SBA District Office announces

Join us for a special event featuring Mr. Ashley Bell, Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration Southeast Region (Region IV), , together with the staff and management of the U.S. Small Business Administration, North Carolina District Office in Charlotte

Monday, June 11, 2018 at the Stanly Community College Small Business Center, 143 N. 2nd St., in downtown Albemarle NC

Agenda:

2:30 p.m.: Welcome and remarks:

• Alicia Herrin, Director – Stanly SBC • Ashley Bell, SBA Region IV Administrator

Quick overview of small business programs:

• SBA Loans • SBA Government Contracting • Counseling & Training, including Charlotte SCORE and Small Business and Technology Development Center • Other partners such as USDA and the North Carolina Rural Center.

3:15 p.m.: Resource tables open

4:00 p.m.: Adjourn

Register for this event at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sba-day-in-albemarle-nc- tickets-45972313427

SBA’s programs and services are provided to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Reasonable arrangements for persons with disabilities will be made when requested one week in advance. Contact: Mr. Levi Kinnard at [email protected] . About Ashley Bell

Ashley was appointed on February 21, 2018 by the White House to serve as Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration for Region IV, serving nine districts located in the 8 Southeastern States of , , , , , North Carolina, and . Regional Administrator Bell has oversight of over $5 billion in SBA-backed lending, the counseling arm of the SBA, which counseled over 225,000 entrepreneurs last year in Region IV, and the contracting programs for small business, which account for over 23% of all federal contracts awarded.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Bell served as Associate Growing up in a neighborhood where many of his peers Director for External Affairs for the U.S. Peace Corps and saw incarceration more than college, and having a deep Special Assistant in the Public Affairs Bureau of the understanding of the failings of America’s criminal justice United States Department of State. During the system, he has used his wide bipartisan network to be a Trump/Pence Transition, he served as Communications tireless volunteer for justice for all Americans founding & Intergovernmental Affairs Lead on the Landing Team at the 2020 Bi-partisan Justice Center. His efforts have been the State Department. chronicled in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, USA Today, The New Prior to the 2016 election, Ashley was a Senior Strategist Yorker, and AJC and he is a frequent commentator on Fox at the Republican National Committee, and created and News, MSNBC and CNN. implemented a strategic initiatives communications plan and media buy to engage minority communities. Ashley Ashley has been named a 2017 Georgia "Super Lawyer was one of four national spokespeople for the RNC and Rising Star", one of the 2016 "Top 40 Young Lawyers" by was a key surrogate for the Trump Campaign. As National the American Bar Association, a 2016 “Lawyer on the Director of African American Engagement for the RNC, he Rise” by Georgia’s leading legal journal, “The Daily managed and provided strategic direction to 200+ RNC Report,” recognizing Georgia's top 25 lawyers under 40, field employees and thousands of volunteers in all 50 the 2014 National IMPACT Leader of the Year (given to the states. nation’s top young professional of color for excellence in business & civic engagement), one of Georgia Trend Ashley is the Founder of Generation Inspiration, whose Magazine’s Top Forty Under 40, a MAVERICK PAC Top 40 mission is to teach life skills not taught in the classroom under 40, and a recipient of his local NAACP “Drum Major to at-risk students in his hometown of Gainesville, for Justice” award for his work fighting environmental Georgia, and set them on a trajectory for success. Each racism as a county commissioner. Ashley has served with summer, the new members of G.I. undertake an intense distinction as the youngest General Counsel & Special eight-week summer leadership program focused on Counsel for the National Conference of Black Mayors, black history, personal financial accountability, National Association of Black County Officials and networking, drug abuse prevention, economic National League of Cities – Black Caucus, in total serving development, using social media for civic engagement over two-thirds of black elected officials across and peer conflict resolution. At the end of the program, America. Ashley is a proud alumnus of the Congressional Ashley awards scholarships which, over the past ten Black Caucus Internship program, first serving as an years, have totaled over $500,000. intern and later as an aid for Congressman Sanford A former Hall County Commissioner elected at the young Bishop of the 2nd District of Georgia. age of 27, Ashley was the youngest commissioner ever Ashley is a graduate of Valdosta State University, where elected in the county, representing the 3rd fastest he was President of the Student Government Association growing metropolitan area in America. A lawyer by trade, and founded the school’s chapter of Iota Phi Theta Ashley began his career as a public defender, and went Fraternity, Inc. He obtained his law degree from on to become a celebrated trial attorney and co-founder Louisiana State University, which he attended on a full of the law firm Bell & Washington LLP, based in Atlanta, scholarship. He was a 21st Century Leadership Fellow at Georgia. the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Ashley has been called the most “unique” politico of his Government and has an honorary doctorate in generation by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, as he Intercultural & Urban Studies from Lighthouse College. holds the distinction of being the only person in over half Ashley resides in Gainesville, Georgia with his wife, a century to be elected as a delegate to both the Lauren, and their three children. Republican and Democratic National Conventions.