T. Jan Wiseman on Medical Leave from GSC after 13 Years

Thirteen years spent in leadership training and community development has been put on hold by T. Jan Wiseman, president and CEO of the Greater Salisbury Committee. Effective May 30, 2015, Wiseman was given an extended medical leave due to a major heart attack suffered on March 30.

During Wiseman’s work with GSC, the organization grew by more than 45 percent in membership and played a key role in the creation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which became a dominant economic player in the Maryland-Delaware-Virginia area.

GSC is a 48-year-old not-for-profit group of CEOs who work to make communities in the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as parts of Virginia and Delaware, a better place to live and work. Their work has included helping give birth to Wor-Wic Community College and keeping UMES and Salisbury University open after both had been slated for closure by the state. Wiseman continued to support their goals in this growth.

While active with GSC, Wiseman was honored by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore with the Presidential Citation in 2011 for economic development on the six counties of the Eastern Shore, as well as for helping initiate the UMES pharmacy program and expanding the school’s engineering program.

Wiseman is a graduate of 2004 Leadership Maryland and 2003 Shore Leadership programs. Because leadership training was a personal mission of Wiseman’s, as well as a goal for GSC, he created day-long community leadership workshops with 175 participants from Wicomico County. His New Patriotism Program led to the creation of the Civic and Government Leadership Academy. As a result of that program, 3,400 residents in Wicomico County signed a commitment to become active community leaders and good citizens.

Other major programs he helped grow include the Academy for Leadership in Education involving local school districts and Salisbury University, building a team of North Prong owners to help clean the area of unused, rusty oil tanks and other nuisances, as well as beginning planning for that area’s future.

He also initiated a program in the three area colleges to select one student from each school, based on leadership qualities, to receive a cash gift from GSC. The goal was to keep our brightest and best potential leaders here on the Shore, instead of their migrating to the Western Shore and other states. This was a focus on breaking down the walls between college students, residents, and government.

Wiseman came to GSC in 2002 from a senior executive position with the American Soybean Association in St. Louis. Prior to that, he had managed associations for more than 25 years, plus served as a community college dean for 12 years and a professional journalist.

PUBLISHERS NOTES: I want to make myself very clear here, there is much more to come on this situation. Put your seat belts on Ladies & Gentlemen. The investigative reporter in me will soon be coming out again and one thing is for sure, there's going to be a LOT of very upset people when I do publish this next article about GSC.