OXFORD – Five months into his tenure as CEO of the Oxford Lafayette Economic Development Foundation, Ryan Miller said the organization is entering a “season of recalibration” as it develops a master plan for the coming years.
Miller is a familiar face in Oxford. He graduated from Ole Miss in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the Croft Institute. He received his law degree and license in 2008. He led CME from its founding in 2008 through 2021 and subsequently served as executive director of Accelerate Mississippi.
But then came the call from home.
“I felt confident that I would continue in that role for a while until the opportunity arose to return to Oxford,” Miller said. “I met my wife here, all three of our children were born here in Oxford, and my father is buried here. So this is truly my home. So when the opportunity arose to serve in that capacity, in a place that I loved, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
The board of Oxford Lafayette EDF was looking for someone to lead them through the dynamic economic landscape of the 21st century and found that in Miller.
At CME, Miller helped students map out a path to professional careers.
“When I was a student, it was often just as helpful to figure out what you don’t want to do as what you do want to do, and it was always a pleasure to shadow students as they explored different career paths, and the CME was certainly unique in that it gave students skills they otherwise wouldn’t have had access to in an interdisciplinary environment,” Miller said. “I think that set me up for some semblance of success at Accelerate.”
At Accerate, Miller wanted to make the state’s scattered workforce development efforts work more collaboratively to improve the prospects of attracting more and better-paying jobs. And that effort meant
“We have some great industrial partners in the state, and most of the manufacturers are not Toyota-sized companies. We love them, Nissan, Yokohama, Ingalls Shipbuilding, but most of the employers in Mississippi are small, often mom-and-pop companies,” he said.
Miller said the state spent $300 million to $350 million on workforce development and training. But he felt there wasn’t much coordination among the scattered efforts.
“There was no single lens through which we could focus all of our attention and resources,” Miller said. “The biggest challenge I found was that there are a lot of entities out there doing great things. But it sometimes felt like we were all running in different directions with our own flags attacking our own hills, when if we spent more time organizing and coordinating, we could, and we have to a large extent done so — and we will continue to do so under Courtney Taylor — have a more coordinated effort that will see a greater return on investment on the dollars that are spent both federally and state-wise. There’s a lot more to be done, but I felt like I left a good foundation.”
It may have been difficult for Miller to leave his job, but Oxford and Lafayette County provided an attractive reason to return.
“This community is one of the most unique places, and I’ve lived everywhere from Anchorage, Alaska to Washington, D.C.; Monterrey, California; I was born in Texas, so I’ve lived in some amazing places my whole life,” he said. “But the uniqueness of Lafayette County, the relationship between the university and the community itself, the opportunities here are so different than in other communities.”
When the Oxford Lafayette EDF board began looking for someone to better coordinate economic development efforts, Miller was the obvious choice. His role at Accelerate Mississippi was to coordinate and focus workforce training and development, and he saw a similar need in Lafayette County.
“My job is to serve the university, the city and the region in a collaborative way and unite the vision of what we think economic development needs,” he said.
As the university continues to attract record numbers of freshmen and more retirees move to the city, it’s clear that Oxford and Lafayette County are experiencing an economic revival.
Unemployment is at record lows, with Lafayette County’s unemployment rate last month at 2.8%, the third lowest in the state. The city of Oxford has a slightly lower unemployment rate of 2.7%.
The university drives a large portion of the city and county economy, Miller said. There are also opportunities to develop regional partnerships. Expanding the industrial footprint is certainly a possibility in a community where the university and Baptist Memorial Hospital are the largest employers. Olin Winchester is also a large employer with about 1,400 employees.
“I think we’re going to see more growth in a regional capacity that we need to be prepared for,” Miller said. “I think what’s going to drive the economy in Oxford and Lafayette County going forward is better relationships and partnerships with some of our neighboring counties to take advantage of that growth.”
Miller believes the healthcare industry will only grow in the future, especially in the community that is seeing an influx of retirees whose needs will increase in the future. He also sees a data-driven economy growing, especially with recent developments in the state. Tesla founder Elon Musk is building the world’s largest supercomputer in Memphis and Amazon Web Services is building two data centers near Jackson.
“We have EdgeTheory here on campus, an AI-based company, and I think you’re going to see more of that, especially with that supercomputing power in Memphis and the data centers in Jackson,” he said. “I think you’re going to see much more of a domino effect in those data-driven industries that I think we can position ourselves for.”
Miller said growth is a good thing in and of itself and he wants to develop a long-term vision for the LOU community.
“We need to focus more on who we want to be in the next 5, 10, 15 years,” he said.
To achieve that goal, Miller and Oxford Lafayette EDF have put a plan into motion, a plan to recalibrate the situation.
“We’re about to enter a strategic planning season,” Miller said. “It’s a season of recalibration … We haven’t developed and implemented a real strategic plan in a long time … We can’t be all things to all sectors of the industry, and we shouldn’t be. That’s where these partnerships come into play. If we work together, we can better understand the jigsaw puzzle that is North Mississippi’s economic footprint. It’s about being very aware of our strengths and weaknesses and knowing who we’re approaching and the size and scope of what they’re doing.”
