The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley Alys, left, and Brad D. Smith speak about the Ascend West Virginia program during the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber’s Awards & Dinner event this week. To see photos and an article about the awards ceremony, turn to page B1.

ELKINS – Brad D. and Alys Smith, the president and first lady of Marshall University, came to Elkins to speak about the Ascend West Virginia program this week.

The couple were the guest speakers at the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber’s annual Dinner & Awards event Wednesday evening.

Brad Smith, who was the chief executive officer of Intuit from 2008 to 2018, was named president of Marshall, his alma mater, in October 2021. Last year, Forbes magazine ranked him as the wealthiest person in West Virginia, worth $700 million, passing Gov. Jim Justice.

Alys Smith is an attorney who previously worked for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, and currently serves as a Guardian Ad Litem representing the best interests of children in abuse and neglect cases across West Virginia.

The couple returned to West Virginia to “give back,” they told the crowd at the Chamber dinner this week.

“We traded a profession for a purpose. That’s what it feels like to be back at Marshall University,” Brad Smith said.

“In 2018, we started the Wing 2 Wing Foundation,” he said. “Our foundation is focused on leveling the playing field of opportunity in Appalachia for all of those who have the aspiration and the grit to try.

“West Virginia has been one of the only states to suffer 50 years of consecutive population decline. We said, ‘That is a strategic problem that could be solved.’

“We wondered, ‘Who is solving this?’ We came across programs across the country … Tulsa, Oklahoma had Tulsa Remote … We discovered that they were paying people to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s an amazing community and city, and it has bike trails. And we said, ‘Well, we may have more than bike trails,'” he noted.

“We came back and talked about it at the Greenbrier, and then WVU, our dear friends, said, ‘Would you come up and visit us, and tell us about this story?,’ and we did. And in that audience was Danny Twilley and others. And they said, ‘We have the same aspiration. Why don’t we partner together? But we know you’re from Marshall.’ And we said, ‘Hey, we would love to support WVU, because blue and gold make green.’

“And then the state of West Virginia leaned in, with the Department of Tourism, Chelsea Ruby, and collectively we began to study the best practices of all the other programs. On April 12, 2021, which was the 50th anniversary of John Denver’s release of ‘Country Roads,’ we announced Ascend West Virginia, which has now become the nation’s premier remote workforce program. With a 96.5% retention rate, and it’s continuing to grow,” he said.

The program offers more than $20,000 in incentives to those wishing to relocate and make West Virginia their new home. Applicants wishing to be a part of Ascend’s remote worker program must meet a list of requirements. Those who are selected receive $12,000 as well as free passes to some of the state’s top outdoor destinations.

Elkins was chosen as one of the Ascend West Virginia program’s locations in November 2022, and is currently one of the program’s five locations.

Ascend West Virginia Director Emily Huguenin told The Inter-Mountain last August that

the program had 3,000 applications from people interested in moving to the Elkins area.

“I will tell you, Elkins was always at the very top of the list,” Brad Smith said at the Chamber dinner. “We had to work through some things to make sure we had all of our ‘i’s’ dotted and our ‘t’s’ crossed, and we’re so happy to be here now. We had 22 Ascenders, not counting family members, with 35 total, and we have 15 more in the pipeline. And you can’t imagine the line of people wanting to get to Elkins, which is awesome.”

Alys Smith noted, “I think the secret sauce is who we have right here,” pointing to one of the evening’s moderators, Jessica Sutton, who serves as the Greater Elkins Area Experience Coordinator for Ascend WV.

“When you have a leader on the ground to collaborate with all the Ascenders and help them through their journey, help them network with the community and find each other and find all the fun things to do,” Alys Smith added.

“If you were to move to a new place, and you knew no one, what would make you feel comfortable and part of a new community? It would be someone that could connect you with all the fun things, all the necessary things, all the new trends, get you connected to all the businesses. And who knows, maybe you might want to start your own business.”

In 2015, Brad and Alys Smith donated $10 million to establish a scholarship fund aimed at assisting students residing in underserved communities.

Later, the couple donated an additional $25 million to Marshall’s school of business – launching the Brad D. Smith Student Incubator.