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Mark Dvorak/GolinHarris 

Mark Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA, is an executive director in the Atlanta office of GolinHarris. His 23-year career has spanned agency, government and nonprofit – including stints as chief marketing officer at the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and a public information officer for the City of New Orleans. During his career Mark’s teams launched United Way 2-1-1 – the nation’s three-digit phone number for community services and involvement – and helped drive a resumption of consumption of peanuts following a 2009 salmonella outbreak.

Mark served as president of the Georgia Chapter in 2002, leading the creation of special interest groups to provide more industry-specific programming and networking for members. He is currently an assembly delegate for the chapter. Nationally, Mark has been a member of both the Universal Accreditation Board and the Task Force for the Business Case for PR. He earned a master’s degree in journalism administration from the University of Memphis and a bachelor’s degree in communications and history from Loyola University New Orleans.

Austin Dickson/Literacy Action

Austin Dickson is the executive director of Literacy Action, the oldest, largest, and leading adult basic education nonprofit in the Southeast. There he leads management, fundraising, and advocacy efforts for the 45-year old organization. Literacy Action is a grassroots driver of economic development and provides various levels of educational services to advance adults towards employment, better wages, technical college, and the University System.

A Texas native and TCU graduate, Austin earned master’s degrees in religion from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Emory University. He also holds a Master of Public Policy from Georgia Tech. Austin has taught philosophy at Clayton State University since 2008.

Austin is deeply engaged in community work. He currently serves in a leadership role at the East Lake Family YMCA and at several startup nonprofits, including the Atlanta Music Project, L’Arche Atlanta, and Community Farmers Markets – operating the Grant Park, East Atlanta Village, and Decatur farmers markets. He calls bingo every month at the senior center in his East Atlanta neighborhood.

After his tenure as the president of the East Atlanta Community Association (2010-2011), the community received DeKalb County’s Ernest Prather Neighborhood Award, which recognizes best practices in community development. Austin is a member of Leadership Atlanta’s LEAD Class of 2012 and the Leadership DeKalb Class of 2013. He was named to Georgia Trend magazine’s 2013 “40 Under 40: Best and Brightest” and named a 2014 “Young Gamechanger” by GeorgiaForward.

Dick Jones/Jones Simply Sales, LLC 

Dick Jones is the Founder & President of Jones Simply Sales, LLC. As a 4th generation sales professional, he has over 30 years of experience advising, coaching, consulting and working with small business owners.

He started his business career in 1980 with IBM where he spent the majority of his time working with small businesses in sales, sales management and management consulting positions. He joined Deloitte in 1996 where he was responsible for national sales operations and managing a 300-person sales force, and also held several senior business development and relationship management roles.

In 2012 Dick founded Jones Simply Sales to help small business owners to grow revenue by leveraging the power of technology tools and management systems.

Dick grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Brown University before stepping into the business world. He has resided in the metro Atlanta area for the past 23 years, is an avid marathon runner, and when he is not working or training he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, and volunteers his time working with local nonprofit organizations.