MARCH 2026
COVER STORY
Rural Strategy Is Not an Accident Why Small Communities Produce Serious Leaders, pg. 8
GetRuralLeaderMag.com | MARCH 2026 1
Contents Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Kuanita E. Murphy, PhD
3 Editor's Note: This Is a Rural Leadership Moment
16 ROUND TWO: 2026 Forty under 40 Tri-State Call for Nominations
Rural Leader Magazine, LLC is a digital publication that highlights every day people doing extraordinary things nationally and abroad. www.RuralLeaderMag.com www.GetRuralLeaderMag.com
COVER STORY 8 Rural Strategy Is Not an Accident Why Small Communities Produce Serious Leaders
About Us
10 Move It Monday Returns with 2026 Spring One-Mile Walk Kickoff
20 The Identity of a Rural Leader Pride, Pressure, and the Power of Place
13 The Power of Showing Up Why Physical Presence Still Matters in Rural Leadership
21 Community Spotlight Randolph County Launches “Strong Heart. Strong Life. Keep the Beat.” Campaign
Launched in March 2014, Rural Leader Magazine, LLC is a digital publication with a mission to highlight every day people doing extraordinary things in business, education, music, community, art, sports, and leadership nationally and abroad. Rural Leader Magazine honors exemplary individuals on a variety of levels, such as the 20 under 20 Honors, 40 under 40 Honors, Best Small Town Restaurant, Small Town America’s 100 Most Influential People, the Scholars of Collegiate Distinction, Fifty under Fifty, and the Eagle Elite Club.—
15 Building What Outlasts You The Discipline of Generational Rural Leadership
18 Rural Economies Are Not Small — They Are Specialized Rethinking Growth Beyond City Limits
Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, in English, or other languages, is prohibited without written consent. Send editorial ideas to Kuanita Murphy, PhD, Editor-in-Chief Contact Us ruralleadermagazine@gmail.com Tell us what you think about our publications, if you have a great idea for a story, or to just share. We may print your comments in Rural Leader Magazine. By sending us your comments, you’re giving permission to call you for an interview. Please be sure to include your name, address, email address, and phone number so we can reach you. Write to us at RuralLeaderMagazine@gmail.com— 2
RuralLeaderMag.com | MARCH 2026
Editor’s Note
This Is a Rural Leadership Moment By Dr. Kuanita E. Murphy, Publisher Rural Leader Magazine
This is not a small-town event. This is a rural leadership moment. The release of Small Town Strategy: A Leadership Playbook for Rural Leaders in Small Communities represents more than a book launch. It is a declaration that rural communities are not an afterthought in the leadership conversation. They are central to it. Too often, strategy is discussed as though it belongs only to metropolitan boardrooms. Yet rural leaders design complex solutions every day — with fewer resources, tighter margins, and greater personal accountability. They innovate because they must. They collaborate because they understand interdependence. They lead because no one else will carry the responsibility for them. March 21 is an invitation beyond city limits. Whether you serve in public office, nonprofit leadership, healthcare, education, faith-based institutions, small business, or civic engagement — if your work touches rural communities, you belong in the room. We are not gathering to celebrate one project. We are gathering to affirm a movement — the steady, strategic rise of rural leadership. Rural America is not waiting for permission. It is building. It is organizing. It is leading. And this March, we will stand together and say so — clearly and publicly. There are moments when quiet work must step into visible space. March 2026 is one of those moments. For years, rural leaders across Georgia — and across this nation — have carried the weight of systems, institutions, families, and futures with little recognition and even less applause. They have stretched budgets, built partnerships, written grants at kitchen tables, mentored youth in barbershops and classrooms, and held communities together when resources ran thin. That work deserves to be seen. On Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 11:00 AM, leaders, partners, elected officials, educators, entrepreneurs, and community builders from across the state are invited to gather at Albany Technical College–RC Learning Center in Cuthbert, Georgia.
Join us. With conviction and commitment,
What you do matters. @RuralLeaderMag GetRuralLeaderMag.com | MARCH 2026 3