The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has appointed six local community leaders to its Milledgeville Community Advisory Committee.

“These leaders will provide counsel to Knight Foundation as we seek to make grants in Milledgeville with the potential to transform the community,” said Beverly Blake, the foundation’s program director for Milledgeville.

Milledgeville is one of 26 U.S. cities and towns served by Knight Foundation, a $2.2 billion national foundation with local roots where the Knight brothers owned newspapers in their lifetimes.

Community Advisory Committee members are an integral part of Knight Foundation’s grant-making work. Each committee is a small group of creative, connected and strategic advisers who work with Blake and other program directors to discover opportunities that produce maximum impact and lasting change in the communities they serve.

Milledgeville’s appointed advisers are: Rev. Omer Reid, chairman of the Flagg Baptist Church; Brian D. Aycock, director of regulatory affairs and insurance, Oconee Regional Medical Center; Keith Barlow, publisher of The Union-Recorder; Kathryn H. Dennis, president, Community Foundation of Central Georgia; Sheriff William Massee, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department; Debbie Williams, director of marketing of The Telegraph.

“We are appreciative to these individuals for their leadership and willingness to share with Knight Foundation their knowledge and ideas as Knight explores how we can best invest in Milledgeville,” said Blake. “We look forward to our future work together.”

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of Milledgeville and 25 other communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfdn.org.