EDASC welcomes two new employees

In the last two months, we have welcomed as many new employees to EDASC. Shaun Gibbs started at the beginning of March and is our Economic Development Manager for Business Recruitment, Retention and Expansion. Ellen Hiatt started May 1 and is our External Relations Specialist. With their addition, EDASC is fully staffed, and we couldn’t be happier to have them both aboard.

Shaun most recently served as the executive director for the South Coast Development Council, Inc., in Coos Bay, Oregon. He joined that organization in 2015 as an economic development specialist and was promoted to the executive director role in 2019.

In his role at EDASC, Gibbs will be responsible for business recruitment, retention and expansion - mainstays of economic development work. In that capacity, he will work with existing Skagit businesses to help clear obstacles to success, and field or develop leads for appropriate enterprises to locate in Skagit County. 

Ellen comes to EDASC with a background in communications, marketing and fund development. She most recently served as Communications & Development Director for Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, a role that brought her back to Skagit County, where she once worked in the bulb and spinach seed fields as a high school student. 

In her role at EDASC, Hiatt will be responsible for engaging with EDASC investors and prospective investors as well as participants, sponsors, volunteers and alumni of the Leadership Skagit program.

"In completing our roster at EDASC, we have been extremely fortunate to find two such experienced, hardworking and delightful individuals,” said EDASC CEO John Sternlicht. “We have already begun to reap the benefits and know we will be able to accomplish so much more for our community with Shaun and Ellen on board.”

Contact Shaun Gibbs: shaun@skagit.org
Contact Ellen Hiatt: ellen@skagit.org