Greg Puckett

Commissioner
Mercer County, West Virginia

Greg Puckett is a native southern West Virginian with a passion for community, working diligently with communities across the country to bring in special projects and initiatives in the hopes of preventing the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs by youth and their families. He has also been an integral part of several community revitalization and conservation initiatives.

He was elected as county commissioner in November 2014 and is currently the executive director of Community Connections Inc. (CCI), the county’s family resource network, where he continually reaches across county and state lines to help guide the community building process. He also serves on several state committees including the Governor’s Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Correction: Juvenile Justice Subcommittee, the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, the Governor’s Tobacco Prevention Taskforce, and is one of a team of local businesses and individuals passionately dedicated to revitalization and economic stabilization through the Princeton Renaissance Project, a partnership with the West Virginia HUB initiative.

Puckett and his fellow commissioners have invested nearly $1 million in the county park, worked to expand technology within the courthouse, formulated funding to local law enforcement to gain competitive balance, increased economic mobility, and bolstered new and strengthened existing community based partnerships. He serves the county nationally on the board of directors of the National Association of Counties (NACo), and is chair of the association’s Rural Action Caucus, the largest representation of rural county government in the country. He is currently vice chair of NACo’s Healthy Counties Initiative, and has served as one of only 10 county commissioners on the National Opioid Taskforce (a partnership with the National League of Cities). He is also one of a handful of elected officials on the Resilient Coal Communities Initiative, and is one of 20 commissioners currently serving on NACo’s Economic Mobility Network.

Puckett works in close partnership with federal legislators and other national organizations including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to carry out a host of national initiatives and pilot programs. In May 2020, he was awarded the Louis Gorin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health by the National Rural Health Association for his efforts in local, statewide, and national advocacy for the betterment of overall public health.

A volunteer swimming coach to area high schoolers, he is the proud father of two children, Lauren and Joseph, who keep him dedicated to making positive change happen and to leaving a legacy for the next generation to follow.