Scott T. Hamilton
Executive Director
Appalachian Regional Commission
Washington, DC
Scott T. Hamilton became the executive director of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in September 2014. Appointed by the Commission members, he is the chief executive, administrative, and fiscal officer for the Commission. In this role, he leads a staff of more than 50 in implementing the Commission's policies and oversees a wide range of programs in areas including education and workforce training, highway construction, water and sewer system construction, leadership development, small business start-ups and expansions, energy, and health. He administers the distribution of hundreds of grants annually for local development and leads major regional initiatives in entrepreneurship, energy, telecommunications, export trade, and civic leadership. In addition, he has programmatic oversight of the 3,090-mile Appalachian Development Highway System.
Before joining ARC, Hamilton was president and CEO of AdvantageWest, a nonprofit regional economic development partnership serving the westernmost counties of North Carolina. His ten-year career with AdvantageWest also included roles as the organization's executive vice president and director of marketing and site development. Hamilton had previously served as founding president and CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development and as executive vice president of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce. He was also a retention and expansion specialist and interim executive director at the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission.
Hamilton has held leadership positions with numerous boards and organizations across North Carolina, including the North Carolina Economic Development Board and the North Carolina Economic Developers Association. He served for 11 years as a gubernatorial appointee to the North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Hamilton received additional training and certification in economic development from the University of North Carolina School of Government and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center's Rural Economic Development Institute.