How HudsonAlpha is spurring the economic development of the Alabama Wiregrass

By: Sam Prickett

Last December, the Huntsville-based HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology announced its expansion into Alabama’s Wiregrass region. In partnership with the city of Dothan and other communities in the state’s southeasternmost corner, HudsonAlpha hopes to spur the development of the area’s agricultural technology sector through educational initiatives, research programs and economic development.

“The vision was, how can Dothan and the Wiregrass take their existing economic foundation and improve it?” says Dean Mitchell, the director of HudsonAlpha Wiregrass and a former executive director of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce. “How can we build jobs for the future? It was an opportunity that Dothan leadership saw … to elevate our economy and elevate our future opportunities for young people.”

Mitchell points to HudsonAlpha’s impact on Huntsville’s biotech sector as something the Wiregrass initiative hopes to emulate “in a different geographic region and on a smaller scale.”

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