Kokomo 
Mayor Greg Goodnight will be the keynote speaker during a luncheon on the first day of the Small Cities Conference at Ball State University in Muncie on May 11. The 2-day conference is themed “Vulnerable Communities: Research, Policy, & Practice” and brings together academics and policy makers from across the country.
Mayor Goodnight was invited by David Terrell, Executive Director, Indiana Communities Institute and RUPRI Center for State Policy, to share his experiences as Mayor of Kokomo.
“Early in our planning, we knew we wanted to have Mayor Goodnight speak at our conference,” said Terrell. “This is an academic research conference, with researchers from all over the country. The mayor will add tremendous value to this, because he is translating a lot of this research into real, practical, and successful initiatives and projects.”
Over the two days the conference will have six panels addressing the following issues:
- Unique Economic Challenges of Vulnerable Small Industrial Cities
- The Suburban Struggle: Small Cities Caught Between the Urban/Rural Divide
- Social Capital and Civic Life in Small Cities
- The Power of Place
- Policy and Governance in Vulnerable Communities
- Principles of Size and Growth
Panelists will include scholars from Europe, South America, Asia and the United States. The event is sponsored by the Indiana Communities Institute, the Bowen Center, Center for Business and Economic Research, and the Center for Middletown Studies.