Fitzgerald brings local development perspective to Voinovich School Advisory Board

The executive director of the Athens County Economic Development Council (ACEDC) credits Ohio University, where she earned two degrees, for setting her on a career path that aligned with her passion for promoting the area’s advancement.

As one of the newest members of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service Advisory Board, Mollie Fitzgerald looks to bring local development knowledge to the table while promoting public-private partnerships throughout the region.

“It’s really wonderful there are graduates from all over and they have broad perspectives on the advisory board,” she said. “I hope to bring a local perspective,” on how the University continues “to have a big impact on the economy down here.”

Following her graduation with a degree in health communication studies in 2013, the former Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholar and her husband moved briefly to Brooklyn, which the Cincinnati native found less than desirable. They would eventually move back to Athens where they both pursued higher degrees.

Fitzgerald started at ACEDC as a project coordinator before taking a job as executive director of the Athens-based nonprofit Live Healthy Appalachia, a move that coincided with her pursuit of a Master of Public Administration at OHIO.

“That’s when I realized, partially through the MPA program, that I wanted to get back to economic development,” she said. “I’m grateful for my MPA degree. It helped me realize what I wanted to do professionally.”

She cited the program’s courses on the government budgeting process and public-private partnerships as especially beneficial. She earned her MPA in 2018.

Fitzgerald subsequently returned to the local development council as assistant director and was later named to lead ACEDC. She also heads up the Athens County Port Authority.

“I was able to apply what I was learning to my day-to-day job,” Fitzgerald said of her experiences in the graduate program. “The skills and case studies that we looked at in the MPA program helped shape some of what we did when we were structuring our public-private partnerships at the ACEDC.”

A fan of cooking, exercising and traveling, Fitzgerald said her family’s next trip will be to Costa Rica. She resides in Athens with her husband and two children.