Education
Researcher, entrepreneur and high-touch futurist, Connie Reimers-Hild, Ph.D., host of the Rural Futures Podcast, takes the hot seat in this bonus episode of our show! Dr. Connie serves as interim executive director and chief futurist of the Rural Futures Institute (RFI) at the University of Nebraska. During this episode, she shares her approach to leadership, her vision for RFI, her recent experiences traveling the world to provide the voice of rural, acceptable metrics to measure rural thriving and rural economic development of the future. Hosted by Katelyn Ideus, producer of the podcast and RFI's director of communications, Dr. Connie brings forward the critical importance of strategic foresight for rural areas — we cannot solve the grand challenges we're facing or take advantage of tremendous opportunities if we continue to think and act in the same framework and mindset of the past. We need to understand the megatrends, demographic and pyschographic shifts and industry evolutions surrounding and intermingling with our rural ecosystem. We must also be clear about the fundamental leadership transformation that is occurring based on the expectations of upcoming generations.