MOULTRIE, Ga. — Gov. Nathan Deal has announced four of the six members of the new Center for Rural Prosperity and the Georgia Rural Development Council, and one of them is a prominent Moultrian. Two other people with Moultrie ties have also recently been appointed to other state boards.

The appointment of Jim Matney, president and CEO of Colquitt Regional Medical Center, to the Center for Rural Prosperity was announced in a Sept. 21 press release from the Office of the Governor.

Other appointments to the center announced at the same time were Marjorie J. “Betts” Berry, owner and operator of Huntland Farms in Chickamauga; Jim Pannell, an attorney with Gray Pannell and Woodward LLP in Chatham County; and Dr. Stuart E. Rayfield, vice chancellor for leadership and institutional development for the University System of Georgia, who lives in Columbus.

The remaining two appointments will be announced soon, a spokesman for the governor’s office said Monday.

The Georgia Rural Development Council is housed under the Center for Rural Prosperity; both were created by House Bill 951, which was signed into law May 2. They are located at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.

The purposes of the center and the council are to study the challenges facing rural economic development and to find ways to address those problems, including access to health care, infrastructure, education, unemployment, growth incentives and more.

In the same press release, the governor’s office also announced 21 other appointments to various boards and commissions. A second Moultrian and a former Moultrian now living in Atlanta were named to two.

Holly Kirbo, a Moultrie attorney, was named to the Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission, which authorizes and regulates the operations of private postsecondary colleges and schools in Georgia.

Camila McLean Knowles, daughter of Mike and Camila McLean of Moultrie, was named to the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, which, along with the Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Georgia, is in charge of Georgia Public Broadcasting. Knowles is an attorney who formerly served as commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs.