Shelly Allen
Vice President of Economic Development Authority of Jones County, Laurel, Mississippi; community leader and economic development professional focused on young talent retention in Mississippi.
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APPEARANCES
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PODCASTS
Jul 21, 2026
Rebecca StaplesHOST
As well as, what are your thoughts on entrepreneurship? Is that something that you're seeing in the community too?
Shelly AllenGUEST
Yeah, and I think, especially with us having the career coach program, just getting the pulse on that younger generation, a lot of those kids want to be entrepreneurs.
Shelly AllenGUEST
They might not necessarily know what that means, but they've heard it, they like the lifestyle that they hear goes with it, so I think there's an appetite for that.
Shelly AllenGUEST
As far as bigger, bigger industry wanted to come to the southeast, there's definitely been a huge boom.
Shelly AllenGUEST
And so a couple years ago, the big question was, how are we going to solve the workforce problem? Well, a few years into it, the state's done a lot of work.
14 MINS LATER
Rebecca StaplesHOST
And so if someone were going to do research on Johns County, since that's where both of you were based, where would you suggest they start when you said do your own research?