Georgia Department of Labor 
Suite 642 148 International Boulevard N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30303-1751 (404)656-3032 
 
May 20, 1998 
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
 
NELDA RYAN NAMED LABOR DEPARTMENT MANAGER OF THE YEAR 
 
ATLANTA -- State Labor Commissioner Marti Fullerton said today that Nelda Ryan of Lowndes County, manager of the Georgia Department of Labor's Valdosta office for the past three years, has been named the department's manager of the year. 
 
Fullerton recently presented the award to Ryan at Jekyll Island at the 55th annual educational conference of the Georgia Chapter of the International Association of Personnel in Employment Security (IAPES), the professional organization for labor department employees. 
 
"Nelda Ryan is the kind of manager who sees what needs to be done in order to do the job right and takes the initiative to do it," said Fullerton. "Sometimes this involves setting new standards and developing new ways of serving the public. For example, long before our department's collaborative effort with the departments of human resources and technical and adult education to move public assistance recipients into jobs, Nelda and the Valdosta office were working with the Department of Family and Children Services in Lowndes County to help welfare recipients find work. In fact, our three-agency partnership is simply an expansion of the program already in place in Lowndes County." 
 
Don Huggins of Waycross, the labor department's director for the South Georgia area, said, "Nelda is the most outstanding manager I've known since I've been with the department. Her dedication to duty and her genuine desire to exceed in all expectations is evident in her total productivity." During the past fiscal year, about 15,000 people came to the Valdosta office for service. 
 
A native of Cordele, Ryan, 48, is a graduate of Crisp County High School and attended Valdosta State University from 1967-1970. After college, she worked in private industry for six years in Cordele and Tifton. 
 
In 1976, Ryan joined the labor department's Cordele office in the now-defunct Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. In 1981, she transferred to the Valdosta office in the unemployment insurance division and became manager of that section a year later. In 1995, she was named to her current position. 
 
Ryan is a member of the South Georgia Employer Committee, the South Georgia Private Industry Council (PIC), the United Way of Lowndes County, and the 1998 Class of Leadership Lowndes. She is also a member of IAPES and has served that organization as second vice president. She is a member of the Francis Lake Baptist Church in Lake Park. 
 
She is married to Tom Ryan, manager of the labor department's unemployment district tax office in Waycross. They have three children: Cathy Ryan, 34, of Atlanta; Bert Brantley, 24, of Athens; and Dana Brantley, 14, a student at Lowndes County Middle School. 
 
NEWS MEDIA NEEDING MORE INFORMATION MAY CALL (404) 656-3032 E-mail: communications@dol.state.ga.us. 
 
FY-98-590 
 
 An Equal Opportunity Employer