MELINDA WALDROP PROFILE

A year after the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the U.S. and South Carolina, plunging industries including construction into uncertainty, contractors are expressing relief at how they’ve come through it — in some cases, with r... Read More

Women make up just 29.5% of a manufacturing labor force that needs to fill 4.6 million jobs during the next decade, and three S.C. industry leaders think it’s high time that number grew. Lindsay Leonard, senior director of natio... Read More

Robert Hughes shouldered a shovel and took a deep breath Thursday afternoon. As Columbia city officials joined the president of Greenville-based Hughes Development Corp. to break ground on the newest addition to the BullStreet Dis... Read More

Lexington Medical Center’s new 225,000-square-foot facility in Northeast Columbia is, as Lexington County Health Services District board chair Dr. Tripp Jones noted at its Tuesday ribbon cutting, larger than the health system&r... Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned a myriad of health concerns, but one local organization is working to make sure that mobility is not one of them. The S.C. Assistive Technology program, part of the Center for Disability Resources at ... Read More

For the 25 million people in the United States with limited English proficiency, optimal health care outcomes after hospitalization and access to preventive care present challenges in the best of times. In the midst of a pandemic that... Read More

The University of South Carolina generates a total economic impact on the state of $6.2 billion a year and is responsible for one out of every nine jobs in the Midlands, but the region faces challenges keeping its graduates from seeking ... Read More

The curriculum at Sandhills School in southeast Columbia recently took on a new wrinkle. A $2.1 million expansion is adding a 9,000-square-foot educational wing and exterior courtyard, and nine classrooms are being renovated. The ... Read More

Janie Campbell is the woman with the answers — even when they aren’t necessarily what clients want to hear. Campbell, preservation consultant with Columbia law firm Rogers Lewis, is often the first stop for owners and ... Read More

Drew Coleman will have added motivation to visit the S.C. Statehouse soon. Coleman, director of Mashburn Construction’s upfit division, oversaw an ambitious project to restore and refinish around 19,000 square feet of tile c... Read More

While the 2020-21 Midlands Competitiveness Report highlighted some traditional regional strengths, it also pinpointed what EngenuitySC executive director Meghan Hickman likes to call opportunities. The annual report produced by th... Read More

What Lance Brown doesn’t know can, as the CEO and president of Rhino Medical Supply is rapidly learning, end up helping him. Nine months ago, Brown was not in the medical supplies distribution business. He was running a credit c... Read More

With hands-on learning becoming a challenge in 2020, ECPI University has developed a proprietary software program that allows students in health care fields to get as close to being in a medical environment as possible during the COV... Read More

Scott Middleton’s latest project in the 1600 block of Main Street will offer smoked meats and oysters, a microbrewery and a sense of history interwoven with present-day progress. Smoked, being carved from the circa-1872 building... Read More

There’s a cardinal in the bush outside my window. Its red feathers present a striking contrast against the still-green leaves, a lush, almost gaudy display, a preview of Christmas lights a few weeks early. I stare at the bird un... Read More

Kwatika Canty barely had time for a brief chat Wednesday morning. Canty, a barista at the newly opened Oliver Gospel Roastery in downtown Columbia, had her hands full filling coffee cups for customers, including members of the Columbi... Read More

Every so often, Ed Causebrook gets a phone call that always makes him smile. The caller is an elderly lady, living alone, who received emergency home repairs several years ago through a partnership between Causebrook’s organ... Read More

Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvest Hope Food Bank is hoping a new partnership with Famously Hot New Year will help the Columbia-headquartered nonprofit meet heavy holiday demand and keep the food pantry stocked into 2021... Read More

His superstitious nature kept Shaun Piggott from hearing the news when it happened. Piggott, head brewer at Columbia Craft Brewing Co., was on his way to dinner with his girlfriend as the Great American Beer Festival awards were b... Read More

With promising news about a COVID-19 vaccine making headlines, Lou Kennedy had reason for optimism during Tuesday's beam-raising ceremony marking a milestone for a $215.8 million expansion at Nephron Pharmaceutical Corp.’s Saxe... Read More

Seven months ago, John Carrington took a deep breath and pushed all his chips to the center of the table. His Columbia company, ZVerse, was at a crossroads. Founded in 2013 as a 3D design and software solutions provider, the Shop ... Read More

Shelli Quenga quickly found out that her organization’s groundbreaking brainstorm was going to require a lot of work. Three years later, some things have changed, but the work remains constant — and rewarding. Quenga, d... Read More

As anniversaries go, Brian and Kelly Glynn may not be having the big bash a 30-year milestone warrants, but like a lot of things in 2020, the husband-and-wife ownership team of the Village Idiot is making the best of it. The vener... Read More

A new residential development will bring 566 single-family homes to Blythewood. Arabella Spring, with frontage on Heins Road and Langford Road, will feature detached homes on 220 acres, 75 of which will be dedicated to community g... Read More

Todd Adams paused midsentence as an older gentleman poked his head in the door. “Y’all ain’t open yet,” the man said with obvious disappointment. Stop back by in two weeks, Adams advised the man, drawn t... Read More

Motorists heading down Beltline Boulevard just before it intersects with Two Notch Road may do a double-take if they glance to the side, but not to worry. That really is a garden growing out of the roof of the city of Columbia&rsq... Read More

If there were ever a time for improved efficiency to help a fast-moving company, it would be now for Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp. With the West Columbia-based manufacturer of sterile respiratory medication churning out produ... Read More

The effect of the pandemic on Columbia’s commercial real estate market is still playing out, industry experts say, with some segments holding steady while others suffer. One thing, though, is clear: Transactions during the C... Read More

Chad Elsey has been through a gamut of emotions during seven months unlike any he’s ever seen in his restaurant career. “It probably comes in waves,” said Elsey, part of the ownership group behind South Carolina&rsqu... Read More

A new program at ECPI University aims to unite two crucial areas: the ever-growing need for more cybersecurity professionals and those whom the pandemic has put out of work or who are just looking for a new challenge. The school&rsquo... Read More

With most area fall festivals, including the popular Oktoberfest at Incarnation Lutheran Church and Columbia’s annual Greek festival, canceled amid the ongoing pandemic, there is a bit of good news for those itching to enjoy an aut... Read More

Hughes Development Corp., master developer of the BullStreet District, said “progress will continue” at the 181-acre, mixed-use development after a fire heavily damaged the site’s historic Babcock building on Saturday m... Read More

Rick Todd waited three years for Thursday’s satisfaction. Todd, president and CEO of the S.C. Trucking Association, was an early champion of the Be Pro Be Proud workforce development program pioneered in Arkansas in 2016, lobbyi... Read More

As she helped celebrate the potential of a newly opened women’s business center at Benedict College, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza made a prediction to S.C. proprietors, incuding the minority... Read More

While customers may prefer to pay for items in cash, there is no federal requirement that private businesses accept it, according to the Federal Reserve. However, four states have passed legislation requiring states accept cash payment, ... Read More

Columbia-headquartered Optus Bank is the first beneficiary of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s $530 million commitment to support Black and minority-owned business and communities. Optus received $50 million in deposit funding from th... Read More