Sallie Hemenway, CEcD
Director, Division of Business and Community Services
Sallie is the Director of the Division of Business and Community Services (BCS) in the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED). She graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1981 and received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She was provided a Fannie Mae fellowship and attended the State and Local Executives Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and has attained her Professional Economic and Community Developer status (CEcD) from the International Economic Development Council and the National Development Council Housing Finance Professional certification.
Sallie’s start in disaster recovery began by coordinating Missouri DED’s role in the large buyout program implemented after the flooding events of 1993 and 1994 when Congress made significant supplemental Community Development Block Grant funds available for voluntary acquisition and relocation. The partnership formed with SEMA and FEMA has lasted these 20 years providing for continued use of the buyouts as a solution for many Missouri communities and families. In 2003, after tornadoes devastated Stockton and Pierce City, Missouri DED’s role in long term disaster recovery evolved by further defining how resources and funding could work together, and in 2011 Sallie was positioned in Joplin at the Missouri Resource Center to work with the city and local organizations on long term recovery activities.
