New Chamber of Commerce President
Special to The Bolivar Bullet
Jeffrey Farris is the new President of the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce. The gavel was officially passed by Past President Cheryl Comans at the Annual Banquet held at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi on September 20.
Farris is a native of Morton, Mississippi, and graduated from Brandon High School in 2000. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Delta State University. He began his professional career as an Admissions Counselor at Delta State and subsequently served as Assistant Alumni Director in the school’s Alumni and Foundation Office. In 2008, Farris was named Director of Alumni Affairs, and in October 2018, he was named Director of Development for the Delta State Foundation. In April of 2019, he joined the Guaranty Bank & Trust Company team as VP/Relationship Banker.
Farris will preside over the Chamber of Commerce board of directors, which recently held its annual plan of work meeting. The meeting was facilitated by Chris Hinton, Community Development Manager for Entergy Mississippi, where the board and its facilitator focused on implementation of the Chamber Strategic Plan, developed in 2020. The executive board identified key focus areas within the Strategic Plan to put into action over the next two years during Farris’ presidency. Many of the action items focused on economic retention, growth, and expansion, as well as advocating for the Cleveland and Bolivar County region in the new business development sector.
“It’s vital to involve the entire board on implementing the strategic plan,” stated Jeffrey Farris. “The board taking ownership of the strategic plan is how we will implement the plan to accomplish our goals in 2021-2022.”
Farris currently serves as Past President of the Mississippi Tennis Association’s Board of Directors and President of the Tennis Foundation of Mississippi. He served as Past President on both the boards of the former Cleveland-Bolivar County United Way and the Cleveland Noon Lions Club. In the past, Farris has served on the Crosstie Arts Council Board as its Membership Chair. Farris is also a past member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals MS Chapter and volunteers for Make-A-Wish MS in a fundraising capacity. Farris has been involved with the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce for 8 years.
He and his wife, Stephanie, reside in Cleveland with sons Keegan (8) and Nicholas (3). The Farrises attend First United Methodist Church.