The highlight of this week was a visit by Governor John Bel Edwards to Ruston and Louisiana Tech on Wednesday. The Governor began his visit by meeting with many community leaders at the First National Bank breakfast at Squire Creek. Later in the morning, he joined Mayor Ronny Walker for a ribbon-cutting event at Monster Moto’s new headquarters and manufacturing facilities. Monster Moto CEO Alex Keechle confirmed that they will be bringing 300 jobs to our community as these operations expand. The warehouse was already full of mini-bikes and scooters that have been assembled for shipping. Tech’s engineering seniors have been helping Monster Moto and their shipping partner UPS develop more efficient shipping containers, saving them considerably on shipping costs. Wednesday afternoon, Kathy and I joined Governor Edwards, Mayor Walker and others for a groundbreaking for the new luxury Village Plaza Apartments being developed by Wayne Brown and Karl Malone. Their interests in developing this new complex were driven by the growing demand for housing in Ruston as a result of Tech’s growth, and the introduction of new companies like Monster Moto, Pierry and others to our community. We hosted Governor Edwards for a Town Hall meeting at the DAC Wednesday afternoon where we had another strong turnout of community leaders. We are always appreciative of the Governor’s commitment to visit our campus and our community. We were glad to have the opportunity to talk to him about projects and activities that are important to our future. On Thursday, I welcomed Bossier Parish Community College Chancellor Rick Bateman to my office for a signing of our latest articulation agreement to connect our four-year Bachelors in Computer Information Systems degree to their two-year Associates in Business Administration degree. This partnership will support those students who are best served by attending BPCC for their first two years to get in the pipeline of graduates who are needed for the rapidly growing IT companies across the region. We plan to develop more programs in partnership with BPCC in the near future. We were pleased to welcome the leadership of Willis-Knighton Health Systems to our campus on Friday to give them an overview of our activities and to explore more ways that we can work together to advance the health and wellness of our region. Dr. Angela Kennedy recently organized and led a Health Analytics Conference at Willis-Knighton’s Innovation Center in Bossier City, representing one of the ways that our faculty already play an important role in improving health outcomes for our region. Here are a few of my favorite pics for the week: