worked with Durham’s Department of Community Development and is also a steering committee member of the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Project, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of people located in six neighborhoods within the city.

Moriarty is looking forward to gaining more hands-on experience with Lumber River.

“Managing projects in the local government can’t be simulated in the classroom, and I am looking forward to learning as much as I can while in the field,” Moriarty said. “The CERC program is a great supplement to classroom studies, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it this year.”

Moriarty is one of six interns who will participate in the Revitalization Corps this summer. Started in 2009 as the Carolina Economic Recovery Corps to respond to communities that needed help applying for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, the university-wide program was created by the Office of Economic and Business Development and is administered by the School of Government. Funding comes from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the Graduate School and the N.C. Rural Center. The program continues this summer as a way to give graduate students considerable on-the-job experience while helping municipalities with community and economic development planning.

The interns come from the departments of city and regional planning in the College of Arts and Sciences, public administration in the School of Government and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. They trained at the School of Government before taking a full-time position at a regional organization located in North Carolina. When they return to UNC for the fall semester, the interns will spend 12 hours per week working remotely during the school year. Interns receive a paid stipend, tuition support and graduate student health insurance.

In addition to the Lumber River Council of Governments, interns this year have been assigned to work with North Carolina’s Northeast Commission office in Edenton, Cape Fear Council of Governments in Wilmington, the Land-of-Sky Council of Governments in Asheville, Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments in Henderson and the Bayboro Small Towns Economic Prosperity Committee in Bayboro.

Map showing corps member placements: http://bit.ly/aTTB9q

Photo: http://152.2.194.2/netpub/server.np?find&site=Luminosity&catalog=catalog&template=view.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=8988