The National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) is thrilled to announce that Sylandi Brown has joined the association’s Board of Directors, effective June 15. At its quarterly meeting in Denver, Colorado last week, the board voted unanimously to appoint Sylandi to fill a vacancy.
Sylandi is the Marketing and Communications Specialist for Middle Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), a rural electric cooperative serving 4,800 members in central Georgia, where she is responsible for educating and promoting the cooperative’s positions, policies, programs and opportunities to members, employees, news media and the general public.
Sylandi’s introduction to cooperatives began when she represented Middle Georgia EMC on the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)’s Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in 2016. She was subsequently elected the Georgia Youth Leadership Council representative and was later selected the 2017 NRECA Youth National Spokesperson. Recently, she served as the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)’s Assistant Event Manager for the 33rd World Cooperative Congress in Seoul, Korea, with her co-op story being featured in ICA’s 25 Voices Campaign and Co-op News Magazine in Europe. Her combined experiences at the local, statewide, national and international level have strengthened her commitment to serving cooperatives and building a robust talent pipeline in cooperative enterprises.
Sylandi holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication with an emphasis in Organizational Communication, and is a student in the University of Georgia’s Industrial-Organizational Psychology Master’s Program. Within her program, she has focused her studies on how socially responsible businesses like cooperatives can build a competitive advantage in today’s labor markets. Sylandi proudly serves as a board member of the Hawkinsville-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce and the Beneficial Electrification League (BEL) National Electric School Bus Advisory Board.