The new program director for Eastman Immigrant Services had a chance to meet many local employers and immigrants at the EIS job fair Tuesday evening.

Josie Fast has been a settlement worker with Eastman Immigrant Services for the past two years and will now replace longtime Program Director Richard Harder. She notes even though her first official day as program director is March 1st, the job fair was an excellent place to introduce herself in her new role.

"They have seen my face at Eastman Immigrant Services for two and a half years and I don’t think they have realized the role shift as much as I have. It is exciting for me because I get to meet some of the employers around here and I get to really make those connections and then hopefully when I do go out into the community they get ‘oh yeah I remember you’. That is exciting."

Fast says Richard Harder left big shoes to fill but she is excited to take on this new challenge.

"I am a very big thinker and so I think that there are definitely some new ideas coming down the pipe. I think it is a good time for change. We have a new executive director for the Chamber of Commerce as well and I think that the combination of those two things, both of our roles are changing and new, there are a lot of really exciting things coming."

Fast says the job fair is very important to newcomers as well as anyone in the Southeast who is looking for work. She notes the job market seems to be a bit tough for newcomers right now for a variety of reasons including cultural differences in the workplace and language barriers. She notes they are hoping to overcome some of those barriers in the future.

Fast adds they had a record 34 businesses represented at the job fair.