Cornelia’s Community and Economic Development Director, Jessie Owensby, now ranks among the top 500 most influential leaders in Georgia.
Over the years, Owensby has served in at least two major roles for the city of Cornelia.
Owensby’s most recent distinction comes from Georgia Trend Magazine, which describes her as a leader with “a unique perspective on the challenges faced by small, rural communities today.”
On Friday, Nov. 22, Owensby told Now Habersham she was surprised by the recognition.
“It feels really weird,” she said. “I think it’s funny actually – being recognized as some ‘influential leader,’ and all the time I’m saying, ‘Nobody listens to me.’ Nobody listens to anything I say. My kids, especially, don’t listen to me. It’s kind of funny.”
Cornelia Mayor John Borrow described Owensby as an asset to the city earlier this week.
“We were thrilled to hear about Jessie being included on the list,” Borrow said. “Jessie has been one of the pillars for Cornelia for years, and her impact cannot be overstated. By working with economic development, the downtown, housing initiatives and many more issues, Jessie has consistently put Cornelia and its residents first. We are so grateful to have Jessie working with us, and we don’t take her or her contributions for granted.”
Owensby said she more or less landed into a job with Cornelia’s government by chance almost a decade ago. Since then, she’s witnessed the city of just over 5,000 people transform before her eyes.
Background, education
Before that, in 2001, Owensby, an Oakwood native, graduated from Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School where she said she’d met a “Habersham boy” her junior year.
She then followed that high school boyfriend (now her husband Mike) to Tennessee – where the two attended Middle Tennessee State University. Jessie Owensby was a recording industry major, and Mike pursued a degree in physical education.
But when Mike’s mother fell ill, the two returned to his hometown of Cornelia.
Mike started a job at Home Depot in Gainesville, while Jessie cared for her mother-in-law until she passed.
By 2005, Jessie Owensby was employed as an assistant in a unit caring for stroke patients at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. Mike was a store manager working 60-70 hours a week.
The decision to retake control of the wheel of life and drive in their own direction came when the couple was enroute to a much-needed vacation. Mike’s phone chimed. His regional director told him: “You have to be here.”
The vacation had long been scheduled and on the books for months. But the man on the phone insisted: “Someone called out, and you have to be here.”
At this point, Mike was done. And the couple then took a new path.
Mike, with plans to enter the field of education, went back to school at Piedmont College to finish his degree. And Jessie, destined for a greater purpose, did the same.
“A year after he went (back to school), I was like, ‘Well, now I want to go back’ … so, I went back in 2013,” Jessie said.
Jessie Owensby graduated from Piedmont College in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications. As of 2023, she now holds a master’s degree in mass comm. from Piedmont.
In 2019, Jessie Owensby became a certified economic developer after she completed a two-year program at the University of Georgia. That same year, she was certified as a level one downtown development professional by Georgia Mainstreet. And just a few months ago, she earned another certification as a certified zoning inspector.
Mike Owensby, now a teacher at Habersham’s Ninth Grade Academy, graduated from Piedmont with a degree in biology in 2018.
Today, Jessie and Mike have two children together – an 18-year-old son on his way to Middle Tennessee State and a soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter in the Habersham County School System.
The road to the city
After graduating from Piedmont, Jessie Owensby briefly worked as a news director at a radio station in 2015. It wasn’t long before she just happened to “fall into” a role with the city.
Someone Owensby knew on Cornelia’s Hospitality and Tourism Board brought her in to help run their website. Then the main street manager left. This was around the same time as a recent departure of the community development manager. And Owensby was there to fill the void. The positions were consolidated, and Owensby took over from there.
Owensby, now Cornelia’s community and economic development director, has since seen her role evolve for the last decade.
And today, she’s become an integral part of the developing landscape in the city’s downtown area. Owensby oversees economic development, grant writing, aspects of marketing, and planning and zoning citywide.
In retrospect, Owensby says “everything really took off” in 2020 – when Cornelia became a beacon in Georgia: A magnet for tourism and a model city surpassing others of its size. It was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while most of the nation was shuttered, Cornelia was named Downtown of the Year.
“I think that secret also got out to Atlanta,” Owensby said. “A lot of people (working remotely) were coming up here because we were open. I remember, in 2020, we were back to our pre-COVID numbers by May. We ended up exceeding those numbers that summer.”
Owensby is also the founder and a principal consultant for strategic planning group Civic Engagement Strategies, which consults government and nonprofit entities to help with planning and development. She already has two (soon-to-be three) clients.
Transformation, affordable housing
Since 2016, the downtown scene in Cornelia appears to have undergone a fundamental transformation under Owensby, long-time commissioners and fellow forward-thinking city leaders.
In 2015, for instance, Owensby said there were only six or seven businesses in the immediate vicinity of the downtown centre. By 2024, that number has climbed to about 40 businesses.
Still, Cornelia has not been immune from the affordable housing crisis – which has gripped cities and counties nationwide.
The first step to solving this complex issue, according to Owensby, is “educating the public” on the topic before it’s tackled. “Affordable,” she said, doesn’t translate to cheap apartment complexes. Instead, she said there are other ways to make housing more affordable.
In a more innovative move, Owensby said she’s actively sought to attract developers in the business of constructing “smaller footprint, cottage-style units” – a growing trend seen along the suburban outskirts of Atlanta.
“We have the market for that type of housing – where you’ve got 1,000-1,200 square-feet,” she said. “It’s giving people the opportunity to buy a home and be a homeowner, and not have to have a roommate or two roommates…we’re at the point where (the city) can afford to be really selective about (developers) we choose. We can afford to be very specific about what we need, and if that developer can provide what we’re looking for.”
Vision: ‘It’s for future generations’
Asked about her vision for Cornelia, Owensby said she’d like to see the city’s future shaped by the youth.
“I have always said I want to see a place where my kids are proud of – that this is where they want to raise their families,” she said. “I listen to my kids – when they say we don’t have A, B and C, that’s what we go for.”
Before she reviews a long-term project, Owensby will often gather input from her two children beforehand. She’s even had her husband’s students fill out surveys related to the city’s 2023 comprehensive plan.
“That’s really who we’re doing this for,” Owensby said. “It’s not for us today – it’s for our future generations. If we want to keep our kids here, and keep them local, we need to create an atmosphere where they want to stay here.”
With a list of awards, Owensby said she’s ultimately grateful for the latest distinction as she now stands among 499 other “most influential leaders” in Georgia.
“I’m incredibly honored and humbled by that,” she said. “I don’t even know how I got put in the mix of all of these people. The other government officials who were recognized – everybody knows them. I don’t quite understand it, but I’ll take it.”
Other awards, recognitions
- In 2019, Owensby was named in Georgia Trend’s 40 under 40.
- In 2022, Cornelia was recognized with Georgia Trend’s Visionary City award.
- In 2022, the city was presented the TravelBlazer award for the success of Fenders Alley – which has since become a hub of music and entertainment under the guidance of entrepreneur Jay Reeder.
- In 2021, Cornelia earns the 2020 Outstanding Community Transformation/Downtown of the Year award.
