MaryO Ratcliffe, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Engagement for YMCA of Western North Carolina, on how relationships and curiosity have shaped her career.

Bettina Roden Saylor has spent the past several years figuring out how to grow a company while creating jobs that pay well, treating employees with respect, and protecting time for her own family.

Foothills Watershed in Old Fort is expanding its mountain biking terrain with the addition of the Back 80, a second phase that brings the bike park to nearly 120 acres and takes riders higher and deeper into the surrounding mountains.

At the August Caldwell County Board of Commissioners Meeting, Public Library Director Janet Fore reported significant increases in circulation and programming.

For many members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the destruction of Hurricane Helene extended beyond physical workplaces. Artists lost tools essential to their livelihoods, collections built over decades and the communities that had formed around their studios.

The restaurant technology platform FetchMe has announced an expansion into the Greater Greenville, Spartanburg and Asheville areas, naming Derrick Talbert as Senior Market Account Executive for the region.

The Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County (EDC) has been named “Economic Development Organization of the Year” by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

For the Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement (ABLA), recognizing that Western North Carolina residents occupy the ancestral lands of the Cherokee people is meant to be a beginning, not an end.

IFB Solutions creates employment opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired and operates a busy production facility in Asheville, NC.

At Pink Dog Gallery in Asheville’s River Arts District, Common Ground Rising is on view through Sunday, September 20. The exhibition brings together more than a dozen artists whose works address war, political division, authoritarianism, climate change, censorship and the search for shared humanity.

The Community Colleges of Appalachia (CCA) has partnerships with Western Governors University (WGU) and Franklin University that address one of the region’s most persistent educational challenges: helping students complete bachelor’s degrees witho...

Good Jobs Western North Carolina is a coalition spanning 23 counties that brings together 11 community colleges, employers, foundations, workforce boards, and national nonprofit America Achieves with a shared goal of connecting residents to stable...

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College recently received more than $1.04 million in grant funding to launch ABM Works, a regional work-based learning ecosystem serving Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools, and Madison County Sch...

This year, 44 farm businesses across the region received a combined $440,000 through the WNC AgOptions program.

Researchers with the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative are exploring how advanced imaging and artificial intelligence could help apple growers in Henderson County.

The nonprofit ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) has released a new five-year strategic plan, taking stock of the changing realities facing Western North Carolina’s agricultural economy—from rising costs and federal policy shifts t...

For Megan Brown and Chris Allen, co-owners of Waynesville Soda Jerks, the overlap between marriage and business creates a level of trust that simplifies many decisions.

The Open Space Institute and Mainspring Conservation Trust recently completed the $23.3 million acquisition of 17 separate parcels in Cherokee, Graham and Swain counties. Together, the properties connect more than 1.65 million acres of protected lands.

HiViz LED Lighting in Fletcher designs and manufactures lighting and safety systems for fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles through its brands FireTech, Redline, and Whirl-E-Bird.

The WNC Bigfoot Festival returns to downtown Marion on Saturday, August 29, with a full day of music, educational programming, vendors and family activities centered around the legendary creature.