By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
“All leaders are learners.” – Rick Warren.
Today we’ll meet a young man who is leading the economic development effort in his county while working with other organizations to help learn more about effective rural development.
Eli Svaty is the executive director of the Seward County Development Corporation and recent president of the Western Kansas Rural Economic Development Alliance. Svaty grew up on a farm near Ellsworth. He was active in the community, including community theater, and earned a degree in English from Sterling College.
After graduating from college in 2006, he was back home when he heard from his cousin who had taken a teaching position at Liberal. She told him that Liberal High School was looking for English teachers and encouraged him to apply even though he didn’t have certification.
Svaty applied and was told he could have the job if he completed a brief teacher certification program at Fort Hays State. In a matter of days, he was teaching in the classroom.
A few months later, as Svaty was thinking of moving on, his cousin told him about a young woman named Marilyn that she wanted him to meet. The cousin was also working on a production of the musical Oklahoma for the community theater.
Svaty told his cousin that if she would cast him in the musical’s leading man role and Marilyn in the leading female role, he would stay. Not only did they star in the production, they fell in love and got married.
What a great cousin to have.
Svaty found he loved teaching. He earned a master’s degree from Fort Hays State and became department chair at Liberal High.
Later, the Seward County Development Corporation was created. In fall 2019, Svaty became its first executive director. Shortly thereafter, the pandemic hit.
“Fortunately, my Board wasn’t expecting us to land a big new factory overnight,” Svaty said. He started working on supporting and building small businesses in the community. He now considers small business growth one of his greatest accomplishments.
“With support from NetWork Kansas, K-State Research and Extension and other partners, we built a network of entrepreneurial support,” Svaty said. Small business activity has grown. In January 2022, he added a bilingual director of entrepreneurship to his office staff.
Over time, the office was able to foster new large-scale industrial projects as well, such as an innovative cellulosic ethanol plant.
Seward County includes the county seat of Liberal and the rural community of Kismet, population 332 people. Now, that’ s rural. For more information about Seward County, go to www.swks.org.
In 2022, Svaty was selected for the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership program. He valued the experience.
“It was awesome to see different businesses and communities around the state,” Svaty said. He was pleased class members saw the huge scope of agribusiness in southwest Kansas.
Among many other things, his KARL class was also able to participate in the Gettysburg Leadership Experience at the historic Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania and take an international tour to Spain.
In 2023, Svaty was elected president of the Western Kansas Rural Economic Development Alliance. That organization provides advocacy, education and peer support for economic developers in the western half of the state. The group meets quarterly in such rural communities as Harper, Osborne and Lincoln.
“It was a great resource to learn what other communities are doing. I gained a real appreciation for all the behind-the-scenes work that went in to hosting events in those communities,” Svaty said.
Svaty has developed a great appreciation for the lifestyle of southwest Kansas. “Things here are done on a grand scale but with midwestern humility,” Svaty said. “Once (the life here) hooks you in, you don’t want to leave.”
Svaty is especially thankful for his opportunities to grow. “I’m a learner at heart,” he said.
Leaders are learners. We salute Eli Svaty of the Seward County Development Corporation for making a difference in personal and professional growth with the KARL program and in leading the WKREDA organization.
His performance is evidence that leaders are learners, and learners can be leaders.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
