Bentonville think-and-do tank Heartland Forward on Tuesday (Jan. 17) introduced that chief program officer Angie Cooper had been promoted to govt vp, efficient Jan. 1.
“Angie is a dynamic chief with a singular capability to plan strategically and execute with precision — a marketing campaign mentality,” Ross DeVol, president and CEO of Heartland Ahead, mentioned in a information launch. “Her management position within the group will broaden because the group grows and evolves. On this new position, Angie will assume larger accountability in our coverage initiatives, strategic planning and help me in main the group.”
Heartland Ahead employed Cooper, a former Walmart Inc. director, in February 2020 as the manager director of its flagship occasion, Heartland Summit, an invitation-only occasion that brings collectively main thinkers, innovators and traders to Northwest Arkansas. Including to these tasks, she was promoted to chief program officer later that 12 months.
Cooper additionally established Heartland Ahead’s Connecting the Heartland marketing campaign, a coalition of more than a dozen Arkansas organizations whose objective is to assist broaden web entry within the state.
Earlier than becoming a member of Heartland Ahead, Cooper labored for Walmart for practically 17 years in numerous public coverage roles starting from native, state and federal to in the end serving as senior director of worldwide coverage. She is a graduate of Oklahoma State College.
“Having grown up within the heartland and having labored on coverage options all over the world, I’m extraordinarily excited to tackle this new position main Heartland Ahead’s mission: to vary the narrative in regards to the center of the nation and kick-start financial progress,” Cooper mentioned in a press release. “We’ve got achieved rather a lot in simply three years as a corporation, and as we kick off a brand new 12 months, I sit up for working alongside the proficient crew at Heartland Ahead and our companions throughout the nation to broaden our impression.”
The information launch mentioned Heartland Ahead would quickly rent a coverage director to report back to Cooper. Her new position will embrace public coverage work, engaged on transferring the group’s utilized analysis into motion on the federal, state, regional and native ranges. Cooper will proceed to prepare Heartland Summit and the group’s general programmatic work.
Heartland Ahead is the primary U.S. suppose tank centered solely on the financial state of affairs of the Heartland area. It’s spearheaded by members of the Walton household and led by Devol, a former Walton Fellow and Milken Institute Chief Analysis Officer.