Lafayette, LA (December 11, 2025) – The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) has selected Chad M. LaComb, Director of the Office of Innovation Management at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL), as one of 33 community leaders from eight states to participate in the 2026 Delta Leadership Institute (DLI) Executive Academy – increasing the University’s resources and impact on Louisiana’s economic development.
The DRA was created to support economic development, infrastructure, workforce training, health, and overall regional well-being across the Lower Mississippi Delta and surrounding areas. Their DLI Executive Academy is a five-month, highly selective development program that brings together industry leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to learn from local, regional, and national experts on how to improve workforce and economic development across the Delta region.
LaComb’s selection into the DRA’s prestigious DLI Executive Academy, a program reserved for regional innovators committed to economic revitalization and community advancement, offers UL the opportunity to strengthen its influence at the Delta region’s highest levels of policymaking, infrastructure planning, and workforce development, which demonstrate UL’s continued commitment to statewide progress…