Dasinger, 2018 Woman Of The Year

Katie Dasinger, the program coordinator for Richland Economic Development Corp, has been selected as the 2018 Woman of the Year by the Montana Young Professionals, a coalition of roughly a dozen local chapters across the state. Dasinger has worked for Richland Economic Development Corp for five years and has been instrumental in various initiatives to help assist the economic flourishing of Richland County.

The Roundup spoke with Dasinger and also with Leslie Messer, the Executive Director of Richland Economic Development Corp, about Dasinger's award and the work and effort that she has put into her efforts.

Speaking of the 2018 Conference where she received the award, Dasinger said, "This is the third conference over-all for the Montana Young Professionals and second one that I have attended, and it was held up in Butte. Every year a different city in Montana gets the summit and they put together two days of networking, keynote speakers, and small breakout groups to help with networking, leadership, civil engagement or whatever you choose in order to help meet other young professionals so we can continue to help Montana grow east, west, north and south. This year they did awards and I was lucky enough to be nominated and chosen for Woman of the Year."

Regarding the award selection process, Messer explained, "The Montana Economic Developers sent out a Google poll and they asked, since we are the ones helping with community development and working with entrepreneurs and working for economic development, to please vote for young professionals. And so, I nominated Katie for Young Professional of the Year. I explained that Katie wanted to do something different."

Much of Dasinger's work has been through Richland Economic Development Corp, an organization that was founded in 1987. It is designed to help business owners and entrepreneurs in the county, and is funded by a combination of county and city funds, as well as from private businesses and individuals with a vested interest in the long-term economic health of the region.

Messer went on to explain that Dasinger has worked faithfully in their organization for nearly five years, that she saw there was a need to connect young entrepreneurs and professionals together, how she worked with young professionals in Montana and North Dakota to establish their own network in Richland County, and how she spearheaded the taskforce that created the Sidney Young Professionals and now serves as the President of the Sidney Young Professionals.

Messer said, "Dasinger has been instrumental in leading all of these different things in the last two years, like winter clothing drives, entrepreneurial business panels where young professionals can speak to experienced entrepreneurs, speed-networking, mayoral debates, candidate forums, round table topic discussions, work force empowerment forums and several different area tours like Sidney Sugars, the Irrigation Project and the hospital. Those are just a few of them."

Dasinger, who is originally from Denver, is married to local resident Kaleb Dasinger, and has been in Sidney for about seven years.

Dasigner said, "It's been fantastic. Sidney and Richland Economic Development have been fantastic about really supporting our organization as we've gotten it off the ground and tried to make a positive impact."