Blue Ridge Community and Technical College provided leadership at Gat Creek Furniture from June 4, 2026, through July 29, 2026, at its Morgan County Center. The leadership development series provided training for manufacturing leads. The training was specifically geared toward the topics and situations manufacturing leads face daily. It aimed to provide practical solutions that could be implemented immediately in the manufacturing setting. 

The training concluded with a completion ceremony and celebration on July 29th, attended by plant supervisors and administration. The celebration featured a cake made by the Blue Ridge CTC culinary team, featuring the Gat Creek logo. Participants said the training “gave good takeaways to use on the production floor,” “gave details on how to implement ideas and solutions to issues facing leads in the field,” “great information to continue growing as a person,” and “the class was very helpful, immediately able to be put in practice.” 

Participants included Marvin Gillespie, Misty Ratcliff, Helen Steiner, Garrett Carrier, CJ Shaffer, Zechariah Miller, Daniel Glynn, Michael Bland, Melanie Dodson, and Ethan Wolinski. The training was led by Blue Ridge CTC trainers Sheri Williams and Cynthia Hull-Miller, both of whom have manufacturing experience. 

Blue Ridge CTC Career Advancement Education and Customized Training provides training for small- to medium-sized companies. For more information, contact Kimberly Moss (kmoss@blueridgectc.edu), Director of Customized Training.