NATCHEZ, Miss. – The city’s workforce development director program will continue despite the recent resignation of director Tuwanna Williams, who Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson praised as being “irreplaceable.”
Williams has moved on to a similar job at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, but Gibson envisions her still administering the city’s four-year-old workforce training program with other local governments in southwest Mississippi.
Gibson last week got the Natchez Board of Aldermen to “begin the process of moving toward a collaboration partnership for workforce development with Copiah-Lincoln Community College for the entirety of the Natchez-Miss-Lou area and southwest Mississippi with Tuwanna Williams as the director.”
Williams was hired in 2021 to be Natchez-Adams County workforce development director, a newly created position to strengthen local efforts to train people and attract more businesses.
In that post, she established and led the city’s first workforce development department and secured more than $2 million in state-federal funds to support various training initiatives based at Co-Lin Community College’s Natchez branch.
Williams designed and launched the first building-trades program in the Miss-Lou area in more than 25 years to teach skills in construction, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, masonry and heavy-equipment operations, according to details provided by Co-Lin. She also organized employer advisory councils involving more than 170 employers associated with 22 industries to align workforce training with regional labor-market needs.
“It’s been a real success story,” Gibson said of the Natchez workforce development program.
Williams began her new assignment last week as executive director of workforce education at Co-Lin, where she worked six years prior to taking the city job in 2021.
Gibson envisions Natchez’ workforce training program continuing under Williams’ direction at Co-Lin, which is partially funded by Adams County and six other southwest Mississippi counties. However, Natchez aldermen last Thursday hired Debbie Germany to oversee transitioning the city’s partnership with Co-Lin and other local governments. Aldermen discussed this with Gibson in a session they closed to the public.
Germany formerly led the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce and has subsequently been contracted by the city officials to search for grants for various services and programs. She’s also assisted the Adams County Board of Supervisors as it decides whether to build a new jail.
Prior to last week’s closed-door session with aldermen, Gibson said hiring an interim workforce development administrator is needed for a few months to manage grants and help get the various partnerships in place. The mayor said he wants to collaborate with Adams County supervisors and Natchez-Adams school board members “so we will all be on the same page” for workforce training.
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