At the 2026 Rural Renaissance Roadshow — At the Data Center Crossroads: Land, Energy, Water, and The Future of Rural Power — Groundswell will open that conversation by honoring three leaders whose work demonstrates the power of communities to shape change on their own terms. The Rural Power Awards recognize people who help translate local priorities into meaningful action—by creating stronger community benefits from major investments, connecting people and places with resources and opportunity, and ensuring voices too often left out of national conversations are heard.
Yinka N. Bode-George
Founder and CEO of the Sustain Our Future Foundation (SOFF)
Bode-George is recognized for building approaches that connect large-scale renewable-energy and sustainability infrastructure development with meaningful, locally defined community benefit. Through Sustain Our Future Foundation, she works across corporations, developers, governments, and communities to structure strategies that support community participation, place-based investment, community-led grantmaking, shared value, and long-term resilience.
Before founding SOFF, Bode-George led the community-impact practice at Volt Energy Utility, where she piloted a renewable-energy and community-benefits framework with Microsoft and Volt that connected corporate climate commitments with community-defined prosperity and resilience. Her work reflects a central idea behind the Rural Power Awards: communities should not simply host major infrastructure investments; they should have a meaningful role in defining how those investments create lasting local value.
Scott Hamilton
President & CEO of the Urban League of the State of Arkansas
Hamilton spent approximately 28 years working in various energy-related fields across the country, including professional roles in Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Houston, Texas. A Little Rock native who began his professional career in the energy industry, Hamilton returned to Arkansas in 2011 and assumed leadership of the state’s Energy Department before later taking the helm of the Urban League of the State of Arkansas.
Today, Hamilton leads an organization focused on advancing economic and social prosperity for Arkansans by expanding access to opportunity through advocacy, community partnerships, programs, and services. His leadership reflects a model of local power grounded in connecting community needs with the institutions and resources capable of addressing them.
Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock Tribes)
Journalist and former Editor of Indian Country Today
Trahant, a citizen of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, is recognized for more than five decades of journalism that has brought Indigenous perspectives, public policy, and questions of Tribal self-determination into broader public discourse. He led the revival of Indian Country Today after the news organization stopped publishing, helping rebuild it into the multimedia nonprofit now known as ICT and expanding its coverage of Indigenous communities across North America.
Through reporting, commentary, moderation, and public dialogue, Trahant has helped broaden understanding of sovereignty not only as a legal or political concept but as a question of who has the authority to make decisions about resources, infrastructure, economies, and community futures. In 2025, the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University awarded Trahant the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence in recognition of his lifelong journalism and commitment to Native American storytelling.
Together, the 2026 Rural Power Awardees remind us that communities are not simply places where change happens—they are leaders in deciding what change should look like, who should benefit, and what should be protected along the way.
Join us November 4 in Decatur, Alabama, as we celebrate this year’s honorees during the opening night of the Rural Renaissance Roadshow, followed by two days of conversations examining the choices rural communities face at the intersection of land, energy, water, infrastructure, and economic opportunity.
Join us at the 2026 Rural Renaissance Roadshow.
November 4–6, 2026 | Decatur, Alabama
Bring Your Experience to the Conversation
If you are a local elected official, utility or energy leader, economic development professional, community leader, landowner, or someone helping shape the future of rural communities, the Rural Renaissance Roadshow is an opportunity to connect with peers and explore how communities are navigating growth, infrastructure, affordability, resilience, and local economic opportunity.
The Roadshow brings together leaders and practitioners with different perspectives to share experience, build relationships, and better understand the choices rural communities face at the Data Center Crossroads. We hope you’ll join the conversation and bring your own experience, questions, and perspective to the table.
November 4–6, 2026
Cook Museum of Natural Science
Decatur, Alabama
