Linda Cruz Carnall

Linda Cruz Carnall

Regional Director of the US Department of Commerce

USA

There is an element of synchronicity associated with blogging at this time on my work and career path at the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA). On March 28th, I will celebrate 28 years with the Philadelphia Regional Office of EDA so in some ways, I AM living history here at DOC, part of the EDA institutional knowledge base. EDA is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016 and I am proud to carry the torch cheerleading for and at EDA, a DOC program that has invested and leveraged billions of dollars in its role as the only federal agency focused exclusively on economic development.
Public service at EDA has provided me with a tremendous opportunity for professional and personal growth. Innumerable complex programmatic, legal and financial challenges required close work and creative collaboration with talented colleagues and customers mutually focused on benefitting and growing communities and regions by fostering job creation and private investment throughout our nation. Nowhere is this premise more evident to me than it is in my new role as Regional Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office. Visiting EDA project sites and interacting with skilled professionals in the field to hear their stories and needs firsthand, exchanging ideas to develop new strategic responses, tracking progress of implemented projects, these are the creative force and lifeblood of economic development work.