b-metro.com 65

66 b-metro.com

the

Power of women

b-metro.com 67

Now more than ever, women are at the center of some of

the most important efforts underway in the Metro: to

improve education, healthcare, the business climate, the law.

In these and a host of other areas, you will find powerful,

accomplished women focusing on the future.

Here’s a glimpse inside.

Written by Tom Wofford, Rosalind Fournier and Joe O’Donnell the

Power of women

68 b-metro.com

The career track to the cov-eted corner office isn’t as straight as you might predict. Bobbie Knight’s path to become the vice president of Alabama Pow-

er’s Birmingham Division involved such glamorous executive activities as helping frustrated customers with disconnected power, reading meters during a strike, and climbing a power pole as a demonstration and recruitment tool for female linemen.

Now she oversees a division that pro-vides power to about half a million cus-tomers in central Alabama. Knight’s love of people and a relentless work ethic pro-vide the framework for a 33-year career with Alabama Power. Working for a com-pany that values the talent within, Knight progressed from a nightshift telephone customer service representative to a man-agement leader to division vice president, handling nearly 500,000 customers. And she found time to earn a law degree, too.

“My younger years were spent growing

up in Birmingham in the turbulent Civil Rights era,” says Knight, 55. “Kelly Ingram Park (site of the infamous water hosing and arrest of segregation protesters) is right outside my office window. This is where people bled and went to jail so I could sit here in this corner office. It blows my mind. I stand on the shoulders of folks who marched there.”

Knight, who is called Miss Bobbie by many inside and outside Alabama Power, has earned recognition for her dedica-tion to leadership and civic organizations, from championing the city’s downtown Railroad Park, to serving on the board of the Civil Rights Institute and mentoring young professionals.

Knight’s husband, retired NFL player Gary Burley, shares her love of giving back. Burley, who played for the Cincinnati Ben-gals and the Atlanta Falcons, founded a nonprofit foundation, ProStart Academy, that matches NFL players with young ath-letes to make them more recruitable to col-lege coaches.

“Alabama Power has always encour-aged its employees to be engaged and connected with the community,” Knight says. “I know that may seem corny to some people, but it’s not. It’s a core belief and a feeling in this company. I’ve felt it since 1978 when I started here.”

Knight grew up in the Birmingham neighborhood of Zion City, the youngest of five children. Her mother was a pastry chef for the iconic Birmingham depart-ment store Pizitz Bake Shop. “Birmingham is home for me, and I love it,” Knight says.

She graduated from the University of Alabama in 1978 with a degree in commu-nications, public relations and advertising. Her mind was set on becoming an evening jazz DJ (a job she still wouldn’t mind try-ing), but a lack of radio experience was a problem. She landed an Alabama Power job on the 2-10 p.m. shift in customer service, often dealing with customers who came home to find their power discon-nected for not paying their bills.

“I felt like I had a way of calming people down,” Knight says. “I always tried to put my grandmother’s face on every customer I dealt with because I wouldn’t ever want anyone to disrespect my grandmother.”

Knight rose up through the company in a time when women and minorities were in small numbers. Knight remem-bers when female employees couldn’t wear pants to work and specific efforts were in place to recruit black and female employ-ees and contractors—some of the programs in which she had heavy involvement. “The thing I’ve found that sets Alabama Power apart from a lot of companies is that it has

done the right things for the right rea-sons, not necessarily because they were forced to,” she says.

Alabama Power is paving the way for corporate culture changes, including hav-ing a free program that allows workers to use bicycles during their lunch breaks. And if you want to chat with Bobbie Knight, like some of her employees do, she’s on Facebook.

Knight’s experience stretches across several Alabama Power divisions around the state, including human resources, training and recruiting, labor relations, buying materials for the supply chain,

The Power vesTed in her Bobbie Knight runs Alabama Power’s largest division.by Kelli Hewett Taylor

Knight rose up through the company in a time when women and minorities were in small numbers. Knight remembers when female employees couldn’t wear pants to work and specific efforts were in place to recruit black and female employees and contractors —some of the programs in which she had heavy in-volvement. “The thing i’ve found that sets Alabama Power apart from a lot of companies is that it has done the right things for the right reasons, not nec-essarily because they were forced to.”

corporate services, human resources and a stint as vice president of public relations. “I figured out a long time ago that what I had to know was how to bring in good people and reward them,” Knight says.

Knight is the first to tell you that times have changed but her respect and affection for Alabama Power have not. What’s the secret to such a long career at Alabama Power?

“I think it’s the company,” Knight says. “I don’t know that I could have spent 33 years at another company. It really is a fam-ily place, and it’s hard to separate myself from the company. I’m now working with some of the children of our employees, and I remember them being born and graduating high school. For the majority of my career, I was single. These people are my family.”

b-metro.com 69

organizationsfor women

Bobbie Knight Photo by Liesa Cole

Alabama Women in Business (AWIB) provides women entrepreneurs in diverse sectors with opportunities to interact and develop strategic alliances. The corpora-tion encourages, supports and educates women who own and operate business-es. www.alwib.org/

The Alabama Women’s Initiative, Inc. is an organization formed by a group of Alabama women concerned about the status of women in Alabama and its ef-fect on the welfare of our state. (205) 991-3221.

The Charity League, Inc. (TCL) is a non-profit service organization with ap-proximately 100 women members. TCL is committed to serving hearing and speech impaired children of Alabama thorough volunteer hours and financial support. www.thecharityleague.org

The Civiettes Club of Birmingham is a vital civic club with dedicated fund-raising efforts for United Cerebral Palsy. www.ucpbham.com

Girl Scouts of North-Central Ala-bama currently serves 15,000 girls and 5,000 adults through Girl Scouting in more than the 1,100 Girl Scout troops it serves.

70 b-metro.com

The first words that spring to mind when meeting Patty McDonald include “elegance” and “grace,” but when she talks about the importance of the arts

in Birmingham, McDonald makes it clear she is much more than just a pretty face.

“This is serious business, and I take it seriously,” McDonald said of her busy schedule enjoying and supporting the lo-cal arts community. It’s been her passion and Birmingham’s good fortune since Pat-ty and her late husband Pat came to town in the 1970s.

Almost a decade after her husband’s death, McDonald continues to match her enthusiasm with generosity and savvy col-laboration. Currently McDonald serves on the boards of directors or advisory boards of a dozen organizations, from long-estab-lished major institutions like the Alabama Symphony and Alabama Ballet to young, promising organizations like Green and White Productions, whose theatrical pro-ductions embrace cultural diversity “while creating a stage for all artists.” From the Seasoned Performers and the Alys Ste-phens Center to the Red Mountain The-atre Company and Oasis Counseling for Women and Children, McDonald serves a diverse group of important organizations.

McDonald is at once upbeat and re-alistic about the current state of Birming-ham’s cultural community and its often precarious financial support over the last few years.

“We’ve gained some organizations, we’ve renewed others, but regretfully we’ve lost some too,” McDonald said.

“They are all important,” McDonald said, but she is particularly pleased with

two recent developments, one being a strengthened Birmingham Music Club, an organization of great cultural and histori-cal significance. Coming up on 107 years old, BMC is the oldest arts presenter in the entire Southeast.

“My hat goes off to Susan and Wyatt Haskell (BMC board president), who re-ally hung in there with the Music Club,” McDonald said. “This season is marking a real resurgence for the Music Club that is extremely gratifying to be a part of.” (Mc-Donald sponsors the next BMC event, the March 6 presentation of Mexican tenor David Lomeli, a protégé of Placido Do-mingo.)

“I’m also very excited about how well our local universities are doing with their arts programs,” McDonald added.

McDonald is ultimately extremely op-timistic about the future. “I think the next decade is shaping up to be so thrilling,” she said. “Even in difficult times, we’ve had new groups form and thrive. There is great programming all over the city in ven-ues both large and small.”

McDonald defines “the arts” in a broader way than many, using a unifying perspective that serves the accomplish-ments of Birmingham well.

“We have the healing arts here, we have the performing arts, we have the sports arts, and we have the culinary arts,”

she said. “We are a beacon for the best across

the state,” McDonald concluded.

Dr. Leah Rawls Atkins grew up immersed in history, with extended fam-ily living all around her in North Birming-ham, only a few blocks from Oak Hill Cemetery, the final resting place of many of the city’s founders.

An only child whose father loved his-tory and politics, Atkins was in first grade when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and “it was the formative event of my childhood,” she said. “Daddy loved Ala-bama. He loved the South,” Atkins said. Her family tree winds back through Jones Valley to the days long before Birmingham even existed.

It’s no surprise then, that Atkins would grow up to write the most widely read book on Birmingham history, The Valley and the Hills: An Illustrated History of Birmingham and Jefferson County, published in 1981.

Atkins’ career of teaching and writing about Alabama history is full of distinc-tion, one being the Pulitzer Prize nomina-tion she received in 1994 along with co-au-thors William Warren Rogers Sr., Robert D. Ward and Professor Wayne Flynt, for their Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, an “authoritative yet entertaining” book that begins with the first local Native settlements and concludes with the state’s complex and confounding political envi-ronment in the early 21st century.

“It was a fine honor, much appreci-ated,” Atkins said.

Atkins’ career as a scholar, however, was preceded by a stellar turn as an athlete. During her years as a competitive water skier, she won (as Leah M. Rawls) both the U.S. Women’s Overall National Champi-

women in the arts

“They are all important,” mcdonald said, but she is particularly pleased with two recent developments, one being a strengthened Birmingham music Club, an organization of great cultural and historical sig-nificance. Coming up on 107 years old, BmC is the oldest arts presenter in the entire southeast.

b-metro.com 71

onship and the Women’s Overall World Championship in 1953. She became the American Water Ski Association’s first fe-male senior judge and later the organiza-tion’s first woman board member. In 1976, Atkins was the first woman in inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Atkins earned three degrees from Au-burn University, including receiving the University’s first Ph.D. in history. After teaching at Auburn, UAB and Samford, Atkins became the founding director of AU’s Center for the Arts and Humanities (now the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center).

Her myriad books and articles include a study of the admission of women to Au-burn and the University of Alabama, the biography of billionaire builder John M. Harbert III, and a corporate history of 90-year-old construction giant Brasfield & Gorrie. Atkins’ 2007 history of the Ala-bama Power Company won the James Sul-zby Book Award for best book on Alabama history.

Atkins is displeased but somewhat re-signed that Alabama students know less about their state’s history than ever before, since far less Alabama history is taught to today’s students than was required for most of the 20th century. And since the state’s milestones in U.S. History are not part of current assessment tests, “many teachers don’t focus on them,” Atkins said.

Atkins doesn’t believe the average person in Birmingham cares much about history and doesn’t see it “as important to their daily lives. But there is so much his-tory that they could learn and enjoy. For instance, Jefferson County changed from a small farm, isolated frontier area to a mines, mills and blue collar-labor area with coal and ore mining camps and company towns, to a city born in the New South that grew to be the largest city in the state, second only to Pittsburgh as the most vital city for war production in World War II.”

It’s a story that Atkins obviously finds thrilling and thinks others will who take the opportunity to learn more about it.

Echoing the famous quote of philoso-pher George Santayana, Aktins notes, “I think knowing the past gives us a better chance of making the future better.”

Atkins is currently completing a his-

tory of Sedgefields Plantation of Bullock County. “It’s the old quail hunting pre-serve put together by Lewis B. Maytag, who invested a lot of washing machine profits in Alabama land beginning in Janu-ary 1929,” Atkins says. The field trials that took place at Sedgefields during the 1950s and 1960s brought national recognition to Alabama, according to Atkins, but after the Maytag heirs sold the property, much of it was divided. Field trials recently re-turned to the historic grounds after Ray-mond and Kathryn Harbert reassembled those portions of the plantation, “and the preserve is now under an extensive wildlife management plan to bring back the wild quail,” Atkins said.

Married now for 58 years to her high school sweetheart, and the mother to four children and 16 grandchildren, Atkins has no plans to retire. “Not until I lose my mind,” she said. “I hope I have a few more years.”

Beginning in 1973, when she opened the gallery that bore her name, Maralyn Wilson has been a major force in the visual arts community in Birmingham.

“I’ve seen about every phase and trend that’s come along since 1973,” Wilson said. “When I opened, people would raise their eyebrows over a pot that cost $50. And I’m proud to say the local marketplace is much better educated about the role and value of handmade work by American artisans and craftsmen.”

Over 37 years, Maralyn Wilson Gallery helped bring dozens of emerging artists to the attention of Birmingham audiences. “A lot more is accepted now,” she said. “Artists have a lot more freedom now.” Wilson closed the gallery in December 2010 to work as an artist full-time.

A former chairman of Birmingham’s Festival of the Arts, Wilson is disappoint-ed by the number of visual arts groups that didn’t survive the most recent economic crisis. “I’ve never seen so many galleries go out of business,” she said. The contents of those lost galleries “represent our heri-tage,” Wilson said.

Wilson is hopeful the art community will soon undergo a revival. “There are still more galleries in town than there once

was,” Wilson noted, “and the Museum (BMA) has done a great job exposing the public to excellent work.”

Wilson is a Birmingham native who studied at Birmingham-Southern and at Newcomb College in New Orleans (which has since merged with Tulane University).

Long known as a talented painter and sculptor, Wilson has been working over the last year with encaustic wax to create a series of portraits of Southern literary figures. By applying and manipulating lay-ers of a wax mixture, then enhancing the images with pigment, Wilson produces im-ages of great writers, including Lillian Hell-man, Eudora Welty and William Faulkner, with a unique luminosity and sense of mys-tery.

“The paintings become interpretations of a place or experience rather than an ex-plicit depiction of reality,” Wilson told the director of the Southern Literary Trail in an interview.

“It’s so exciting,” Wilson said about be-coming a full-time artist again. “I can work any time or all the time.”

Even if the first show of 2012 is largely the achievement of Asian art cu-rator Don Wood, “Dragons and Lotus Blossoms: Vietnamese Ceramics from the Birmingham Museum of Art,” has Gail C. Andrews’ fingerprints on it as well.

After all, Andrews was the Birming-ham Museum of Art’s first curator of Dec-orative Arts back in 1976, and her back-ground in archaeology and history draws her to rare objects that were once everyday items.

“I love the relationship that people once had to the objects,” Andrews said, speaking not only of BMA’s exquisite col-lection of Vietnamese ceramics — one of the three best in the country — but also of her passion for her work in general. “It’s through these objects that we can learn and appreciate what daily life was like in a culture, what their customs were,” An-drews said.

A specialist in folk art and textiles, An-drews was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship to study Southern-made textiles, and she has written or con-tributed to more than 25 publications (she

72 b-metro.com

Gail Andrews, BMA

b-metro.com 73

first wrote about the now-internationally recognized quilting arts in Alabama back in 1982).

As BMA’s acting director during the early 1990s, Andrews oversaw the $21 million expansion and renovation that created the largest municipal museum in the Southeast. Andrews became director in 1996, and her tenure has been marked by BMA’s continued growth in size and reputation. The museum is recognized as one of the strongest in the country, with more than 25,000 objects, including spe-cialty collections that are unparalleled, and a rich variety of education and out-reach programs, including a new children and family space. Consistently knock-out exhibitions pack the house.

Andrews has served on the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Bir-mingham Arts Commission, is an alum of both Leadership Birmingham and Lead-ership Alabama, and co-chaired Region 20/20’s Arts and Culture Task Force. Andrews’ work at BMA is cited repeatedly by local arts leaders as a foundation the entire community builds upon.

While the BMA has been a depart-ment of the city for more than 60 years, Andrews empathizes with the uncertain financial environment many of her col-leagues face.

“What the community as a whole needs is financial stability,” Andrews said. “Endowments need to grow and donations need to increase,” she said, but pointed to lack of public funding as the real source of insecurity among many arts groups.

“At the same time, over the years, we have raised awareness of the importance of arts and culture to a community,” An-drews said, not referring to Southern tex-tiles when she added, “the arts are a vital part of the fabric of our city.”

With the funding gap for arts pro-grams in schools in recent decades, An-drews says there is a void in arts education that the BMA feels a great responsibility to fill. “As a result, we have ramped up our educational programming and shifted our focus beyond a two-dimensional visitor experience and towards a lifelong develop-ment and culitivation of art appreciation among visitors of all kinds. Our diverse

and distinctive collections and judicious selection of exhibitions work particularly well in doing that,” she says.

“We are also embracing technology to help share art in new, more accessible ways. We’ve introduced a mobile website to help visitors access information quickly and easily. We have begun the lengthy pro-cess of uploading images of our collection onto the website for visitors to enjoy the Museum from classrooms, living rooms, and other countries. In our upcoming ex-hibition “The Look of Love,” visitors will be able to study objects in incredible detail by using an app on the iPads (tablets) we will provide to visitors,” Andrews says.

The museum recently acquired a Vietnamese jar from the Le Dynasty. It was named Apollo magazine’s ninth most important acquisition worldwide—placing the Birmingham Museum of Art alongside international players like the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Col-lection. The jar will be the centerpiece of “Dragons and Lotus Blossoms,” the larg-est show of Vietnamese ceramics in North America, which runs at the BMA through April 8.

“Another important part of our ongo-ing efforts to make our Museum accessible to the wider community is First Thurs-days: After Hours at the Museum. First Thursdays is more than extended hours, it’s an experience—a date night, girls night, happy hour, or just quiet time alone. It’s designed to allow our patrons an evening opportunity to explore the galleries, take in a private tour or unwind with drinks and tapas after work.”

Kari Kampakis is a promising young writer in Birmingham who works from home. She’s also a mother of four, work which she also does at home.

Kampakis is part of the new genera-tion of writers who eager to embrace a non-traditional approach to finding their creative voices.

The unconventional path Kampakis travels is one likely to inspire thousands of people who yearn for a way to express themselves but think their current load of work and life prevents them from finding an outlet and an audience.

Kampakis started her career by lend-ing her voice to others. Fresh out of the University of Alabama, Kampakis put on a power suit and went to work at Alabama Power as a writer and media relations representative, often writing speeches for corporate leadership. She intended to continue down a traditional career path by earning an MBA, but as she pursued her graduate work, Kampakis began to dabble in projects outside the corporate box. She earned money for tuition by working free-lance, writing for an advertising agency and selling e-card ideas online. “Life as a freelancer suited me,” Kampakis said. “The thought of wearing pantyhose again seemed unfathomable,” she wrote on her website.

Then, as a final project for her Mas-ter’s, Kampakis created a line of prints fea-turing children’s poems. The project took off, and her work canvassing the state’s Ju-nior League markets resulted in Kampakis’ cards being carried by almost 100 upscale boutiques. As her children began to arrive, Kampakis took up children’s photography, which turned into another successful busi-ness venture for the Tuscaloosa native.

“I had pretty much stopped writing at this point,” Kampakis says, “and I knew I wanted to write again.”

Kampakis began making herself known both through the “new media” en-vironment, as well as through more tradi-tional paths. Her “Life Actually” column is featured in two over–the–mountain publi-cations, Village Living and 280 Living. Her website, KariKampakis.com, collects those essays along with others exclusive to the site, her online column “Ponytail Mom.” The site also gives updates on Kampakis’ efforts to sell her first novel, Candy Apple.

“My mother published her autobiogra-phy, which was part of my big epiphany. I wanted to write again, and I wanted to inspire my children the way my mother in-spired me,” Kampakis says.

Finding a larger audience for Candy Ap-ple has taken Kampakis through critiques and negotiations with literary agents, ulti-mately leading her to a Romance Writer’s Conference.

“I’m glad it’s not been an easy success, because I have learned so much,” she says.

74 b-metro.com

Donna Smith, vice presi-dent of human resources and ethics for Alabama Power, is challenged with issues, such as race and gender conflict, per-

sonality clashes between supervisors and workers, hiring the best employees for the company and keeping employees healthy, physically and mentally, in tough econom-ic times. Smith tries to help the close to 7,000 Alabama Power employees feel con-nected and realize how their jobs can posi-tively impact the company.

“It’s human nature to want to hire people who are just like us, who think like we do,” says Smith, who handles issues for all of Alabama Power’s locations. “What is hard is hiring someone who thinks differ-ently—but that’s important to a company that has so many long-term employees. The unintended consequence of so many long-term employees is that you have to challenge yourself for innovation and di-versity.”

Smith earned a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in communications from the University of Alabama. She has her secondary education certification and an MBA from Samford University. “All

that says I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life,” Smith says with a laugh.

After a short stint as a public school teacher, she joined Alabama Power in 1976. “I can’t believe I’ve been here this long; it’s all because of this company,” Smith says. “It’s a great place to work and there are so many different things to do.”

Smith began teaching corporate com-munications in the classroom to Alabama Power employees, then helped write the mechanized equipment manual that work-ers kept in their trucks. She moved into IT, documenting manual purchasing pro-cesses in the shift to automated purchases. From there, she joined human resources and became director in 2002. Smith said one of the projects she is most proud of was being the project manager for South-ern Company’s recent compensation and benefit study. “We found areas of improve-ment, made some recommendations that were accepted and made changes,” Smith says.

She was promoted to vice president of human resources and ethics in 2011.

“The ethics role is responsible for the culture and tone of doing the right thing,” Smith says. “We put a premium on having people treat each other with respect, and

we have a culture of doing the right thing.”Through her own convictions and the

encouragement of Alabama Power for its employees to give back, Smith continues to be involved civically with young girls and women. Among her many civic and leadership achievements, Smith was the first board president of the Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama, chairwoman of the Women’s Fund Advisory Board that combats domestic abuse and women’s economic security issues, a board member of Pathways women and children’s shelter and chair of the Go Red For Women lun-cheon this year.

The Birmingham Business Journal named Smith one of “Birmingham’s Top Wom-en” and in 2010 she was the winner of the Mary Baldwin College Alumnae Commu-nity Service Award.

When she’s not working, Smith plays tennis and enjoys doting on her grandchil-dren.

“I’m proud of building and develop-ing the human resources team here at Alabama Power; they make a difference,” Smith says. “I think they are able to sup-port the culture that the leadership team wants. They are not afraid to deal with conflict.”

Smith says she continues to grow and be challenged at Alabama Power. “I like the variety, I like the problem-solving and I like the transferring of information to other people to do their jobs better. I like being able to be an influence.”

hUmAn nATUre Donna Smith of Alabama Power brings compassion, experience to human resources.by Kelli Hewett Taylor

“it’s human nature to want to hire people who are just like us, who think like we do,” says smith, who handles issues for all of Alabama Power’s locations. “what is hard is hiring someone who thinks differ-ently—but that’s important to a company that has so many long-term employees.

Donna Smith Photo by Liesa Cole

organizationsfor women

b-metro.com 75

Girls Incorporated is a nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through a net-work of local organizations in the United States and Canada. www.girlsinc.org

Hadassah is a volunteer women’s organization whose members are mo-tivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity, and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society. www.hadassah.org

The Junior League of Birming-ham, Inc. is an organization of nearly 2,600 women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and to improving the community through the effective action and leader-ship of trained volunteers. www.jlbon-line.com.

The Bell Center for Early Interven-tion Programs exists because of the in-sight and energy of the members of the Service Guild of Birmingham. The Ser-vice Guild has for fifty-two years brought women together to serve the needs of children with disabilities. www.theser-

viceguild.org.

Network Birmingham, Inc. was founded in 1985 by Shirley Guinn to pro-mote communication among career-ori-ented women. www.networkbham.net.

The Women’s Network is a group of women that meets monthly, comprised of executives and community leaders. (205) 970-5500.

The UAB Women’s Club is a 501(c)(3) whose primary service project funds scholarships to women attending UAB. Candidates should be 25 years or older and enrolled as full or part-time under-graduate students. Interested individuals should contact the UAB Office of Stu-dent Financial Aid for applications and further details. www.uab.edu/uabwc/service.

The YWCA Central Alabama is an organization of women whose mission is to create a more caring community. Founded in the Christian faith, the YW is a diverse group that identifies and re-sponds to the needs of women and fam-ilies of all races and religions. The YW

plays a leadership and collaborative role as it works to achieve positive change in the lives of individuals and in the com-munity. www.ywcabham.org.

BirminghamCREW is the premier commercial real estate association in the Greater Birmingham Area for women and men who do business with them in all disciplines of commercial real estate: commercial real estate brokers, real es-tate attorneys, lenders, architects, ac-countants, developers, commercial inte-rior designers, engineers, title company professionals, environmental consul-tants and other related financial, market-ing and consulting disciplines.

Go Red For Women celebrates the energy, passion and power of women who band together to wipe out heart dis-ease and stroke.

The Komen North Central Alabama Affiliate was formed in 1994 by a group of concerned professionals and breast cancer survivors who were commit-ted to saving and improving the lives of those affected by breast cancer. www.komenncalabama.org

76 b-metro.com

Of the 140 members of the Alabama legisla-ture, only 19 of them are women, including second-term Rep. Pa-tricia Todd of Birming-

ham. That’s about one female legislator for every six men in the state houses.

“I wish there were more women in the legislature,” Rep. Todd says. “Whenever you have good diversity in any group, you get a stronger group.”

That seemingly unimpressive ratio, which makes Alabama’s legislature the 48th most male-dominated in the coun-try, is actually a sign of some progress.

As recently as 1998, the state’s legislative branches had only six women between them.

Todd characterizes herself and her 18 female colleagues as committed problem solvers. “The women in the legislature are more likely to get together and try to work out the differences” on pending legisla-tion, Todd says. “I’ve found the women I work with to be less personally competitive and more focused on solving problems. They can see beyond their own self-inter-est and exercise good old-fashioned com-mon sense.”

Todd won a razor-thin victory for downtown Birmingham’s 54th District

in 2006 to become Alabama’s first openly gay elected offi-cial. It was a hotly contested race of five Democrats and an ultimately disputed elec-tion that wasn’t settled until a vote of the state Democrat-ic Executive Committee.

Four years later, Todd had become so popular in

her district, she ran without opposition. However, the environment in Montgom-ery, underwent a paradigm shift during those years, and today Todd is a member of an increasingly fragmented minority party.

“It’s different, but in many ways it’s still the same,” Todd says of the new nor-mal in the state legislature. “I knew what to expect when I got here, and it’s largely no different now. And I am the same as I was before. I am still open to any conversa-tion. I’m a consensus builder. And I want to see this state be as strong a state as it can be.

“But change takes a long time in Ala-bama. I am honored that my job helps me be a part of the change that’s coming.”

Until last September, Alabama’s state checkbook had never been held by a woman.

So it says a lot about Dr. Marquita Da-vis that last year, with state finances still less than perfectly stable, Alabama Gover-nor Robert Bentley didn’t hesitate to make then-state finance director David Perry his new chief of staff and, for the first time in history, put a woman in charge of Ala-bama’s finance department.

But, then again, Davis was a well-known quantity, one that the governor trusted. Beginning in 2008, Davis had proved herself as commissioner of the Department of Children’s Affairs under Bentley and former Governor Bob Riley.

women in government

“i’ve found the women i work with to be less personally competitive and more fo-cused on solving problems. They can see beyond their own self-interest and exer-cise good old-fashioned common sense. i’m a consensus builder. And i want to see this state be as strong a state as it can be.

“But change takes a long time in Ala-bama. i am honored that my job helps me be a part of the change that’s coming.”

Rep. Patricia ToddPhoto by Liesa Cole

b-metro.com 77

“I admire her work ethic and intelligence,” Governor Bentley said of his choice in Au-gust.

Known in Montgomery circles for her tenacity, high standards and teamwork — and as a political independent — Davis was stunningly energetic and upbeat in a recent weekday evening conversation, de-spite having a 12-hour workday behind her and a commute to Hoover ahead.

“I would have never imagined for my-self something as wonderful as my job,” Davis says with no false modesty. “It’s a privilege to serve the people of Alabama,” she says seriously before joking, “and sometimes it can be a whole lot of service.”

Davis is technically a Midwesterner, growing up in Peoria, Ill., and earning her undergraduate degree at Northern Il-linois outside Chicago. “But after twenty-something years, I feel almost completely Southern now,” Davis says.

“I had always intended to do graduate work at a historically black university,” Da-vis says of her arrival in Alabama, “and I chose Alabama A&M to get my Master’s.” (She also has a Ph.D. from UAB.) Davis admits to a little culture shock when she first arrived in Huntsville. “When you’ve grow up with liquor being sold at Wal-green’s, you realize quickly some things are going to be different,” Davis laughs. “But Southerners are open and friendly, and that’s how I am, so I felt right at home.”

Davis and her husband of 14 years, Michael, have deep ties in the Birming-ham community. Before going to work in the Riley administration, Davis was Head Start director at the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity. Michael is principal at the William J. Christian School in north Birmingham. The Davises attend Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover.

“I’m particularly grateful to my hus-band for everything he does that makes it possible for me to do what I do,” Davis says.

As state revenues remain uncertain for now, Davis seems energized by the task ahead.

“I don’t expect to escape challenges,” Davis says with infectious confidence, “but I am looking forward to the ride.”

Known in montgomery circles for her tenacity, high standards and teamwork — and as a political inde-pendent — davis was stunningly energetic and up-beat in a recent weekday evening conversation, de-spite having a 12-hour workday behind her and a commute to hoover ahead.

Dr. Marquita DavisPhoto by Liesa Cole

78 b-metro.com

Elected U.S. Representative for the 7th District of Ala-bama on November 2, 2010, with 72% of the vote, Terri A. Sewell is one of the first women elected to Congress

from Alabama in her own right, as well as the first black woman to ever serve in the Alabama Congressional delegation.

The 7th Congressional District in-cludes parts of the cities of Birmingham

and Tuscaloosa, as well as the counties of Alabama’s Black Belt – the heart of which is Terri’s hometown of Selma.

The first black valedictorian of Selma High School, Terri attended Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1986. Terri was awarded a Marshall/Common-wealth Scholarship and received a Masters degree with first class Honors from Oxford University in 1988. She is a 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School where she served

as an editor of the Civil Rights Civil Liber-ties Law Review.

After graduation, Terri served as a ju-dicial law clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge U.W. Clemon, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, in Bir-mingham. Terri began her legal career at the prestigious law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell in New York City, where she was a successful securities lawyer for more than a decade. Upon returning home to Ala-bama in 2004, she has made a significant impact both professionally and through her community activities.

Prior to her election to Congress, Terri was a partner in the Birmingham law of-fice of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. where she distinguished herself as one of the only black public finance lawyers in the State of Alabama.

`Terri is the daughter of retired Coach Andrew A. Sewell and retired librarian Nancy Gardner Sewell, the first black City Councilwoman in Selma, Alabama.

To say the least, Terri Sewell has a most impressive resume. But for the congress-woman, the many firsts and honors that have come her way started back home in

Selma.“I have had some pow-

erful women in my life. My mother is just so brilliant and a great role model—the epitome of a public servant/servant leader. She was the first African American to sit on the city council in Selma. I watched her wait to start her advanced degrees until we came of age. The moment I went off to Princeton, she started her masters program. I am where I am because my mom did not have the op-portunity to get here. She is so smart, but she could not go to Princeton because that opportunity was just not open to her.

“But the expectations she hoisted on me. I never for a moment thought that I could not do something because I was black or a

The home fronTFor Congresswoman Terri Sewell the opportunity to help her constituents in the 7th Congressional District is the ultimate homecoming.By Joe O’Donnell

b-metro.com 79

woman. I never saw my race and gender as a barrier to success because she never saw it as that. She is a librarian and I am a librarian’s daughter so I am always full of quotes and mantras. ‘So a person thinks so is he.’”

“I had to think I could become a mem-ber of congress or a lawyer or an Ivy League grad way before I had the opportunity to do any of those things. My community nurtured me. What influenced me to run for congress was I knew I had the skill set as bond lawyer, but I also had the back-ground. Who is going to fight harder for the district than someone who is from here.

“Some days I run on fumes, but I am daily reminded of the needs of the district and the need for me to be an advocate.”

Growing up the daughter of a strong woman, Terri Sewell understands the val-ue of the female perspective. “The voices of women benefit the community, every aspect from church and school to business and electoral politics. Being a native of Alabama, sometimes we have a traditional view of what it means to be a mother or a woman so that we don’t tend to think of ourselves as the candidate or the CEO. I heard one person say it best: Women wait to be asked to run and men run.

“I know that having a diversity of voic-es makes for better legislation and better representation of our community. I am proud and humbled to represent my home district. The last time I lived and worked in Washington I was a student intern in the office of Richard Shelby, who held this congressional seat at that time. It is a full circle moment for me to have the op-portunity to represent my home district in Congress. It is a huge responsibility to represent your home. My mom and dad are still in Selma. My aunts still live in the district. ”

Sewell’s election enables her to live out a core belief in the halls of power in the na-

tion’s capital. Namely that having women at the table when decisions are made are good for all of us.

“We are blessed in the current Con-gress to have that full array of voices. When women are at the decision making table, issues of family and children get ad-dressed and the life experiences of those women influence the policies that come out of that discussion. That is a great thing. While we may disagree about ap-proach, we all want the same objective. We want constituents to have access to quality healthcare. We want our children to have access to good public schools. So children can have the best chance in life. To me finding the common ground is the hope of a gridlocked Washington DC political establishment,” Sewell says

“My message to young girls and women is don’t wait to be asked and if you are waiting to be asked I am asking you right now: You can make a difference in your community. At end of day it is about making sure the multitude of voices are heard. We have to get off the sidelines and know that the decisions that are being made about issues that effect our everyday lives are being made without us—if we don’t participate.”

Thus far, Sewell’s Con-gressional career has been filled with the triumphs of helping her constituents nav-igate their way to access the federal government. “I am able to help my constituents, maybe a veteran trying to ac-cess benefits, for example, I am their conduit.

“We don’t have time or luxury of waiting. Congress

is a place where seniority matters, but I am not shy in giving my opinion because the people I represent cannot wait to be heard. I believe what we lack in economic prosperity we more than make up for in heart, spirit and fight. Providing access to resources and opportunities is my main objective,” Sewell says.

In Birmingham, Sewell says, she sees the power of women arrayed all around her. “I feel like I am in awesome company here in Birmingham. We may not be large in number but we are a powerful force. We play such important roles,” Sewell says. She finds in women the unique qualities of nurturers and multi-taskers, negotiators and mediators, and organizers.

“The challenge for women is the work/life balance. That is a real challenge espe-cially in the South where we have tradi-tional notions of families and the South-ern men we marry have expectations of us We can have it all but not always at the same time. My mother was absolutely right about that.”

“when women are at the decision making table, is-sues of family and children get addressed and the life experiences of those women influence the poli-cies that come out of that discussion. That is a great thing.”

Congresswoman Terri Sewell

80 b-metro.com

Having joined the Unit-ed States Attorney’s office more than 20 years ago, Joyce White Vance became one of the first U.S. attorneys

appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, with a district that includes 31 counties and four-and-a-half million peo-ple throughout Northern Alabama. She directs her large staff in Birmingham and Huntsville on federal issues from national security and the environment to civil rights and public corruption. She also co-chairs the U.S. Attorney General Advisory Com-mittee’s Criminal Practice Subcommittee.

Vance wryly credits her marriage to Jefferson County Judge Robert Vance—whom she met when both were law stu-dents at the University of Virginia—with being “the biggest single factor contribut-ing to my success. If I can successfully ar-gue that man into submission, then I can deal with any judge, any day, on any argu-ment.” Vance adds their four kids grew up hearing bedtime stories pulled straight out of their her experiences as a prosecutor. “In the stories, the bad guys always went to jail,” she recalls, adding, on a more seri-ous note, “The thing I like about the job is not the putting-people-in-jail part of it, but it’s knowing that you’re making a con-tribution to your community, and that ev-ery day you have the opportunity to make your community a safer place. You can treat people with respect and compassion but still be a serious and aggressive pros-ecutor.”

Augusta Dowd, vice president and managing lawyer for the firm of White, Ar-nold and Dowd, has more than 25 years’ experience as a trial lawyer, having repre-

sented both plaintiffs and defendants in business, civil litigation, personal injury, class action, whistleblower and other cases. She has been named a Best Lawyer in Mass Tort Litigation by U.S. News and World Re-port’s annual Best Lawyers list.

Recently Dowd made headlines for her representation of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama in its legal challenge to the state’s new immigration law. “That has been one of the most meaningful matters I have had the privilege to handle in my career,” Dowd says. “It resonates for me on many levels beyond just professionally—person-ally, morally and from a human decency standpoint.”

Inside her firm, Dowd says she is a strong advocate for promoting diversity. “Clients today are no longer the stereotypi-cal white males,” she says. “We have clients from all sectors and ethnic groups and of course females in positions of authority, and they’re certainly all in need of quality representation.”

When Beverly P. Baker of the law firm Ogletree Deakins looks ahead at how Americans are going to resolve disputes in the future—legally speaking, anyway—she sees great potential in the field of arbitra-tion. With more than 20 years experience practicing employment law, Baker has established herself as a leading arbitrator and mediator in this area, having success-fully mediated hundreds of commercial and employment matters. “Absolutely everything interests me about arbitration and mediation,” Baker says, describing it as a more efficient and, often, more sat-isfying process than taking cases to court. “I think the jury system is wonderful, but jurors can be swayed by a sympathetic plaintiff, defendant or the oratory of a re-

ally good lawyer. Arbitrators tend to me more removed and are trained to listen to the facts, weigh credibility and apply the law (accordingly). In addition, court procedure may frequently bar a number of kinds of evidence from coming in, but an arbitrator has discretion as to what evidence is allowed and can determine if value can be gained. The bottom line is that I think everyone comes out feeling as though they’ve at least had an opportunity to have their say.” Baker serves on panels for multiple arbitration organizations, in-cluding the American Arbitration Associa-tion, the National Arbitration Forum and National Arbitration and Mediation. She is also listed in Best Lawyers in America and has been inducted to the Alabama Law Foundation, an honor given to only one percent of attorneys in the state. She has also served as a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession.

Ann Huckstep, a partner with the law firm of Adams and Reese, LLC, was ahead of the curve in the field of health-care law in the early 1990s, when she was among the few who recognized the grow-ing need for expertise in this area. In the years since, healthcare providers have widely sought her counsel in regulatory compliance, business transactions, labor

women in law and medicine

inside her firm, dowd says she is a strong ad-vocate for promoting diversity. “Clients today are no longer the stereo-typical white males. we have clients from all sec-tors and ethnic groups and of course females in positions of authority, and they’re certainly all in need of quality repre-sentation.”

b-metro.com 81

Augusta DowdPhoto by Liesa Cole

82 b-metro.com

and strategic issues and related concerns. She has been ranked among the Best Law-yers in America for Health Care Law and Mergers, as well as Mergers and Acquisi-tions Law, since 2005.

Huckstep says the need for expertise in healthcare law is hardly abating. “Al-though we now have healthcare reform, we still have a great deal of uncertainty in the marketplace about what the future is going to hold,” Huckstep says. “We have big chal-lenges ahead of us.” Yet her busy practice has never slowed Huckstep’s extracurricu-lar ambitions.

For years she was the managing part-ner for the full footprint of Adams and Reese, which stretches across 13 offices in 12 markets. More recently, the firm has sought her leadership in helping the firm achieve its goals for diversity.

She is also in charge of lateral recruit-ment for the Birmingham office, taking an active role in mentoring fellow partners in client development and community in-volvement. Meanwhile, her own commu-nity involvement is extensive. She recently became chair of YMCA Birmingham’s board of trustees, which oversees the Y’s endowment.

Separately, she adds that she is proud of her firm’s efforts to reach out to local communities devastated by last April’s tornados. “Because we have offices in the Gulf Coast communities, we’ve been through storms like Katrina and have seen that often a lot of relief comes in at the be-ginning and then later things fall through the cracks,” she says.

So after the storms last year, the firm raised $30,000 from within its own ranks. Mayor William Bell’s office later helped to coordinate a matching grant from Toys R Us, providing Christmas gifts for about 100 children among the storm victims. “These were kids in Pratt City who other-wise would not have had Christmas, and that was something we could do,” she says. “I was excited about that.”

Judge Helen Shores Lee was born in Birmingham to Arthur and Theodora Shores. She has been married to Robert M. Lee, Sr., for 47 years. Judge Lee and her

husband have two sons, one daughter and four grandchildren. They are members of First Congregational Christian Church where she serves on the board of trustees.

Judge Lee was educated in the Birming-ham public school system. She attended Fisk University, Nashville, where she re-ceived a B. A. in psychology. She furthered her education by completing a masters degree in Clinical Psychology from Pepper-dine University in Los Angeles, California.

Upon coming home to Birmingham, Lee was employed in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an instructor of clinical psychology, where she provided outpatient services for individuals and families.

Lee decided to attend law school after 14 years of working in the field of mental health. In 1987, she received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. While a stu-dent at Cumberland, Judge Lee served as chair of the juvenile justice committee.

Judge Lee joined her father, Arthur D. Shores in his practice after law school. She practiced for 16 years until becoming a judge in January 2003.

Municipal Court Judge Nyya Par-son-Hudson is a graduate of Miles Law School, where she received her juris doc-torate in 2000. Managing attorney with The Hudson Law Firm, the Birmingham native also holds a master’s degree from the University of Alabama and a bach-elor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

She is the 2010 recipient of the Out-standing Young Professional Award from the Metro Birmingham Chapter of the NAACP.

A 2009 graduate of Leadership Bir-mingham, Parson-Hudson is also active in the women’s leadership program, Momen-tum.

She previously worked with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as a governmental relations manager and as director of the corpora-tion’s collections center, responsible for coordination civil and criminal actions against individuals who passed worthless checks.

UAB’s Pamela D Varner, M.D. is a 1977 graduate of the University of Alabama Medical School. Dr. Varner is a HealthGrades Recognized Doctor. Her specialty is anesthesiology.

Navigator, Inc. is a project meant to develop a stable workforce of highly skilled nurses and nurse educators in Alabama, while creating valuable job opportunities, especially for historically disadvantaged communities. Originally developed by Dr. Nancy Dunlap during her participation in the University of Michigan Executive MBA program, Navigator was designed to study nursing in Birmingham, comparing the cost effectiveness of recruiting nurses from outside the state versus training them within the state.

Navigator is a 501(c)(3) organization, that serves as a pipeline to foster the devel-opment of compassionate and knowledge-able nurses and create long-term interest in the profession. It does so identifying, supporting and encouraging school age students to enter nursing schools; support-ing promising nursing students so they do not fail for lack of minimal resources; and ensuring that the field of nursing educa-tion makes excellent training available to the future nursing workforce.

In 2020, Alabama is conservatively anticipated to have a shortage of 5,300 nurses. Ironically, while Alabama desper-ately needs more people to pursue careers in nursing, it also has a large population of young men and women in under-priv-ileged, predominantly African-American communities that are in desperate need of access to career opportunities. With those two synergistic needs in mind, a group of six executive MBA students at the Univer-sity of Michigan partnered with leaders of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, UAB School of Nursing and UAB School of Public Health to de-velop a practical and sustainable program that will address the nursing shortage by preparing, encouraging and assisting dis-advantaged members of the Birmingham community to become nurses.

b-metro.com 83

Nancy DunlapPhoto by Beau Gustafson

84 b-metro.com

Emily Hess Levine did not have to look far to find men-tors in philanthropic and civic endeavors in her com-munity.

Her parents, Donald and Ronne Hess, have long been known in the Birmingham community for their philanthropy, through their work with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the Birmingham Jewish Fed-eration, and the Ronne and Donald Hess Charitable Foundation.

Emily says the latter was her first intro-duction to the Women’s Fund, a nonprof-it which spun off from the Foundation last year to become its own nonprofit organi-zation dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in our community.

Levine serves on the board of direc-tors for that organization, a reflection of her passion for women’s causes, which also spills over to her involvement with the Ala-bama Birth Coalition, created to improve access to high-quality reproductive-health information and advocate for increased access to midwives, and with the YWCA.

“I am proud to be a part of these or-ganizations that are working to improve the lives of women and girls in the Bir-mingham area and throughout the state,” says Levine, the mother of a toddler and newborn who also works as a therapeutic horseback riding instructor with Special Equestrians.

“When I look at the great need that is out there, I’m encouraged by what they’re doing and hope to make a difference by in-troducing the work of these organizations to more people in the area,” she says.

A lifelong community volunteer,

Lisa Engel remembers a watershed event about 10 years ago when she felt truly humbled by the power of philanthropy. She was chosen to chair the Birmingham Jewish Federation (BJF) Annual Campaign and recalls that up to that time, the cam-paign had overwhelmingly relied on large gifts from relatively few donors. “One thing I was involved with was to make it a total community campaign, not only to inspire larger givers but to inspire every person to believe that whatever they could give or whatever their part was, that was important to the whole campaign.” She helped to introduce the concept of finding donors to promise matching funds, not nearly so widespread a practice then as it is now. “I think having matching funds re-ally transformed the whole philosophy to make it a truly grass-roots campaign, where each person feels like a stakeholder. It was inspiring to me in that we created a new system of philanthropy that still continues through to today.”

The BJF recently honored Engel with the Susan J. Goldberg Distinguished Vol-unteer Award, calling her “one of the most versatile, talented and inspiring volun-teers” in the organization’s history. The group also noted her involvement begin-ning a full 30 years ago with establishing a “sister city” relationship for Birmingham with the Israeli city of Rosh Ha’ayin and Birmingham, a partnership that now tran-scends the Jewish community to involve relationships throughout the larger Bir-mingham community.

Today Engel serves as co-chair for the BJF Community Relations Commission along with Amanda Weil, demonstrating a leadership model in which a more experi-enced volunteer pairs with a young person in his or her 20s. “The most wonderful

part about that is not only am I mentor-ing her, but I’m learning from her,” En-gel says. “It’s great having someone young with fresh passion and energy.”

Earlier in her career Engel worked in marketing for The Birmingham News and a family company, Crowne Partners, and says she’s always valued being able to apply her skills from the business sector to her work in philanthropy. “In both instances you want to opportunity to transform whatever market you’re dealing with,” she says. “But especially in the volunteer world you have the opportunity to transform lives.”

The YWCA Central Alabama’s 13th Annual Purse & Passion Luncheon will be held on Thursday, April 19, 2012. The 2011 luncheon posted record num-bers, with more than 1,400 women and men from all over the region attending with one goal in mind: to raise money for the critical programs of the YWCA.

The luncheon raised over $540,000 with donations coming from guests who were inspired and motivated by stories of hope and transformation from those whose lives have been touched by the YWCA.

Guests at the luncheon heard stories of hope and triumph featuring two families that have benefited from the YW’s array of shelter and child care services, as well as YWoodlawn.

The Purse & Passion Luncheon is the YWCA’s single largest fundraiser, having raised more than $5 million since 2000. These funds are raised from corporate and foundation sponsors, as well as contribu-tions from guests the day of the luncheon.

Over 60 companies supported the event, with support coming from Belk Inc., Harbert Management Corporation, Alabama Power Company, Protective Life Corporation and The Birmingham News.

For over a century, the YWCA Central Alabama has been responding to the needs of women and families. The YW’s pro-grams serve women and families by provid-ing: affordable child care for low-income families; child care and afterschool enrich-ment programs for homeless children; af-

women in philanthropy

b-metro.com 85

fordable housing for families and seniors and a full array of domestic violence ser-vices.

The Leading Edge Institute is a dynamic leadership program dedicated to working with college women across the state of Alabama. The program brings these women together to develop their leadership skills, expose them to critical is-sues facing Alabama and, most important, inspire them to make a difference in the state.

Thanks to the founding support from W. K. Kellogg Foundation and impressive ongoing statewide coporate and commu-nity support, Leading Edge has evolved from an inspiring initiative in 1999 to an innovative educational program with over 240 alumni to date.

Leading Edge seeks to change the lives

of young women across the state of Ala-bama, and in return, hopes these young women will lead the way to positive change throughout Alabama.

Leading Edge has the following goals.• Expand each woman’s concept of lead-ership and her perception of herself as an emerging, competent leader.• Encourage women to stay in Alabama after graduation to work for positive social change in their communities. • Support leadership action and personal growth through grant–funded service-learning projects created by students.• Build skills in collaboration, communi-cation, conflict management, project plan-ning, diversity awareness, personal finance and advocacy.• Engage women in learning about com-munity development, poverty, state issues and the history of Alabama through field experiences.

• Build a supportive and on-going net-work of women among a diverse student population.• Give women meaningful access to ex-perienced leaders and mentoring relation-ships.

Inspiring girls and young women to reach their full potential, GirlSpring is a new organization that brings girls and young women (ages 9 to 21) together to enhance their understanding of women’s issues and promote diversity and equality for women. This sharing of ideas happens in quarterly multicultural, “Inspiration Station” events that stimulate dialogue be-tween generations and cultures about real issues affecting girls’ lives today.

The organization is headed by long-time Birmingham philanthropist Jane Ste-phens Comer.

“when i look at the great need that is out there, i’m encouraged by what they’re doing and hope to make a difference by introducing the work of these organizations to more people in the area,” she says.

86 b-metro.com

For Leigh Perry, the ideal of good citizenship and help-ing others is ingrained in her psyche since childhood, an early family value. These days as vice president of Charitable

Giving for Alabama Power and president of the Alabama Power Foundation, that same early notion has coalesced into a working belief in the power of philanthro-py and the ability of the Alabama Power

family to help deliver that power. Alabama Power’s Charitable Giving

team was organized under Perry’s leader-ship in 2010 to focus Alabama Power’s philanthropic and community involve-ment efforts. “Philanthropy provides vital opportunities to make positive and perma-nent change in communities throughout Alabama. By having the Foundation’s financial strength aligned with Alabama Power’s vast people resources, we can ac-tively engage with other corporate and community leaders across the state to make that kind of impact,” Perry said.

A Birmingham native, Perry is well-

equipped to lead this vital Alabama Power effort. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, as well as a law de-gree, Perry also holds an MBA from Sam-ford University. “My education helped pre-pare me for my career, but I have learned more from on-the-job training during my career with Alabama Power than anything else,” said Perry.

Her 15-year career at Alabama Pow-er and Southern Company began with Perry serving in roles such as an attor-ney in Southern Company’s Atlanta and Washington, D.C., offices, which led to leadership roles at Alabama Power in eco-nomic and community development, envi-ronmental affairs, information technology and in real estate. Her first formal supervi-sor role was working on shift as a compli-ance manager at Plant Miller in Jefferson County. Perry swapped her suits and heels for a hard hat and steel-toed boots. “Ala-bama Power was in the midst of installing groundbreaking environmental controls in coordination with hundreds of employ-ees and contractors while still keeping the

lights on for thousands of our residential and business customers. It instilled in me a profound respect for the diversity of em-ployee skills needed and the relentless pur-suit of superior safety, environmental and operational performance through team-work and innovation,” said Perry.

The breadth of her experience at the utility works in concert with her passion for creating positive change to create a ma-jor head of steam behind Alabama Power’s charitable giving program. Perry oversees the largest corporate foundation in Ala-bama and one of the largest of its kind nationwide.

“We believe that the communities we serve have to be better off because we are there,” she said. “Alabama has its share of challenges, but our employees believe in in-vesting back in our communities –it’s been in our company’s DNA since its founding over a century ago. We give back in a num-ber of ways, including gifts of time.”

Perry’s group includes the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO), a statewide volunteer group of 5,000 em-ployees who contribute 50,000 volunteer hours each year, and the Energizers, a volunteer group of 1,200 Alabama Power retirees who contribute 40,000 volunteer hours each year.

“By working with other community leaders across the state, we seek oppor-tunities to make lasting positive impact,” Perry said. “The Alabama Power Founda-tion helps make medical services acces-sible to those in need. We strive to prepare students for the workplace. We support programs that inform people about our state’s rich history. We support land and water conservation efforts. We actively en-gage in disaster relief and long-term recov-ery efforts. Our mission is to help make Alabama a better place to live now and for future generations.”

The Alabama Power Foundation was founded in 1989 with an investment by Alabama Power shareholders. The Foun-dation awards more than 1,000 grants an-nually with non-ratepayer money and has assets in excess of $120 million. With more than 40 Foundation-endowed scholarships at most state universities and schools, hun-dreds of students have been given an op-portunity to further their education.

The Power To do GoodLeigh Perry and the Alabama Power Founda-tion she leads are in the forefront of creating a better Alabama.By Joe O’Donnell

“our role is to strengthen local communities in our state through investments in education, civ-ic activities, health services, the environment and the arts. This is a great place to live, and we want to make it better by investing our time and resources into projects that create positive change,” Perry says.

b-metro.com 87

In a complex world full of challenges, Leigh Perry sees one thing clearly: There is power in doing good.

Gillian Goodrich is the new board chair for The Community Foundation in 2012. She takes over from Bill Smith, who has been chair of the Community Founda-tion board of directors since 2010.

Goodrich brings a lot of experience to her role, as past president of the Junior League of Birmingham and board chair for the YWCA. She also served as chair of the Grant Review and Evaluation Committee for the Community Foundation.

The Community Foundation adopted a results and strategies program in 2010 to place an intentional focus on important areas of community life and create new op-portunities for maximum impact. A broad description of the results the program seeks to achieve: Children are successful along the education pipeline; People can lead healthy lives; Communities are sus-tainable, livable and vibrant; and individu-als and families are economically secure.

Additionally, in the wake of devastat-ing tornadoes that hit our region and our state in April 2011, the Community Foun-dation served as a philanthropic partner and leader in raising resources to rebuild lives and livelihoods.

The foundation also created Prize2the-Future: an on-line idea contest that drew more than 1,000 entries from all over the world and led to One Birmingham Place, the winning idea to transform a city block next to Railroad Park. Next step: imple-mentation of the $50,000 winning idea from Colin Coyne.

in a complex world full of challenges, Leigh Perry sees one thing clearly: There is power in a charitable foun-dation being able to make changes for the good.

Leigh PerryPhoto by Liesa Cole

88 b-metro.com

The Women’s Fund inspires women to use their phil-anthropic power to create positive social change for women and girls.

As the only funder in Alabama that awards grants solely to pro-grams that meet the unique needs of wom-en and girls, The Women’s Fund identi-fies gaps in services, champions vulnerable women and girls through community col-laboration and policy change, and funds innovative solutions to problems and chal-lenges.

Despite the dramatic advancement of women in recent decades, women are still far more likely than men to be homeless, to live in poverty, to be unemployed or under-employed, to face violence and to suffer inadequate housing and healthcare.

Although programs that address the needs of women and girls benefit society as a whole, less than seven percent of na-tional foundation budgets each year go to causes specifically earmarked for women and girls. Yet women control 51 percent of the nation’s wealth and make 83 percent of all consumer purchases.

The Women’s Fund of Greater Bir-mingham puts the decision-making power in the hands of women in order to change the face of philanthropy.

Because Alabama ranks 12th in the nation in the number of intimate partner homicides. The fund invests in systemic changes that reduce domestic violence.

Because single female–headed house-holds in Greater Birmingham are almost eight times more likely to be poor than married couple households, and an esti-

mated 15,277 female–headed households with children living at or below the pov-erty line. The fund invests in programs to improve the economic security of women and girls

The Women’s Fund of Greater Bir-mingham was a component fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Bir-mingham from 1996 to 2011. This year the group became its own 501(c) (3) organiza-tion in order to expand programs, advo-cacy for women and girls, and the philan-thropy of women.

There are a great number of factors affecting women’s economic security and the seven organizations awarded during the 2011 Grant Cycle operate programs targeting women’s financial security.

This year’s grants go beyond financial literacy to include programs that help low– income women receive all of their Earned Income Tax Credit refunds, assist female prisoners reentering society through job training and placement, support female entrepreneurs, and support savings ac-counts for women living on the margin.

Jeanne Jackson, president and CEO of the Women’s Fund, noted that “in these difficult economic times it is more impor-tant than ever for women to help other women become strong economically. We were pleased to award $80,000 in grants in 2011. However, the needs for women and girls are extensive as we had $300,000 in grant requests, the largest request amount in our 15–year history.”

The Women’s Fund’s 2011 Grants:Aid to Inmate Mothers

Life Style 360: Prepares previously in-

carcerated women for employment that will offer a sustainable income by utilizing an integrative, vocational education pro-gram combining social skills training with employment education and financial edu-cation. LS360 will work to enroll women in continuing education and vocational training.

Central Alabama Women’s Business Center

This women’s business opportunity project consists of a curriculum on home business start-up offered to low income women in Walker and Jefferson Counties. The curriculum has six modules focused on business start-ups and job market-ability. Unique to this program is an ap-plication process, screening and required attendance to complete the program. Ap-propriate business start-up incentives are awarded to graduates.

Girls Inc. The Economic Literacy Program is an

expansion of Money Talks workshops to include one year of free child care with cost of childcare deferred to a savings account so that mothers are able to grow their savings and put the tools they learn in the workshops to use.

HICA Asset Building and Economic Devel-

opment Program: The Hispanic Inter-est Coalition of Alabama will expand its program to strengthen workforce develop-ment, increase financial literacy (tailored to the immigrant community), encourage saving and banking, and help build assets through dollar-to-dollar matched savings accounts for women.

Impact AlabamaA grant will continue the Save First

program which trains college students to provide free tax preparation services to low-income Alabamians, and ensures the receipt of tax deductions and refunds such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Leading Edge Institute The Ripple Effects, which builds assets and creates security for women, is a one year pi-lot for an ongoing robust alumni program

A fUnd for womenBrooke Battle is the 2012 chair of The Women’s Fund, a philanthropy designed to meet the unique needs of women.

b-metro.com 89

for Leading Edge graduates. When fully implemented, it will include online webi-nars, video conferencing, and a variety of workshops and opportunities to join other alumni in service and advocacy initiatives. Pathways, Inc.

A grant continues the Fiscally Fit Pro-gram, a financial literacy program for wom-en and children using the FDIC’s Money Smart Program. The Fiscally Fit program will be offered to Pathways residents who are working with a case manager to obtain permanent housing and day visitors who are referred by other area agencies.

Brooke Battle, 2012 chair of The Women’s Fund, became active in the orga-nization about a decade ago.

“Natalie Davis, who was my professor at Birmingham-Southern, invited me to be on the board. I joined and then I began to really understand the economic situation women face. I realized how influential a role a woman plays in the life of a child, and on the future of our community.

“If you really want to change the fu-ture, you should strengthen the mother. If we give them the tools they need, I know mothers will do their best if you put the right tools in their hand,” Battle says.

Becoming a mother solidified Battle’s interest in women and girls because she is the mother of two girls.

Battle has a background in finance, but her primary interest these days lies in the internet. While working for a financial company that began making investments in digital media properties, she became intrigued with the value of the web. “In so many cases, the demographic web com-panies and publishers were trying to reach were women.

“At the same time research was show-ing that successful web sites were increas-ingly hyper–local. Investors began seeing the real value in having a hyper–local site.”

Battle invested in BirminghamMom.com with founding partner Tina Holt and in a portfolio of URLs. “The point is to provide very quick answers to some very common questions mothers have: birth-day party ideas, quick dinners and places to entertain the kids.”

90 b-metro.com

Brooke BattlePhoto by Liesa Cole

Nichelle Gainey is the President of SilverStone International, LLC, a full-service internation-al consulting firm spe-cializing in creating val-

ue by connecting business with sports. She created SilverStone International in 2004 to develop synergies between international interests and the United States around her passion for sports and international and community relations.

Gainey has a 15-year track record in sports as an athlete, teacher and business professional. Her background includes serving as a liaison for community, cor-porate and governmental affairs, and pro-viding leadership to secure sports funding from local, state and federal agencies in the United States. In addition, Gainey coordinated communications for colle-giate women’s and men’s sports programs, sports conferences and championship games for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

She also worked with National Colle-giate Athletic Association to establish soc-cer programs at HBCU’s. She also served as a member of the NCAA Site Selection Committee for Division I for soccer cham-pionships.

“Growing up there was never a role mode,” Gainey says. “Being a female in a male–dominated industry is extremely challenging, but the management required to grow a company in the sporting indus-try is dynamic.

“Nothing comes easy. I have my chal-lenges, especially early on,” Gainey says. “My brother would say if you can’t wake up in the morning and deal with the criti-cism and comments you should get into a different business.

“Much of how you have to maneuver

requires thick skin, and you have to have transparency, loyalty and commitment,” Gainey says. “In time your integrity and values will show through. I will never change those things to be successful, and if I had to I would walk away.”

Gainey is the youngest woman to be appointed to serve on the World Cup Planning Committee for the 2010 games in South Africa. Her appointment in that country came through relationships she formed and maintained four years ago as a delegate of the Birmingham International Festival, one of the oldest U.S. cultural re-lations organizations. The committee had a chance to view and follow her skills that will help in preparations for 2010 games

She graduated from Alabama A&M University, where she was also a member of the swim team for two years and a pres-tigious MARC fellow, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She also has an ad-vanced degree in chemistry.

She is president of the Birmingham Women’s Golf Association, and an advi-sor for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity pro-gram for HBCUs. She is a member of: the National Association of Collegiate Direc-tors of Athletics; Marketing Opportunities in Business Entertainment; the Executive Women’s Golf Association; the National Association of Women Business Owners; and a charter member of the National Council of Negro Women Birmingham Chapter.

Gainey is also a board member of the Police Athletic Team and of First Tee, both organizations that cater to young people, and a graduate of Leadership Bir-mingham’s Class of 2004. She is commit-ted to mentoring women in business and sports and has been selected to serve on the board on Girls Inc. She is also a board member of the Birmingham’s Sister Cities

Commission. Gainey’s commitment is to create eco-

nomic opportunities by connecting busi-ness with sports across all segments.

Myla Calhoun Choy is general counsel and senior vice president of re-gional development and public policy for the Birmingham Business Alliance. Choy is responsible for all legal matters and public policy initiatives of the organiza-tion. She also directs the development of initiatives and programs that will enhance the quality of life and create a more livable seven-county region, including regional re-vitalization, intellectual capital and work-force development initiatives.

“There is a growing recognition that inclusion of women in leadership roles and on leadership tracks is a smart, stra-tegic move and not just a novelty,” Choy says. “Resistance to change may exist but I think we are beginning to chip away at that. In a perfect world would the pace of this change be different? Sure. But, as un-comfortable as dealing with obstacles—par-ticularly those based on gender- can be, it builds resilience, and I think recovery skills are incredibly important for any leader.

“Among the women that I think of as leaders in this community, it seems to start with a personal and often relentless commitment of their talent and resources to affect change, to affect the thinking of those around them to be better and to do better.”

Choy previously served as legal counsel for United States Pipe and Foundry Com-pany. At U.S. Pipe, she was involved in negotiating the project development agree-ments that led to the site selection and construction of the company’s Marvel City Mini-Mill in Bessemer, the first ductile iron pipe facility built in the United States in more than 60 years. Before joining U.S. Pipe, Calhoun Choy was associated with Spain & Gillon, LLC, where her practice focused on urban renewal and revitaliza-tion, municipal finance and governmental affairs.

A graduate of Spelman College in Atlan-ta, Georgia and the University of Alabama Law School and admitted to practice law in Alabama and Georgia, Calhoun Choy lives

women in Business

b-metro.com 91

Nichelle GaineyPhoto by Liesa Cole

Myla ChoyPhoto by Beau Gustafson

in Birmingham with her two daughters. “There are many women who I admire, and who, each day, make this place—this city and region—a bit stronger and brighter by what they do and how they go about do-ing it. And despite whatever challenges we may face as a community, that is very good news indeed,” Choy says.

Sherry Welch Lewis life experi-ences are filled with near misses, struggle, strength, courage and triumph. She has discovered God’s power that lies within and has emerged as a living testament to God’s power and presence.

She is an active member of Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where she serves as a Sunday school teacher, on the Shiloh Advanced Leadership Team, as Brick Campaign Chairperson, and on the Women’s Ministry, and Cornerstone of Revitalization Board.

Lewis serves as the First Vice–Chair/First Vice President of the Birming-ham Water Works Board (BWWB) the largest water utility in the state of Ala-bama. BWWB is listed as one of the top water utilities in the country. Lewis brings experience and energy to key aspects of the water works, including its capital improve-ment program, plant upgrades and an improved customer service department. She has also spearheaded a high–school internship program and the “Wonderful Works of Water” school program for fifth graders that explains the fundamentals of water as it relates to science.

With over two decades of working in the community, she presently serves as the vice president of the Belview Heights Neighborhood Association, a member of Five Points West Community Associa-tion, NAACP Centennial Chairperson, District Eight “Party with a Purpose, and the UNCF leadership committee. Her ac-tivism also included service to the United Way Allocations Committee, PTA Coun-cil of Birmingham Vice President, Bir-mingham City Youth Council, American Heart Association, and the YWCA. She has served as campaign manager for sev-eral local politicians.

“I think women understand that the community and the corporate areas of

92 b-metro.com

“There is a growing recognition that in-clusion of women in leadership roles and on leadership tracks is a smart, strategic move and not just a novelty. resistance to change may exist, but i think we are beginning to chip away at that.”-Mila Choy

b-metro.com 93

Sherry LewisPhoto by Liesa Cole

Birmingham work together. We are lead-ers yes, but we are servant leaders. As I travel, I see women across the country coming together, but as Southern woman we come together in quite a different way. Our strength is our ability to adjust to many different situations,” Sherry Lewis says. “I feel comfortable with women in leadership.

“I wear different hats in leadership and servant roles. I get to see all of the different aspects of how women work. I am excited about being a woman in Birmingham and in the state of Alabama and United States because there is so much more for us now, so many more opportunities.

“I see these young women growing into roles and I am amazed and excited. I see that they have a drive; that they are thinkers thinking outside the box. They take the words ‘no’ and ‘can’t’ out of their vocabulary. They never tell me what they can’t do,” says Lewis, who mentors two young women. “It encourages me to see the great group of women coming on. Take, for example, education in math and the sciences. We are no longer afraid to meet the challenges of today.”

Employed with AT&T for over ten years, she also has 15 years of banking experience. Lewis is a native of Birming-ham and was educated in the Birmingham public school system. She is the youngest of three and the daughter of Catherine Welch. She is a summa cum laude gradu-ate of Miles College with a degree in man-agement and is the mother of one son, Joseph.

Anita Allcorn-Walker has served as vice president and comptroller of Ala-bama Power Company since 2010. She joined Alabama Power in 1990 as an in-ternal auditor responsible for audits across the various operations of the company. From 1993 to 2000, she held positions of increasing responsibility associated with financial planning, finance, treasury, trust finance and budgeting. Since 2000, Allcorn-Walker has served in other leader-ship roles in accounting including assis-tant comptroller, responsible for the Com-pany’s financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting. Other

“i see these young women growing into roles, and i am amazed and excited. i see that they have a drive; that they are think-ers thinking outside the box. They take the words ‘no’ and ‘can’t’ out of their vocabu-lary. They never tell me what they can’t do,” sherry Lewis says.

94 b-metro.com

Pardis StittPhoto by Liesa Cole

areas of responsibility have included fuel and joint ownership accounting, bank and account reconciliation, and accounting re-search.

Allcorn-Walker always knew what she wanted to accomplish. She wanted to be an accountant and she wanted to go the University of Alabama.

“My influence in that came from my parents who ran a small business. Their accountant was always part of their deci-sion-making. They respected him, and he helped them make more informed deci-sions,” Allcorn-Walker said.

“In a company this large, you have people who specialize in a lot of differ-ent things and the neat thing is you bring your specialty to the table. My specialty is accounting, finance, budgeting, and plan-ning. You sit down with experts in external affairs and human resources — all of those kinds of things — and you come out with a good product. A product that is good for our customers and good for the company,” she said.

Allcorn-Walker graduated with a bach-elor of science degree in commerce and

business administration with a major in ac-counting from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in business adminis-tration from Samford University. She is a certified public accountant in the state of Alabama and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Alabama Society of Certified Pub-lic Accountants. She serves on the advi-sory board of the Salvation Army Greater Birmingham Area Command.

It is a busy life and as a mother of two, Allcorn-Walker has to find the right balance, a task she could not accomplish without her supportive husband, Robert. A former teacher and human resources ex-ecutive, he now works at home with the family in Oneonta.

“I guess what I have really learned about balance is that balance is not a perfect place you come to and stay all the time. Balance is more like ‘I try to work very efficiently through the week so that I can be with my family on the weekend and other critical dates.’ We are looking for perfection that does not exist. Sometimes balance comes from the rest of the family

stepping in to help. I could not do what I do here without my husband.’

The extraordinary reputation of Birmingham as a great town for food lovers is directly attributable to the restaurants Pardis Stitt operates with her husband the celebrated chef Frank Stitt. Highlands, Chez Fonfon, Bottega and Bottega Café are touchstones of class, quality and good times and have been for years now.

“Most people are unaware of the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes of a restaurant. Much of what I do on a daily basis consists of coordinating ideas, people and products to provide an incredible experience for our guests. My work is all-encompassing and I wake up and go to sleep thinking about how to cre-ate a better environment for the staff and guests,” Stitt says.

“The great reward is the immediate sat-isfaction of seeing a guest with a smile on her face after the first taste of dinner. Or the excitement of a bustling evening in one of the bars where the wine is flowing and the conviviality is high. Or when a regular leans over to the table next to them—know-ing that this is a first time for these guests—and gives them tips on what to order for dessert, because this restaurant is their place away from home. The other reward is the ability to make an impact on the staff—to have a young man from Pratt City, who has never been in a formal restaurant and began working with us as a waiter’s as-sistant, work his way to a server position. Then to hear him tell someone about the nuances of a wine from the Piedmont, and why it works well with the carne cruda is transformational for both of us,” she says

There are more women in the restau-rant business now than ever before, filling roles from chef to general and floor man-agers, sommelier to server. There are more women enrolling in culinary schools. “A female perspective is a definite plus in our organization,” Stitt says.

And in the city as a whole. “We have our issues in this city but I believe that Birmingham is empathetic to women...just look at Carol Garrison, leading the largest employer in the state, who has the respect of the social, political and business

b-metro.com 95

community. Gail Andrews runs one of the South’s most important art museums. Cathy Crenshaw has created with the Pepper Place Market, one of the greatest farmers markets in the country. Ann Flo-rie, Bobbie Knight and Kate Nielsen are others I think of as major leaders in this city and who I look to as mentors. Ama Shambulia’s work with the West End com-munity garden is inspirational. The next generation will likely draw on the work of these women and so many others; the chain will continue to be strengthened.”

Started in 1999 as an emergency response company, Shannon Riley has grown One Stop Environmental to be a premier woman owned full-service envi-ronmental company based in the South-east and serving the entire Continental U.S. Riley has led One Stop Environmen-tal to be one of the fastest–growing com-panies in Alabama. The firm has been ranked on the Inc. 500 and ICIC 100.

As a businesswoman, Riley sees leader-ship all around her. “Leadership roles for women are being filled at all levels of the community here in Birmingham. Specifi-cally in Woodlawn, women like Samantha Masdon oversee the YWCA’s interfaith and housing projects. As a part of its mis-sion of eliminating racism and empower-ing women, the YWCA Central Alabama has partnered with Girls on the Run to provide a healthy after-school activity to build self-esteem for girls in Woodlawn.

“The Junior League of Birmingham invests heavily with their time and funds; one of their members, Kathryn Harbert, leads specific projects to support the wom-en and children living in the Woodlawn community. Through the Beeson Commu-nity Fund of the Junior League of Birming-ham, donations were given to enable the YWCA to purchase the “corner building” now being used as the community educa-tion center.

“Sally Mackin, executive director of Woodlawn United, has worked to leverage financial resources to maximize public and private investments. Also Cornerstone School’s executive director Nita Carr has grown a strong school in Woodlawn with 260 students from 4-year-old kindergar-

ten through eighth grade. After a May 31, 2009, fire that destroyed the historic Woodlawn United Methodist Church building, some people wondered if the church would rebuild there or move else-where. The church stayed and turned its rebuilding project into a joint venture with nearby Cornerstone Schools, using a lot owned by the private Christian school at

139 54th St. North for a worship center and gymnasium.

“I could speak for hours and hours about the women in our community alone that are helping propel our city forward. Over the past few years, more and more women have been elected to the city and county governments. I know our commu-nity would not be what is today without

Nancy GoedeckePhoto by Beau Gustafson

these innovative women leaders,” Riley says.

Perhaps one of the most power-ful women in Birmingham is Dr. Carol Garrison, president of UAB. Carol Garrison has had an extraordinary view of her alma mater. She took her first full-time job in UAB Hospital during the university’s formative years in the 1970s, then earned her master’s degree from UAB. When she returned to cam-pus in fall 2002, as UAB’s sixth presi-dent, the young, dynamic institution had evolved into a world-renowned research university and medical center.

A Montclair, NJ native, Dr. Garri-son earned her bachelor’s (1974) and Ph.D. in epidemiology (1982) from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She was a faculty member, depart-ment chair, dean and provost at the University of South Carolina (1982-1997). She joined the University of Louisville as provost in 1997 and was appointed interim president there in early 2002.

As president of UAB, Dr. Garri-son also chairs the board of the UAB Health System, which includes UAB Hospital, The Kirklin Clinic and other of UAB’s nationally-ranked patient care facilities. UAB is the state’s larg-est single employer, with more than 21,000 employees, and has an annual economic impact of $4.6 billion on Alabama.

During Dr. Garrison’s tenure, the institution has enjoyed remarkable growth and development. Recent years have seen the opening of such new fa-cilities as the North Pavilion of UAB Hospital and the Shelby Interdisciplin-ary Biomedical Research Building, the burgeoning Campus Green along Uni-versity Boulevard, and most recently, the UAB Women & Infants Center and Hazelrig-Salter Radiation-Oncolo-gy Facility.

The growth of the physical cam-pus and academic programs has been guided by UAB’s strategic plan. Devel-oped with campus-wide participation in 2003 and refined in fall 2010, the

96 b-metro.com

Dr. Carol GarrisonPresident of UAB

b-metro.com 97

Strategic Plan has led to the recruitment of internationally known faculty and phy-sicians and the creation of innovative new curricula and honors programs for under-graduates. UAB has seen record enroll-ment for three consecutive years, reaching 17,575 in fall 2011. Forbes lists UAB among the top 20 percent of all U.S. undergradu-ate institutions and The Princeton Review has ranked the university among the top 10 nationally for student diversity for three consecutive years (currently 5th).

Now in her 10th year as president, Dr. Garrison continues working in partner-ship with the campus and the community toward an extraordinary vision for UAB and for Birmingham.

Another innovator among women executives has been Pam Siddall, presi-dent and publisher of The Birmingham News Multimedia Company. The move-ment to multimedia in print and digital products beyond the daily newspaper, the sense that The News is an active participant in the life of the community, even printing a daily edition of The News on pink paper to raise breast cancer awareness have been very visible signs of Pam Siddall’s brand of leadership.

In the corporate realm, women are increasingly playing major roles at the very pinnacle of corporate Birmingham.

Carolyn M. Johnson has been chief operating officer and executive vice presi-dent of Protective Life Insurance Co. since June 1, 2007.

Johnson has been in the insurance in-dustry for more than 25 years. She serves as director of LIMRA International, Inc.and as a director of Protective Life Insur-ance Company.

Nancy Goedecke is chairman and CEO of Mayer Electric Supply. Nancy and Mayer Electric Supply have always been connected through her grandfather, Ben Weil, who founded the business, and her mother and father, Patsy and Charles Col-lat. Nancy began working at Mayer during the summers of her high school years. Af-

ter her college graduation and marriage to Glenn Goedecke, her career in electri-cal wholesale distribution continued in Grand Rapids, MI. With a subsequent move to Tampa, FL, Nancy began her work as an inside sales associate at Mayer and as an inside account manager. Upon her move to Birmingham and the arrival of a second son, Scott, Nancy’s time was devoted to her family, volunteer activities, and Mayer leadership.

In addition to her role as the chairman of Mayer, Nancy is an active member in the community. Nancy currently serves on the boards of the Collat Jewish Family Ser-vices, the YWCA, the Birmingham Jewish Federation, the Mountain Brook Founda-tion Board and the United Way.

Hillery Head Perkins is president and CEO of Ram Tool & Supply Compa-ny, headquartered in Birmingham. Ram Tool is a distributor of commercial con-struction supplies, power tools, accessories and concrete chemicals.

Head started with Ram Tool in 1993 as general counsel, and became president in 2005. Since 1993, the company has grown from five locations to 17, with ware-houses in seven states. Ram Tool’s foot-print spreads from Georgia to Texas. The company was honored by The Newcomen Society in 2009 for excellence in business.

Sandy Killion is majority own-er of Vulcan Industrial Contractors, a female-owned and female-managed con-tractor with experience in new construc-tion, brownfields construction, facilities expansion, environmental retrofits, and maintenance and operations services. Vul-can is very active in the power generation industry, powerplant maintenance, and construction, with offices and ongoing projects throughout the United States.

At the company, Killion works on financial management, marketing and strategic planning. Teresa Magnus is the company CEO. Some weeks, Killion says, her day is heavily focused on the business, other times her work in the community and with non-profits takes center stage.

After a long and varied marketing career in the banking industry, Michelle Gels has moved into a senior vice presi-dent role at BBVA Compass, working on the bank’s online sales component. Just as in the rest of the brick and mortar world, digital marketing has become increasingly important in the financial and banking sector of the economy.

The vision of sustainability, adap-tive reuse, walkability, agriculture and smart planning has no more consistent champion in Birmingham than Cathy Sloss Crenshaw. A Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, Crenshaw is always in motion, developing plans to take root alongside such city suc-cess stories as Pepper Place.

Idie Hastings is co-owner with her husband Chef Chris Hastings of The Hot and Hot Fish Club on Birmingham’s Southside. In a culinary career that has spanned more than two decades, Chris and Idie honed their skills from Rhode Island to Birmingham to California. In 1995, the Hastings returned to Birming-ham to open the Hot and Hot Fish Club, where Chris focused on the dinner menu and Idie used her pastry experience to de-velop the dessert menu.

Tammy Connor’s eponymous in-terior design firm, Tammy Connor Inte-rior Design, was founded in Charleston, SC in 1999 as a boutique-style residential and hospitality design firm providing com-prehensive, turnkey design. The firm has built its reputation on creating refined, traditional interiors that are comfortable and inviting.

After being a medical technolo-gist for 18 years, Margaret Jones decided to “do something with (her) creativity.” A native of Bessemer, Margaret opened Mar-garet Jones Interiors, LLC in 1990, and since, has since built a name synonymous with superior design.

98 b-metro.com

Suzanne Durham sees the world for what it is, a place of promise and pain. She’s been underpinning the promise for more than 30 years at the helm of the YWCA of Central

Alabama. What she loves about this city is “the community’s generosity and compas-sion for others. We need more leaders with the political will and resources to bring about some systemic changes that are des-perately needed to improve the quality of

life for all of us.”Under her leadership, the YW has be-

come a critical community agency known for meeting dire needs. Under the tag-line “eliminating racism and empowering women,” the YW’s major programs re-volve around affordable housing, afford-able child care and a broad array of domes-tic violence services.

The organization’s work in the Wood-lawn area is a classic study of leaders and volunteers bending to their will the seem-ingly intractable problems of crime, drug houses, prostitution and abuse. It’s far from perfect, but the neighborhood is bet-ter for the YW’s work. And as Durham will tell you, there is plenty more where that came from.

Leadership Birmingham’s purpose is to prepare and encourage its graduates to engage in greater individual and group action in order to contribute to the bet-terment of the community and its people. Each year, Leadership Birmingham brings together a class of 40 to 50 leaders from diverse backgrounds. Through a series of monthly seminars, these leaders come to know and understand more about the community and one another as they ex-plore timely issues and exchange ideas and points of view.

Leadership Birmingham seeks partici-pants from all sectors of the community, including education, business, law, medi-cine, neighborhoods, social service, the arts, government and the clergy. Partici-pants may be young or old, male or female. The focus of the program is to look at is-sues, opportunities and solutions within the benefit of a group dynamic.

Led by Ann Florie, Leadership Bir-mingham has led to relationships over the years that have created tremendous ben-efits to the growth of the community.

A native of Weldon, Ark., Florie re-ceived a B.A. in political science from Newcomb College of Tulane University. Prior to becoming executive director of Leadership Birmingham, she was the founding executive director of Region 2020, Inc., which led efforts to promote regional cooperation and citizen involve-ment in the areas of affordable housing,

women &Community

Ann FloriePhoto by Liesa Cole

b-metro.com 99

education, arts and culture, transportation and land use in a 12-county area in Cen-tral Alabama.

Florie serves on the boards of the Pub-lic Affairs Research Council of Alabama and Leadership Alabama. She serves as past president of the Downtown Kiwanis club and past president of the Freshwater LandTrust. She is on the the UAB School of Public Health Advisory Board, the UAB Leadership Cabinet, the UAB Conprehen-sive Cancer Center and the Alabama Na-ture Conservancy. She is a director on the Jefferson County Personnel Board and the Birmingham Water Works Board. In addi-tion, she is on Executive Committee of the Birmingham Business Alliance.

Rosie Butler operates under many people’s radar here in Birmingham. But in the fundraising community, Butler is and has a force to be reckoned, with a reputa-tion as a warrior for promoting public-health causes.

Though beset by health issues of her own, Butler’s contagious personality and can-do attitude have made it hard for peo-ple to walk away from a fundraising pitch.

As the founder of My Green Bir-mingham.com and Kelly Green Marketing and Consulting, Natalie Kelly has created a online resource for learning about the green, earth-friendly lifestyle.

A graduate of Auburn University, Kel-ly has worked in both the corporate and non-profit sectors but found a calling in her mission to help Birminghamians lead a more green lifestyle. Natalie has worked in the community as a volunteer for sev-eral environmental agencies and lately as an advocate for environmental education for youth in Birmingham.

MyGreenBirmingham.com has be-come an advocate for green lifestyles. The site sponsored a My Green Home Give-away in conjunction with Alabama Power Company, which offered one lucky home-owner a major remodeling that would lead to more efficient use of energy and a more sustainable lifestyle. Some of the aspects of that lifestyle include sustainable landscap-

ing, and energy–efficient appliances, insu-lation and energy systems.

In the mid 1990s, the Latino popu-lation began to increase dramatically in the metro Birmingham area. Isabel Rubio, a social worker at UAB, and Lisa Theus, lan-guage services coordinator at the Jefferson County Department of Health, noticed

this increase. In conversation over the next several months, the same question contin-ued so surface: Who, if anyone, was work-ing with immigrant Latinos to make sure they are supported in transitioning to life in a new country, where language and cus-toms are unfamiliar? In 1999, several meet-ings were held to attempt to answer this question. As a result, ¡HICA! was created as a nonprofit organization that same year

Natalie KellyPhoto by Beau Gustafson

100 b-metro.com

to address concerns about access to health-care, education, economic development, legal issues and community outreach for immigrant Latinos.

¡HICA!’s first official service en-deavor was a 40-hour interpreter training course, the first such training offered in Alabama. In 2002 alone, ¡HICA! trained over 50 qualified bilingual individuals on the ethics and techniques of professional interpreting. May 2002 marked the first publication of 10,000 copies of Bienveni-dos a Birmingham, the first comprehensive Spanish-language resource guide for Bir-mingham.

In 2003, ¡HICA! began working on ad-vocacy issues facing the immigrant Latino community. Through relationships estab-lished with national organizations includ-ing The National Council of La Raza, The Mexican American Legal and Education Defense Fund, The National Immigration Forum, The National Immigration Law Center and the Center for Community Change, !HICA! was involved at the na-tional level, which strengthened advocacy work at the state and local levels.

By 2006, !HICA! had become a full Agency Partner with the United Way and had established a solid name and trust in the community. More and more women were approaching the group re-garding domestic violence issues, and ¡HICA! served over 2500 people that year.

In that same year, ¡HICA! increased staff and hired a part-time mental health therapist and implemented ESOL classes.

With a nod to Hispan-ic tradition and a desire to find a creative, relevant fundraiser, ¡HICA! held the first Christmas Ta-males Sale in 2003. Staff and volunteers cooked, packed, ate, dreamed and breathed tamales until the last dozen was delivered from a borrowed church

kitchen by the end of December. ¡HICA! has received funding from

various sources, including United Way of Central Alabama, Alabama Power, Wa-chovia Bank, Vulcan Materials Company, State Farm, Publix and the Marguerite Casey Foundation as well as many private donors.

The introduction of HB56 last year has mobilized ¡HICA! like never before.

“We believe that HB56 is unconsti-tutional, unsustainable, and downright cruel,” says Isabel Rubio, Executive Direc-tor of ¡HICA!. Not only will we appeal the court’s decision, we will also mobilize and organize Alabamians to repeal this law and stand up for immigrant justice.”

According to Rubio and ¡HICA!, re-gressive laws like HB56 are symptoms of a broken immigration system which de-mands reform in Washington rather than in Montgomery. ¡HICA! advocates for measures that strengthen and protect com-munities, uphold justice and safety, main-tain family unity and offer educational opportunities. “¡HICA! invites everyone to participate in a civil, national dialogue

about immigration reform and calls for re-spect and celebration of immigrants’ con-tributions in our communities,” Rubio says.

Head of the local chapter of The Links, Inc., Vanessa Falls leads a volun-teer civic organization of concerned, com-mitted and talented women of African ancestry who seek to enhance the quality of life in our communities and the world.

The organization is primarily dedicat-ed to enriching and sustaining the cultural and economic survival of African Ameri-cans and persons of African descent, focus-ing on educational, health and economic needs.

The Birmingham Chapter of The Links, Inc., founded in 1956, has estab-lished itself as the leader in helping to im-prove the lives of underserved communi-ties. Providing more than 1,000 hours of community volunteer service through the arts, literacy, health and wellness, scholar-ships and other community services, the Birmingham Chapter has a dedicated commitment to service.

Head For 90 years, The Junior League of Birmingham has been a posi-tive force for change in Jefferson County. The JLB’s 2,600 trained volunteers collec-tively donate more than 50,000 hours of direct community service in Birmingham each year. The JLB’s 30 community place-ments address some of Birmingham’s most critical issues, including domestic violence awareness and prevention, health educa-tion to the at-risk community, life skills for families in transition and literacy.

The programs supported by The Junior League in these areas are broadly based and far-reaching, ranging from school readiness and literacy to personal finance skills and job readiness to living healthy and crisis intervention.

Attorney Leigh King Forstman is the president of The Junior League of Bir-mingham.

The Girl Scouts of Central Ala-bama Council currently serves 15,000 girls

Rosie ButlerPhoto by Beau Gustafson

b-metro.com 101

and 5,000 adults through Girl Scouting in over 1,100 Girl Scout troops. It provides a positive, nurturing environment for girl members ages 5 through 17 (kindergarten through grade 12). Program events and camping opportunities are available year-round with enrichment opportunities offered in other countries. On average, each girl participates in approximately 85 to 100 hours of Girl Scout programs each year.

Girls, Inc. delivers life-changing programs that inspire girls to be strong, smart and bold. Research-based curricula, delivered by trained professionals, equip girls to achieve academically; lead healthy and physically active lives; manage money; navigate media messages; and discover an interest in science, technology, engi-neering, and math. The network of local Girls Inc. nonprofit organizations serves 150,000 girls ages 6 to 18 annually at over 1,400 sites in 350 cities across the United States and Canada.

The executive director of the Birming-ham Girls, Inc. is Monique Gardner-With-erspoon, Ed.D.

In 2001, a group of dynamic, high-level leaders convened to discuss a means to elevate the professional potential of women throughout the state of Alabama. Momentum has been changing the land-scape of possibilities for aspiring executive women ever since, developing their leader-ship skills and increasing their numbers, effectiveness and visibility.

A well-established 501(c)3 organiza-tion, Momentum identifies top-level can-didates and addresses the unique challeng-es facing women in leadership positions. Through skills-based training and mentor-ing, Momentum helps build the capabili-ties of emerging Alabama women leaders by offering best practices for top-level man-agers. A vigorous one-to one mentoring program gives participants access to a pool of highly respected, experienced senior leaders for individualized problem-solving, as well as personal and professional devel-opment.

Momentum, launched officially in

2002, accepts approximately 25 women annually to participate in its prestigious program. Over the course of nine months, participants experience a curriculum de-signed to:

Provide tools and resources to inspire and educate women to serve in leadership roles.

Network these leaders to learn and work on problems together.

Enhance the image of executive wom-

en in business and communityAttract and retain the nation’s bright-

est women to help solve business and com-munity challenges.

Nominations and applications are ac-cepted in the spring. Participants are noti-fied in early summer with the program.

Dottie Pak of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is the volunteer president of Momentum; Barbara Royal is the execu-tive director. •

Isabel RubioPhoto by Liesa Cole