Staunton Creative Community Fund is welcoming two new members to its team to head up the fund’s new entrepreneurial ecosystem program.
Ryan Hall and Alex Andrew are both joining the staff at SCCF as entrepreneurial ecosystem builders.
Hall has served as president of the Old Town Winchester Business Association, and in 2015 he helped found Valley Makers Association, a nonprofit that supports small manufacturing businesses by providing access to tools and space.
Hall graduated from Shenandoah University with a master’s degree in organizational leadership in 2019.
Alex Andrew was an economic officer with the U.S. State Department for seven years. His assignments within the department included the Office of Central American Affairs, the Republic of Korea and Ethiopia.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Alex was an inter-agency liaison at the Battelle Memorial Institute. From 2004-2011, he served in the U.S. Army as a linguist, first in the 82nd Airborne Division and later at Fort George G. Meade.
Andrew holds an MBA from Columbia University, a bachelor’s in international relations from American University and associates
degrees from the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and the Defense Language Institute.
SCCF’s new ecosystem builders are responsible for connecting entrepreneurs across the Valley to the resources they need to start or scale their businesses. They are an asset for all businesses in the area, but will be especially focused on participants in the region’s first hybrid acceleratorincubator cohort, Startup Shenandoah Valley, which is set to launch in 2021 with a small cohort of scalable businesses.
“The Shenandoah Valley has so much to offer,” said Hall, “and I am incredibly excited to be able to reinvest in the community that I call home.”
Andrew echoed this sentiment.
“This region has amazing potential. We are very fortunate to have a great network supporting our efforts, and I’m honored to be a part of this project,” Andrew said.
SCCF is also adding a third new team member, Kimberly Newton, who will serve as program administrator.
Newton’s background includes work with WQSV 106.3FM, Staunton’s first community radio station, in addition to leading education and youth programs, as well as theatre directing, research and arts management.
Newton holds a master of letters in Shakespeare and performance from Mary Baldwin University and a BA in theatre from Hunter College CUNY.
To learn more about the work of the Staunton Creative Community Fund, visit www.stauntonfund.org.
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Chris Graham
