Mayor George Lauritson of the City of St. Robert was recently selected as a 2023 Defense Community Champion

Mayor George Lauritson of the City of St. Robert was recently selected as a 2023 Defense Community Champion by the Association of Defense Communities.
Defense Community Champions represent a wide range of leaders who, in different ways, are all committed to serving their local installations and improving the lives of service members and their families. Mayor Lauritson served successfully as the Chairman of the Fort Leonard Wood Region’s Sustainable Ozarks Partnership from August 2017 to August 2022. The SOP’s accomplishments are in large part attributed to Mayor Lauritson’s leadership, including improvements in the areas of partnerships that support Fort Wood’s mission success; military family quality of life, infrastructure resiliency, regional transportation access, regional healthcare; quality of public education; military spouse and transitioning service member employment initiatives. Lauritson was responsible for creating two iterations of the organization’s three-year strategic plan that formalized and focused the region’s support for Fort Wood, service members, and families. The most recent noteworthy accomplishment is the completion of a regional military spouse employment needs assessment survey. He also led the community to receive one of the first Army Community Partnership awards from the Under Secretary of the Army. The award recognized Fort Leonard Wood and Sustainable Ozark Partnerships for success in strengthening installation readiness and resilience through the interconnection of water resources between the installation and the city of St. Robert. This partnership provides reciprocal backup water supplies during emergency situations improving water resiliency and enhancing installation readiness.