May 13, 2008

Ashley Swearengin, director of the Office of Community and Economic Development at Fresno State, has been appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Commission for Economic Development.

The commission serves as a bipartisan advisory board on economic development issues to the governor and Legislature.

Swearengin has been executive director for the Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED) at California State University, Fresno since 2000. She works with industry and community leaders and, as well as with elected and economic development officials in an eight-county area to improve telecommunications infrastructure, rural development, entrepreneurship and leadership development.

OCED is part of the Division of Academic Affairs and links the university's intellectual power to innovation-driven economic development initiatives to improve the competitiveness and prosperity of the region.

Swearengin also has served as chief operating officer of the Fresno Regional Jobs Initiative since 2003, directing a comprehensive community and economic development strategy to create 30,000 new jobs in the Fresno area by 2009.

In 2006, she was named lead executive for the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, a public-private partnership initiated by Gov. Schwarzenegger. On these projects, she provides a major link between the university and its partners in local industry.

Before joining OCED, Swearengin was director of the Central Valley Business Incubator Inc., a nonprofit business and technical assistance program for new businesses in Fresno.

She is a board member of the Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development Community Development Corporation, the Fresno Citizens for Good Government Board of Directors and the Fresno Business Council.

The commission position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary.