Wicked Solutions, LLC

Dr. Joe A. Sumners, the Owner and Manager of Wicked Solutions, is Executive Director Emeritus of the Government & Economic Development Institute at Auburn University and has over 30 years of university outreach experience working with community organizations and local governments in Alabama.  He has extensive consulting experience in strategic planning, civic engagement, and rural community and economic development.

​

He has taught courses and made hundreds of speeches and presentations on topics related to government and economic development, mostly in Alabama.  He is the author of numerous publications about rural development and issues related to Alabama state and local government.  Dr. Sumners has served as a technical advisor for statewide commissions/task forces under four Alabama governors - the Alabama Commission on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform, Alabama Task Force on Economically Distressed Counties, Alabama Black Belt Action Commission, Alabama Rural Action Commission, Alabama Workforce Council, and Alabama Small Business Task Force.  He is a founding Board member of the Alabama Communities of Excellence Program and has served on the Board of Directors for the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and Main Street Alabama. 

​

He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in political science, public administration, and economic development at Auburn University, the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He also was a high school teacher and football and basketball coach.  

​

He is a native of Harpersville, Alabama. He received his BS and MA degrees from Auburn University and his PhD in Political Science from the University of Georgia. He is married to Lynn Sumners and has two children, Lacey Updegraff and Tucker Sumners.  He has three grandchildren - Ella, Jackson, and Haddie.

​

​