Whitesburg’s Kendall Ison has been named vice-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP).

Ison, 68, is also a member of the board of directors of the LKLP Community Action Council and the Cowan County Community Action Group, and serves on LKLP’s Head Start Policy Council and Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s Local Advisory Council.

Ison has had a long career in public service, with an emphasis on worker relations. Ison taught at Cowan Elementary School, worked at the Department of Human Resources in Letcher County supervising all public assistance programs, worked for 30 years for the United Mine Workers of America Health & Retirement Funds determining eligibility of benefits for UMWA miners and at retirement was working as the Director of Provider Relations negotiating healthcare contracts for UMWA Beneficiaries.
  
“I am aware of the great need for employee job training and employer requirements in our area and to be part of a group that brings services to meet those needs to eastern Kentucky is rewarding to me,” Ison said.

Jeff Whitehead, executive director of EKCEP, said, “We are grateful to have dedicated and committed community leaders like Mr. Ison who are willing to serve eastern Kentucky.”

For more than 40 years EKCEP has operated programs that develop and train Eastern Kentucky workers. EKCEP administers Workforce Investment Act programs that provide needed services to adults and young people in 23 eastern Kentucky counties, working in close collaboration with a wide range of partners that includes community action agencies, area community colleges and regional universities, and state agencies. EKCEP also operates the JobSight network of workforce centers throughout eastern Kentucky.