Oakland Area Chamber Director Linda Ross Aldy was one of 45 participants to complete the True South Basic Economic Development Course through the University of Southern Mississippi’s Trent Lott National Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship in partnership with the International Economic Development Council. Most participants came from Florida, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
“The course was intense. Our sessions and project work started early and ended late. We were divided into teams to try to recruit a specific industry. All the course work was geared toward teaching us the process of being ready to recruit, identifying businesses and industry to recruit, and going through the steps of negotiating and working with recruits,” Aldy said. “The instructors were excellent. The judges for the team recruitment were honest and tough. The course is geared for those who have less than five years of experience. I look forward to using this new knowledge to work with and through the Town’s leadership, the County Board of Supervisors and the Yalobusha County Economic Development District.”
Aldy was awarded a full tuition scholarship to attend by the Mississippi Economic Development Council of which she is a member.
She also has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation through the American Society of Association Executives, a designation earned by roughly five percent of executives in the United States. There are only 8 CAEs in Mississippi. In 2021, she was recognized as the National Executive Director of the Year during the American Optometric Association national meeting. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Mississippi Society of Association Executives. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Mississippi Nurses’ Foundation and is a Past-President of the National Alumni Association of Miss. University for Women, commonly known as The W. She and her family own and operate five Cups coffee shop franchises in the Jackson, MS metro area.
Aldy has trained and coached thousands of State and Municipal Employees over the last 20 years in her role as a faculty member of the Mississippi State Personnel Board Training Division. She began overseeing the operations of the Mississippi Optometric Association as its Executive Director in 2005, retiring in 2021. She also served as Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of Partners in Education for nearly 15 years. She is a graduate of and served as advisor and presenter for approximately 10 years to the MEC’s Leadership Mississippi program, the nation’s second oldest state leadership program. She served on the advisory board for the Hayes Center for Practice Excellence at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis and on the executive board of the International Association of Optometric Executives, including as its President.
An author, former newspaper reporter and editor and television host as well as a former award-winning manager of a Fortune 500 company, she has been named as one of Mississippi’s “50 Leading Businesswomen." She is a cum laude graduate of Mississippi University for Women, the Stennis Center Executive Management Institute, and has completed coursework through the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Executive Development Program. She is a former state agency director, having served as Executive Director of one of the largest state agencies at that time, and has worked for three Mississippi Governors.
Her consulting work has included leadership development, strategic planning, succession planning, staff recruitment, team building, advocacy training and more for clients in the public, private, and non-profit worlds. She has designed and worked with both Youth & Adult Leadership Programs. She is a prolific fund-raiser, having overseen fundraising of more than $2 million for scholarships, foundations, and political committees in recent years. As a registered lobbyist, she understands the state political process, including the importance of local advocacy and grassroots to achieve goals.
Upon retirement, she was instrumental in helping establish the Oakland Area Chamber of Commerce and serves as the volunteer lobbyist for the Town of Oakland.
