Book Background

Media Kit

Rebooting Local Economies: How to Build Prosperous Communities

A prosperous future for your community is in your hands!

Make your community a better place to live, work and play!

Why do some communities thrive and grow while others struggle and decline? Smart communities know how to attract and nurture the kinds of businesses and organizations they want to create a vibrant economy and higher quality of life.

The more that elected officials and all residents know about community and economic development the more the community will prosper. How to Build Prosperous Communities is a practical guide to help communities reach their goals for prosperity. Numerous examples throughout the book show how communities and regions of all sizes have attained and maintained prosperity in a constantly changing environment.

The book is based on the authors’ years of experience helping communities and regions across the country and around the world create their roadmaps to prosperity with better jobs, improved public services, and enhanced amenities.

Media Contacts:

Amanda Sutt
Creative Director & CEO, Rock Paper Scissors
678-442-1825
amanda@123shoot.com

Robert H. Pittman
Executive Director and Founder, Janus Institute
404-431-1255
rpittman@janusinstitute.org

Rebooting Local Economies Mockup - Stacked
Robert Pittman [Square]

Robert Pittman

Robert Pittman is an award-winning consultant, teacher, and author in the field of community and economic development. His clients have included diverse communities, regions, and states, and leading companies in the US and abroad.

Rhonda Phillips

Rhonda Phillips

Rhonda Phillips is a community well-being, development, and planning specialist with experience in the private and public sectors. She is a three-time Fulbright award recipient and member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Amanda Sutt, Creative Director, Business Coach, and CEO of Rock Paper Scissors

Amanda Sutt

Amanda Sutt is creative director, business coach, and CEO of Rock Paper Scissors, a branding and marketing firm that specializes in serving community and economic development agencies.

Don't Take Our Word for It

“Using real-world examples blended with just the right amount of academic research, “Rebooting Local Economies” is the equivalent of a master class in how to build a prosperous community. If you are an economic developer of an American community in need of a turnaround at any level, Robert Pittman, Rhonda Phillips and Amanda Sutt have done the homework for you and produced a blueprint for success. They have distilled the work of community development and improvement to its essence, and they have documented the results that inevitably follow when this recipe is followed. I encourage every elected community official, city manager and economic developer in the U.S. to read this manual. It’s the best book on this topic I have read in a very long time.”

- Ron Starner, Executive Vice President, Site Selection Magazine and Conway, Inc.,
Atlanta, Georgia

“Rebooting Local Economies: How to Build Prosperous Communities provides real life stories that can put you on a path to building a more prosperous community. If you’re an elected official, board member, community volunteer or citizen who aspires to live in a prosperous community, Rebooting Local Economies: How to Build Prosperous Communities is a must read.”

- Glenn McCullough, Jr., Former Mayor, Tupelo, Mississippi,Chairman - Tennessee Valley Authority, Executive Director Mississippi Development Authority

“You have done almost an impossible task of creating a really concise guide for community development. The case studies are particularly interesting – and compelling.” “Strategic planning has long been associated with successful organizations; much time and energy have been devoted to creating plans that, for one reason or another, fail to be implemented. In How to Build Prosperous Communities, community leaders are offered a roadmap to community prosperity that can be achieved by breaking the process into manageable components. The incorporation of important topics for consideration, including impacts from the global health pandemic, as well as contemporary case studies of communities with diverse populations, will provide individuals a masterful approach to changing the culture of their communities in dramatic fashion.”