Susan McNamara

JAMESTOWN – The Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has selected Dr. Susan McNamara as the recipient of its 2015 Pam Lydic Coalition Builder Award. The Award will be given at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting at noon, Friday, Dec. 11, at Moon Brook Country Club, Jamestown.

Dr. McNamara is Assistant Professor of Management at Fredonia State University of New York and is also an executive coach and business consultant. She teaches Strategic Management, Organization Behavior and Entrepreneurship. McNamara was previously Executive Director of Chautauqua Works, worked in the Chautauqua County Department of Social Services, and had a corporate career with Motorola.  She is also the adviser for the Fredonia Enactus team, which uses entrepreneurial approaches to address social, environmental, and economic issues in the community.

The Pam Lydic Coalition Builder Award recognizes an individual or organization in Chautauqua County that has worked to bring groups of people together around a common goal or objective and has helped move the region forward in a positive direction through collaboration and by building partnerships.

According to Chamber president Todd Tranum, the chamber was especially impressed with Dr. McNamara’s work with Enactus. “We view Enactus as a way to bring together an array of student groups to work on current projects, while also developing leadership skills with a focus on service in a new generation of prospective business people,”Tranum said. “It truly teaches community service and community building on a basic level, demonstrating that business and community go hand-in-hand.”

Through her work connecting Fredonia students to local businesses and non-profits, McNamara brings an experiential approach that allows students to apply their academic learning through critical thinking to deal with a community need or business challenge. Under her leadership, Enactus at Fredonia has grown from 10 to 77 members including students in 19 different majors. To date, 130 local organizations have worked with business capstone students to solve a strategic challenge or opportunity. McNamara has also worked with 15 student researchers and coached 25 student entrepreneurs for Regional Entrepreneurship business plan competitions.

Formal invitations for the Chamber Annual Meeting will be mailed to all Chamber member businesses. For more information about the event or the chamber, call 716-484-1101.

The program is entitled From Baby Boomers to Millennials: The Challenge and the Opportunity.

The County Planning Board, local educators, County, and local officials will gather together to hear Katie Geise, Executive Director of Chautauqua Works and John Slenker, Labor Analyst with the New York State Department of Labor, present on the generational shifts in employment that are taking place and how it is affecting Chautauqua County.

For more information on the event, contact the Chautauqua County Department of Planning & Economic Development at 716-661-8922.