John Ed Pennington of Manchester has been named chairman of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP).

Pennington, 66, has served on the EKCEP board for seven years. He also serves as a member of the Manchester City Council, the president of the Tri-County NAACP, and the vice chairman of the Daniel Boone Development Association. He is a past chairman of the Cumberland Valley Area Development District.

Pennington retired as a maintenance foreman after 33 years with the Kentucky Department of Transportation and is currently a state fire and rescue instructor.

Pennington said he is excited to be able to serve the region by leading the EKCEP board.

“EKCEP constantly exceeds expectations, and being a part of that is good for all of our communities,” he said.

He noted that EKCEP continually proves itself to be a positive force for workforce development with such projects as its “Let’s Go 2 Work” initiative, which put more than 3,000 young people to work in summer jobs last year and pumped over $6 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) wages into the eastern Kentucky economy.

Jeff Whitehead, executive director of EKCEP, said, “We are grateful to have dedicated and committed community leaders like Mr. Pennington 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.