Ozarks Profile: Becky Spain

Actually, I went through Leadership Springfield and Leadership Missouri, and … I just really became interested in economic development. I have also returned to Evangel University and I’m working on my business administration degree, and just through my studies there, and through my experience with Leadership Missouri, I just kind of fell in love with economic development. I’d had a casual conversation with the chamber to let them know that after I finished my education, I might be interested in looking at an opportunity with them … . I got a call later saying they felt like they had something that I would be interested in doing, that was a good fit for me … so we talked and decided that we would do this. I go to school full-time at Evangel and work here full-time. I started April 5.

Specifically, what is your job?

I have three different areas that I’m working on. The business development side entails working with the Springfield Business Development Corporation. My (job) is to look at businesses that are already here and visit with them, find out what their plans are, how they’re doing, if there are any needs that we can help them with and building that relationship with current employers here in Springfield. The other aspect is actually work-force development, which breaks down into two different areas. The first is health care. There’s an initiative to do an analysis of health care in Springfield, and we’re in the process of consulting to do a labor needs analysis. What we’re hoping to do is assess labor needs, and to look at projected five- and 10-year growth. The second phase of that is partnering with the local colleges and universities to make sure that we have programs in place so that we’re training the work force that we need to meet the health care needs of the Springfield area. The second (work force development area) has to do with a committee that we call Education and Workforce Solutions. … We took that committee and broke it down into four subcommittees: Character Education, Partners in Education, Lifetime Learning and Looking Beyond High School. My number one initiative is to get these four subcommittees moving forward.

What is the biggest work force need you hear about?

Work force development – that they need a higher skill level of employees. Finding the level of skill that they need for the jobs that they have open, and this all ties back to the initiatives that we have, finding employees who have … character, who understand what it means to be at work Monday through Friday and to arrive on time and have a commitment to an employer and to work with integrity.

What goals do you have?

I want to get certified in economic development, and I would like to pursue my master’s degree, and probably in that order.

Tell us about your family.

My husband is Edward Spain. He is the administrator of neurosciences at St. John’s. We have three children. My oldest is Jake. He’s 24 and he is in his third year of medical school at MU. Luke is a freshman at Kickapoo and our daughter, Alexandria, or Alex, is in seventh grade at Cherokee Middle School.