Business Alabama - November 2023

NOV 2023

SAMFORD TEACHES

24 THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS MOTION KEEPS

50 INDUSTRY MOVING CELEBRATING NATIONAL

66 PHILANTHROPY DAY

On the WATERFRONT

PATRICK LAWLER IS CHANGING THE FACE OF GUNTERSVILLE WITH HIS CITY HARBOR DEVELOPMENT

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BusinessAlabama.com

Volume 38 / Number 11

NOVEMBER 2023

CONTENTS

58

Autumn Zellner reads to her small charges at STARS Early Learning Academy in Fairhope.

Experts agree that quality childcare options are critical to bringing adults into the workforce. Photo by Bill Starling.

Features 11

EDUCATION BOLT FROM THE BLUE A UAH team hopes to fill in some of the knowledge gaps surrounding lightning.

18

DOUBLE YOUR CREDIT Dual enrollment lets high-schoolers get a head start on college.

24

TEACHING THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS Samford preps students for the non-athletic side of sports.

35

40

45

NEW WELDING CENTER OPENS AT WALLACE STATE Community college system offers many options for would-be welders.

50

MANUFACTURING MOTION QUICKNESS Irondale-based company acts fast to keep the global distribution supply chain moving.

53

REAL ESTATE OFFICE, SUITE OFFICE Employees increasingly are seeking home amenities while at work.

58

WORKFORCE CHILD CARE DILEMMA Initiatives around Alabama aim to increase access to child care for the workforce.

63

TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTIONIZING TAX SOFTWARE Meet the innovators of a promising new startup that is changing the game.

114

RETROSPECT UP IN THE ALABAMA AIR The Wright Brothers Flying School.

WELDING FOR WOMEN Calhoun, Wallace community colleges offer popular programs for women only.

EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATORS Preparing students for a career.

2 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

On the Cover: Patrick Lawler is changing the face of North Alabama one waterfront development at a time, with destinations like City Harbor in Guntersville.

Photo by Jeff White.

50 50: Motion helps keep the supply chain — and the conveyor belts that supply it — moving smoothly.

53: 2222 Arlington in Birmingham has been reimagined to make workers happy to be back in the office.

114: Stars flew in Alabama when Wilbur and Orville Wright established their first flight school in Montgomery.

TOP RANK 15 PUBLIC COMMUNITY COLLEGES 22 INDEPENDENT COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES 44 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES 57 COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FIRMS

Departments

53

SPECIAL SECTIONS 27 ALABAMA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SYSTEM 66 CELEBRATING NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY DAY 109 BUSINESS COUNCIL OF ALABAMA GEOGRAPHIC SPOTLIGHT 81 JACKSON, MARSHALL, DEKALB & CHEROKEE COUNTIES

114

5

BENCHMARKS: MONTHLY BUSINESS NEWS BRIEFING 113 CAREER NOTES: WHO’S MOVING UP 116 COMPANY KUDOS: A MONTH OF ACHIEVEMENTS 117 BA INDEX: HUNDREDS OF LEADS EACH MONTH 119 HISTORIC ALABAMA: A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE 119 ALABIZ QUIZ: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 3

NOVEMBER 2023 BusinessAlabama.com Volume 38 / Number 11 PUBLISHER Walker Sorrell / wsorrell@pmtpublishing.com ASSISTANT PUBLISHER Stephen Potts / snpotts@pmtpublishing.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR Alec Harvey / alec@pmtpublishing.com EDITOR Erica Joiner West / ewest@pmtpublishing.com COPY EDITOR Nedra Bloom / nedra@pmtpublishing.com ART DIRECTOR Vic Wheeler / ads@pmtpublishing.com DIGITAL EDITOR Kathryn Dorlon / kdorlon@pmtpublishing.com ACCOUNTING Keith Crabtree / acct@pmtpublishing.com ADMINISTRATION/OFFICE MANAGER Lauren Sullivan / lsullivan@pmtpublishing.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Birmingham: 205-802-6363 Hal Cain / Ext. 111 / hcain@pmtpublishing.com Lee Mills / Ext. 102 / lmills@pmtpublishing.com Mobile: 251-473-6269 Joe Hyland / Ext. 214 / jhyland@pmtpublishing.com DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED MEDIA & EVENTS Sheila Wardy / swardy@pmtpublishing.com BIRMINGHAM OFFICE 3324 Independence Drive / Homewood, AL 35209 205-802-6363 MOBILE OFFICE 166 Government Street / Mobile, AL 36602 251-473-6269 CORPORATE T.J. Potts, President & CEO Thomas E. McMillan, Partner & Director Business Alabama is published monthly by

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Benchmarks

Tuscaloosa picked for first Sports Illustrated college town resort

Tuscaloosa has been chosen as the first location for the line of college town resorts being developed by SPORTS

A rendering of a Sports Illustrated Resorts college town resort.

ILLUSTRATED AND TRAVEL + LEISURE.

Every Sports Illustrated Resorts campus will feature a full-service hotel, vacation club and residential condominiums, as well as attractions including live action sports, dining, wellness and relaxation.

The Tuscaloosa resort is expected to open in late 2025.

“Sports Illustrated Resorts are about hospitality, lifestyle, leisure and entertainment, where we celebrate not only the legacy of Sports Illustrated, but the path it is on now, by immersing our guests in sports culture and providing the best entertainment, cuisine, fitness, health and wellness to our guests,” said Christopher Schroeder, CEO of Sports Hospitality Ventures. “People are seeking differentiated experiences that allow them to be more active and participatory, and Sports Illustrated Resorts are delivering the ultimate experiences for guests through the hospitality destinations we are creating.”

The resort in Tuscaloosa will be across the Black Warrior River from the University of Alabama campus. Additional college town

B U S I N E S S

B R I E F S

HOT JOB MARKET An analysis by SmartAsset says Huntsville has the best job market in the U.S., based on numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2021.

be required to pay monthly estimated sales tax to the Department of Revenue.

TOP DÉCOR David Christopher, a retail and wholesale home décor and floral provider in Sheffield, has been named one of the top 70 small businesses in the U.S. by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The top small business will be announced on Oct. 19.

TAX DROP As of Oct. 1, more than 3,000 small businesses in Alabama — those with less than $500,000 average monthly sales — won’t

SCAM SCOOP The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about a heavy equipment sale scam, using several Alabama addresses, that purports to offer pieces of equipment on social media and collects deposits — but the items are never delivered.

TOP DESTINATION World Atlas has named DeKalb County’s DeSoto State Park as one of its best places to visit in the South this fall. Seven other locations were mentioned in Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

destinations will be announced soon.

“This project is a tangible demonstration of our multi-brand strategy to grow our business with new exciting partnerships,” said Michael Brown, president and CEO of Travel + Leisure Co. “As the world’s leading membership and leisure travel company, we are uniquely positioned to be able to partner with brands and hospitality companies to develop customized vacation club products for their customers.”

DOWNTOWN DIGS Plans are being drawn up to convert Mobile’s Riverview Plaza office tower into apartments. Gavin Bender of Bender Real Estate Group says the 13-story tower project will “happen probably next year.”

The privately owned tower is part of a complex including a city-owned parking garage and the Retirement Systems of Alabama-owned Riverview Plaza Hotel where Mobile’s Government Street reaches the Mobile River.

NEW AT THE TOP Tom Baker, previously Vulcan Materials’ COO, has been named president of the Birmingham-based company.

Ronnie Pruitt has been named COO. Tom Hill continues in the roles of chairman and CEO. David Fernandes, currently president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi, will move to Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Huntsville as senior vice president of manufacturing. Earlier, he led Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama. Lisa Evans has been named CEO at Bradford Health, a Birmingham-based provider of substance use disorder treatment. Deborah Browning has been named CEO at USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 5

BENCHMARKS

Nature Conservancy acquires 596 acres at Wheeler Mountain THE NATURE CONSERVANCY IN ALABAMA has acquired a 596-acre

tract at Wheeler Mountain in Bibb County. The acquisition is a result of the partnership between Resource Management Service LLC and a three-month campaign through TNC’s Ireland Opportunity Fund, which raised $2 million to make the land purchase.

“Our revolving loan fund enables us to quickly mobilize resources to protect vulnerable lands such as this, and we are grateful to those who supported this endeavor,” said Mitch Reid, TNC Alabama state director.

TNC in Alabama is working with the U.S. Forest Service to add the property to the National Forest System, while it reintroduces prescribed fire management practices to enhance the land’s ecosystem including its 80-to-100-year-old montane longleaf pine forests.

“Much of Alabama’s natural longleaf forests have disappeared over the years, and we did not want to risk this same fate for Wheeler Mountain,” said Reid.

The tract includes Gully Creek, a tributary of the Cahaba River.

“The Wheeler Mountain property is one of the most diverse natural longleaf pine stands in Alabama,” said Jimmy Bullock, senior vice president forest sustainability for RMS. “Our partnership with the Alabama chapter of the Nature Conservancy enabled a win for conservation and a win for the landowner.”

Resource Management Service LLC is one of the largest providers of timberland investment services, according to its website. Its global corporate headquarters is in Birmingham. 

B U S I N E S S

B R I E F S

A PLACE AT UAH Birmingham-based Capstone Development Partners and Huntsville-based Boaz Ventures have broken ground on a $60 million project that will provide housing adjacent to UAH. Decatur-based Fite Building Co. is building the 249-unit Nexus on Holmes with design by Williams Blackstock Architects in Birmingham.

Health and Science Innovation Center on campus, partially funded with $35 million in federal funding. Alabama A&M University has been selected to host a Google in Residence program. The school is hosting a software engineer who will teach and work with students.

Birmingham’s Highlands College has purchased a former motel to renovate into an additional oncampus residence hall.

FORE! AGAIN After closing following a chemical mishap last year, the Ross Bridge Golf Course, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, has reopened.

ON CAMPUS Spring Hill College in Mobile has announced plans for a new

CONTRACTS Birmingham-based B.L. Harbert International has been awarded a $210 million construction contract for a weapons generation facility at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The work is

6 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

A glimpse of the acreage at Wheeler Mountain acquired by The Nature Conservancy. Photo by Hunter Nichols/TNC.

expected to be completed by January 2026. Huntsville-based Gradkell Systems Inc. has been awarded a $150 million contract to maintain and modernize the financial management system for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The contract runs through March, 2029.

Huntsville-based Radiance Technologies was awarded a $49.7 million contract for aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support services for the U.S. Army. The work will be performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Huntsville-based Concordia Technologies has been awarded an $18.9 million contract by the Missile Defense Agency. The work will be performed through March, 2025.

Birmingham-based Steward Machine Co. has been awarded a $9.3 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract to replace tainter gates, which are used to control water flow in locks and dams, in New London, Missouri.

NO HELP Home health provider Help at Home, blaming Alabama for not expanding Medicaid, announced its intention to stop doing business here at the end of September.

FUN ZONE The city of Prattville is planning a $3.45 million entertainment venue for its Main Street. The proposed project includes a multi-use pavilion, stage and smaller pavilion, walking path

BENCHMARKS

Transforming housing in Birmingham A former public housing project in Birmingham’s Southtown Edgehill at Southtown will be a mixed-use, mixed-income area is being transformed into senior housing called EDGEHILL neighborhood with residential, green and office space along with AT SOUTHTOWN. The Housing Authority of the Birmingham walkable retail and other amenities. Other uses in future phases District and The Benoit Group, a member of developer Southside will include a focus on complementing and expanding the city’s Development Co., have closed on Edgehill at Southtown. health care and biotech sectors given the site’s proximity to the The $39 million housing development will consist of 143 new University of Alabama at Birmingham, Ascension St. Vincent’s, one-bedroom apartment homes for Birmingham seniors aged Southern Research and the VA. 62 and older. The development will also have onsite storage, a A real estate development and advisory company, The Benoit business center and community lounge, an exercise room, offGroup has locations in Birmingham, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami. street parking and wi-fi.

Its core business focuses on developing affordable mixed-income “The former 22-acre public housing community, Southtown housing, workforce housing, independent senior living, higher Court, served generations of families since its construction in education student lodging and mixed-use development. 1941,” said Dontrelle Young Foster, HABD president and CEO. “This effort — along with others in HABD’s portfolio like the $50 million redevelopment of Smithfield Court — will help transform Birmingham’s public housing landscape to better serve future generations, and we’re proud to be leading the charge for creating more affordable housing opportunities in A rendering of Edgehill at Southtown.

Birmingham.”

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and other spaces.

R.E. Warner & Associates, an engineering, architecture and surveying firm based in Westlake, Ohio, is opening an office at Birmingham’s Innovation Depot. The office will be a hub for the firm’s operations across the South.

COASTAL GATEWAY The city of Gulf Shores has released its master plan for the new Coastal Gateway Park. The 127-acre park will include a fire station, elementary school and recreation opportunities. The park is planned along Coastal Gateway Boulevard.

AI GUIDANCE Birmingham-based law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings has launched an artificial intelligence team, a group of attorneys providing counsel on the creation, regulation and use of AI technologies. Bradley partner A.J. Bahou is leading the team.

ENGINEERS OPEN

HOME WORK The Regions Foundation is giving the East Lake Initiative a $400,000 grant to help construct more than a dozen new homes in Birmingham’s East Lake area.

The foundation is the lead donor for the effort.

CANE CREEK GENEROSITY An anonymous donor plans to match up to $100,000 in donations received before the end of the year for Cane Creek

Canyon Nature Preserve in Colbert County. The 693-acre property includes 15 miles of hiking trails.

FOOTBALL YES The Magic City Classic, an annual football game between rivals Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University, will stay in Birmingham for at least the next three years. Both teams have signed agreements allowing the Alabama Sports Council to manage and promote the game SUIT SUITE Enviva, the Maryland-based wood pellet manufacturer that is building a facility in Sumter County, has been sued by shareholders over alleged

securities fraud, triggered by losses between Nov. 3, 2022, and May 3, 2023. At about the same time, residents of McIntosh filed four lawsuits in Washington County Circuit Court seeking damages against chlorine manufacturer Olin Corp. The suits allege the Olin’s McIntosh plant has leaked chlorine gas without warning residents.

TRAIL UPGRADE A nearly $600,000 grant from the state of Alabama to the city of Anniston will go toward enhancing the Chief Ladiga trailhead at Anniston’s Michael Tucker Park. Once finished, the trail will be the longest paved pedestrian path in the U.S., the

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 7

BENCHMARKS

Discovery Life Sciences opens global HQ at HudsonAlpha in Huntsville DISCOVERY LIFE SCIENCES has opened

its new global headquarters on the Huntsville campus of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.

“Discovery has continued to grow in Alabama and make an impact throughout the world,” Gov. Kay Ivey said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in mid-October.

“When Discovery chose the HudsonAlpha Biotech Campus in Huntsville for its global headquarters, I knew this was a milestone moment for Alabama as we work to recruit other life science companies to the state. With innovative leadership, a talented workforce, and a state that is focused on the life sciences, good days are ahead for Discovery.”

Discovery’s services, which include genomics, proteomics, molecular pathology, flow cytometry and cell

DIscovery Life Sciences is a leader in global biosciences.

biology, will all be under one roof. The facility will also house what the company says is one of the world’s most extensive commercial biospecimen inventories.

Discovery says it has already relocated more than 115 jobs to Huntsville since 2022 and will continue to add more.

“This building and the people working in it highlight shared priorities for HudsonAlpha, Huntsville, Madison County and Alabama: making positive impact in the lives of others and bringing and keeping jobs in our community.

That’s a key part of what we celebrate today,” said Neil Lamb, president of

B U S I N E S S

B R I E F S

city says.

Campuses, a behavioral health care provider.

SAME HOSPITAL, NEW NAME What used to be Ascension Providence in Mobile is now USA Health Providence Hospital. The sale of the hospital to the USA Health System, announced in April, took effect October 1.

HOSPITAL TRANSACTIONS The Sanders Trust, a Birmingham-based health care real estate investment and development company, has started work on Mercy Health Youngstown Rehabilitation Hospital in Ohio. Sanders Capital Partners has acquired the Pima Transitional Living Facility in Tucson, Arizona, which is home to America’s Rehab

HOSPITAL WORKS Birmingham-based Doster Construction Co. has completed work on a four-story patient tower and emergency department expansion at Cullman Regional Medical Center. Design for the project was by TRO Jung Brannen Architects, also of Birmingham.

Doster has also broken ground on Peak Rehabilitation Hospital, a partnership among Duke Health, WakeMed and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, in North Carolina.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Birmingham-based Waverly Advisors has acquired SoundPath Investment Advisors,

8 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

HudsonAlpha, at the ribbon cutting.

“This is one of the few global headquarters located in Huntsville and Alabama, and we couldn’t be more proud to count them as part of the HudsonAlpha campus,” Lamb added.

“It’s especially exciting since the origins of Discovery Life Sciences lead back to one of HudsonAlpha’s original associate companies in 2008.”

Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie was general contractor for the facility.

Fuqua & Partners Architects, based in Huntsville, designed the building.

based in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s the first Mississippi location for Waverly, which now has offices in five states.

SHIP SHAPE Austal USA has begun work on its final Expeditionary Fast Transport ship for the U.S. Navy.

This is the 16th such ship to be crafted at the Mobile-based shipbuilder. The company also began work on components for Columbia-class submarines.

POWER TRACKER Alabama Power has launched a new app for residential customers that will allow them to manage their accounts and monitor energy use on their IOS and Android devices.

SAFETY NET Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Integrated Battle Command System, a key part of the U.S. air and missile defense, defended the National Capital Region against a simulated cruise missile and compromised aircraft in a series of recent demonstrations. Service members at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville were at the controls of the ICBS during the simulation.

CORRECTION In the October issue, we stated John Turner was on the board of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. While he is a former board member, Turner is not currently serving on that board.

BENCHMARKS

Nextec growing with two new tech companies STELLA SOURCE, a software development

developer Michael Mouron, whose other ventures include the renovated Greyhound Bus Terminal, the Federal Reserve Building, Valley Hotel in Homewood and more — all since retiring from his original Capstone Development Co.

Nextec is welcoming its first tech company tenants.

company for the metal distribution and fabrication industry, plans to relocate its Birmingham office and add 50 jobs.

The company plans to relocate from Innovation Depot and establish its headquarters at the nearby Nextec Building, increasing its number of employees from 21 to 71.

“We are incredibly proud to build Stella Source here in Alabama and are excited to make Birmingham our official headquarters,” said Sean Hughes, the company’s president. “The collision of the metals and technology industries unique to this area create the acceleration, commitment and like-minded company that we need to succeed.”

Stella Source selected Birmingham for the expansion over Cincinnati, Ohio, where its other corporate office is located.

Stella Source will join TQUILA AUTOMATION in the Nextec Building, the former Edwards Motor Co. building on Third Avenue North. Tquila Automation announced plans in May to open a regional delivery system here, creating 200 jobs over the next five years.

Texas-based Tquila Automation is a consultancy company that helps businesses streamline their functions by focusing on robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging technologies. The jobs that will be created in Birmingham include software developers, business analysts, consultants and business managers. The company serves clients in manufacturing, financial services, energy and insurance, among other industries.

“Business leaders are recognizing how future-proofing their operations with artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation can drive better business outcomes,” said Tom Abbott, CEO and co-founder of Tquila Automation.

Nextec is a project of Birmingham November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 9

BENCHMARKS

Mobile hosts cruise ships once again The Port City’s off-again on-again relationship with Gulf cruises is on again.

THE CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE’s Carnival Spirit set sail on its initial cruise from its Mobile homeport in early October.

“Mobilians love to see a cruise ship on the waterfront, and Carnival Spirit is the best ship we’ve ever had,” said Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson. “It will offer unparalleled itineraries and experiences and have a positive economic impact on the local retailers, restaurants and hotels that serve Carnival’s guests. It was a pleasure to personally greet the first guests today and kick off what I know will be a successful cruising season.”

Describing the festivities, Carnival said, “To treat guests to a bit of Mobile spirit on board, the ship’s chefs served a

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson cuts the MoonPie cake.

large version of the city’s iconic MoonPie dessert. MoonPies are traditionally tossed to spectators during Mardi Gras parades in Mobile. Carnival Spirit’s massive MoonPie, which was decorated with a Carnival funnel design, was shared amongst the ship’s guests after Mayor Stimpson cut the first slice.”

10 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

The October cruise headed across the Gulf of Mexico for visits to the Bahamas, including Bimini, Freeport, Half Moon Cay and Nassau. A series of six- and eightday cruises are planned through the winter.

The City of Mobile signed a five-year contract with Carnival in September, it’s longest-term agreement to date. 

HIGHER EDUCATION

BOLT from the BLUE

For a phenomenon that strikes more than a billion times a year, we know remarkably little about lightning. A UAH team hopes to fill in some of the knowledge gaps.

By KATHERINE MacGILVRAY

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 11

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

UAH lightning researchers Phillip Bitzer, Kelley Murphy and Sarah Stough. Photo by Liz Junod/UAH.

A

bout 1.4 billion lightning bolts strike the Earth each year. Around 40 million of those hit the ground in the United States, and, according to Vaisala Weather's annual report, Alabama had a total of nearly 6.5 million lightning strikes in 2022.

“Everybody has got a story related to lightning,” says Dr. Phillip Bitzer, a lightning physicist and associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Earth Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). “And yet we still don’t have answers to some fundamental questions about it.”

That’s what first sparked the New Orleans native’s interest in the subject. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, as a first-year graduate student, Bitzer attended a talk about how lightning was being used to better forecast the onset of severe weather events like hail, strong winds and tornadoes. He remembers wondering if the same measurements could be used to help predict hurricanes and tropical storms. “The answer then was, ‘We don’t know yet,’” Bitzer says, but he knew he wanted to be a part of efforts to learn more.

Bitzer earned his Ph.D. in physics at UAH and has served on the faculty since 2011.

For nearly 10 years, Bitzer has worked on team projects in Panama, in partnership with ecologists at the University

of Louisville and the Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies as well as researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute, to study the impact of lightning strikes on tropical forests.

“We’re trying to understand what happens when lightning strikes a tree,” Bitzer explains. “So, what would cause a tree to die, how long it would take and why some trees die and some trees don’t.” In fact, he adds, not only do some trees survive lightning strikes, some actually appear to thrive.

“There are a lot of implications for what this means in terms of how the climate is responding and how the forest responds to lightning,” says Bitzer.

For example, when a tree is struck by lightning and dies, it releases carbon into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. The dying tree also provides an opportunity for the forest to replenish itself, and as it dies back others take its place.

But the effects of lightning strikes on tropical forests can be tricky to observe.

“When lightning strikes a tree [in the tropics], you don’t know it right away,” he says. “There’s no obvious visible damage, and it can be days, weeks or even months before you start to see the damage.”

The team uses a network of electric field charge meters and a network of CCTV cameras to monitor lightning strikes in the forest and use those to

12 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

locate trees that have been struck and assess the damage.

Bitzer describes himself as an “instrument guy,” and the Panama project uses instruments very similar to one he helped create, the Huntsville Alabama Marx Meter Array (HAMMA) that detects lightning from a group of instruments located in and around the Huntsville area. In addition to Panama, related arrays also have been placed in Argentina.

Bitzer and a team of UAH colleagues collaborated with Lockheed Martin to develop the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) that is currently monitoring lightning from space and a lightning imaging sensor (LIS) developed with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center that is in use on the International Space Station and previously flew as part of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Lightning data collected from multiple perspectives is something Bitzer’s colleague Dr. Sarah Stough, a research associate and part-time lecturer at UAH, is also using in her research.

“Lightning is a really important byproduct of thunderstorms,” says Stough, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees at UAH, where she focused on the relationship between rapid increases in the amount of lightning in thunderstorms and their intensification prior to severe weather production and, later, the development of unusual electrical structures in thunderstorms.

Stough is the principal investigator for a team that won a 2022 NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) proposal to study lightning in deep convection from airborne, ground-based and satellite instruments.

Stough says that, while a lot can be learned from ground-based lightning observations, adding space-based detection can provide a much bigger and broader picture about the nature of a thunderstorm, its level of severity, whether or not it is intensifying and, ultimately, how it is likely to impact people.

Stough’s collaborators include Bitzer and a team of research associates from UAH’s Earth System Science Center as well as civil servants from NASA. The

three-year project is funded for more than $400,000 and will fully support a graduate student researcher in the department of atmospheric and earth science.

“We’re really excited about getting started,” says Stough. “It’s a big undertaking to look at data in ways we haven’t really peeled it apart before.”

Bitzer and Stough also bring their research to the classroom where they are teaching the next generation of meteorologists and atmospheric scientists.

The quantity of innovative lightning research being conducted at UAH is the main reason why UAH Research Associate Kelley Murphy decided to take a job opportunity with the university after completing her master’s degree out of state.

Murphy’s work particularly centers on lightning and its impact on human safety. Currently she is focusing on finding new ways to use lightning data from ground-based and spaceborne instru-

Photo by Michael Mercier/UAH

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

“We’re trying to understand what happens when lightning strikes a tree. So, what would cause a tree to die, how long it would take and why some trees die and some trees don’t.”

—Dr. Phillip Bitzer, lightning physicist and associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Earth Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville

ments as part of the Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Established in 2002, SPoRT collaborates with researchers, innovators and stakeholders from government, academia and the private sector to develop and improve the application of NASA research and data in the operational weather community. That includes developing lightning safety products to help people monitor for the threat of lightning.

Murphy, who has also been a member of SPoRT’s Engagement Training and Assessment Team for a little over a year, helps transition lightning research and products to end users like the National Weather Service. This past summer she worked with operational weather forecasters while they used lightning safety products to monitor the threat of lightning at an outdoor concert in Cullman.

“We collected their feedback, which enabled us to tailor the lightning prod-

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 13

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

remembers as a goalkeeper being able to see storms build but that games often wouldn’t be canceled until the first flashes of lightning were visible or thunder was heard.

“My interest in weather merged with what I did for fun, and I wanted to answer those types of questions: How do we know when it’s safe for people to be

on a soccer field or even just be outdoors when storms are nearby? I’ve always been drawn to research that has a direct impact or connection to people, and really nobody can argue that weather doesn’t impact them.”

Bitzer, Stough and Murphy are quick to point out that they are just three members of a larger team of lightning researchers at UAH. For example, Bitzer points to UAH scientists serving on NASA’s Lightning Advisory Panel to develop and improve the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria and UAH researchers who are helping the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) develop its

Photo by Josh Gold Photography

ucts for them, such as making small tweaks to the way data were displayed,” she explains. “Their feedback can also help us by sparking new ideas for continued lightning research.”

Using lightning prediction technology to keep people safe at outdoor events resonates with Murphy, who played soccer growing up and in college. She

“I’ve always been drawn to research that has a direct impact or connection to people, and really nobody can argue that weather doesn’t impact them.”

—UAH Research Associate Kelley Murphy

own lightning launch criteria.

“We’re really just starting to scratch the surface with what we do here [at UAH],” says Bitzer. “Everything from basic instrument development to applying what we learn to keeping people safe, it really is a broad spectrum. When you think of something about lightning, there is probably someone here that has looked at it or is currently looking at it.”

Katherine MacGilvray is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

14 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Alabama Public Two-Year Colleges

compiled by ERICA JOINER WEST

RANK

Ranked by student enrollment for Fall 2022.

INSTITUTION

ADDRESS

PHONE / WEBSITE

PRESIDENT

FALL 2022

FALL 2021

FALL 2020

1

Jefferson State Community College

2601 Carson Rd. Birmingham, AL 35215

205-853-1200 jeffersonstate.edu

Keith Brown

8,433

8,520

8,531

2

Calhoun Community College

P.O. Box 2216 Decatur, AL 35609

256-306-2500 calhoun.edu

Dr. Jimmy Hodges

8,163

8,702

8,278

3

Coastal Alabama Community College

1900 Hwy. 31 S. Bay Minette, AL 36507

800-381-3722 coastalalabama.edu

Dr. Warren Craig Pouncey

6,803

7,065

6,651

4

Wallace State Community College - Hanceville

801 Main St. NW Hanceville, AL 35077

256-352-8000 wallacestate.edu

Dr. Vicki Karolewics

5,965

5,204

4,763

5

Southern Union State Community College

750 Roberts St. Wadley, AL 36276

256-395-2211 suscc.edu

Todd Shackett

4,386

4,092

3,985

6

Gadsden State Community College

1001 George Wallace Dr. Gadsden, AL 35903

256-549-8222 gadsdenstate.edu

Dr. Kathy Murphy

4,352

4,308

3,994

7

Shelton State Community College

9500 Old Greensboro Rd. Tuscaloosa, AL 35405

205-391-2211 sheltonstate.edu

Dr. Chris Cox

4,166

4,663

3,743

8

Northwest-Shoals Community College

800 George Wallace Blvd.

Muscle Shoals, AL 35661

256-331-5200 nwscc.edu

Dr. Jeff Goodwin

4,032

3,372

3,361

9

Wallace Community College - Dothan

1141 Wallace Dr. Dothan, AL 36303

334-983-3521 wallace.edu

Dr. Linda Young

3,833

3,899

3,686

10 Bevill State Community College

1411 Indiana Ave. Jasper, AL 35501

800-648-3271 bscc.edu

Dr. Joel Hagood

3,703

3,371

3,204

11 Bishop State Community College

351 N. Broad St. Mobile, AL 36603-5898

251-405-7000 bishop.edu

Olivier Charles

2,968

2,479

2,181

12 Lawson State Community College

3060 Wilson Rd. SW Birmingham, AL 35221

205-925-2515 lawsonstate.edu

Dr. Cynthia Anthony

2,919

3,094

2,823

13 Northeast Alabama Community College

138 Alabama Hwy. 35 W. Rainsville, AL 35986

256-638-4418 nacc.edu

Dr. David Campbell

2,590

2,489

2,530

14 Snead State Community College

220 N. Walnut St. Boaz, AL 35957

256-593-5120 snead.edu

Dr. Joe Whitmore

2,507

2,245

2,012

15 Enterprise State Community College

600 Plaza Dr. Enterprise, AL 36330

334-347-2623 escc.edu

Daniel Long

2,010

1,796

1,809

16 Trenholm State Community College

1225 Air Base Blvd.

Montgomery, AL 36108

334-420-4200 trenholmstate.edu

Dr. Kemba Chambers

1,984

1,826

1,526

17 Lurleen B. Wallace Community College

1000 Dannelly Blvd.

Andalusia, AL 36420

334-222-6591 lbwcc.edu

Dr. Brock Kelley

1,931

1,816

1,666

18 G.C. Wallace Community College - Selma 3000 Earl Goodwin Pkwy.

Selma, AL 36702

334-876-9227 wccs.edu

Dr. James Mitchell

1,860

1,627

1,316

19 Central Alabama Community College

1675 Cherokee Rd. Alexander City, AL 35011

256-234-6346 cacc.edu

Jeff Lynn

1,777

1,578

1,546

20 Chattahoochee Valley Community College

2602 College Dr. Phenix City, AL 36869

334-291-4900 cv.edu

Jaqueline Screws

1,641

1,361

1,399

21 Drake State Community and Technical College

3421 Meridian St. N. Huntsville, AL 35811

256-539-8161 drakestate.edu

Dr. Patricia Sims

976

872

825

22 Ingram State Technical College

5375 Ingram Rd. Deatsville, AL 36022

334-285-5177 istc.edu

Annette Funderburk

768

400

399

23 Reid State Technical College

P.O. Box 588 Evergreen, AL 36401

251-578-1313 rstc.edu

Dr. Coretta Boykin

434

374

279

24 Marion Military Institute

1101 Washington St. Marion, AL 36756

800-664-1842 marionmilitary.edu

Col. David Mollahan

320

314

401

Source: Alabama Commission on Higher Education

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 15

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Double Your Credit Dual enrollment lets high-schoolers get a head start on college

By JANE NICHOLES

T

he line between high school and college has blurred as more Alabama students do both at the same time. Dual enrollment saves time and money for students and their parents across a wide range of technical and academic courses of study.

Dual enrollment in the Alabama Community College System has grown by 65% since the Legislature expanded

18 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

funding through the Education Trust Fund in 2015.

In the 2022-23 school year, 27,562 high school students were participating in some form of dual enrollment. The number made up about 18% of the more than 155,000 community college students statewide.

“Dual enrollment at one time was considered an opportunity for your high

academic achieving, your high performing students,” says Tessa Brown, assistant director of strategic enrollment management – early programs for ACCS. Today, the emphasis is on preparation for the workforce. “We have a lot more inclusive strategies for dual enrollment in the state of Alabama,” Brown says.

As a result, high school students may enroll in one or more of 1,200 courses

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

including career technical, health sciences and traditional academic subjects like math and English, she says. They get high school and college credit at the same time or leave high school with technical skills that make them ready to join the workforce in a career-oriented position. Depending on the students’ goals, they can even graduate high school with an associate degree or with credits toward a four-year university degree.

Advanced Placement classes, which students can take in high school for college credit based on a year-end test, can also be combined with dual enrollment course work but differ in several ways. Students and their parents need to investigate their options.

Dual enrollment relies on partnerships among individual colleges and high schools, which collaborate on what is offered and how it is offered. Students can take classes online, at a college with an instructor or at a high school with a high school teacher who also has the credentials to be an adjunct with the college.

“Those partnerships are not just with public schools,” Brown says. “We have dual enrollment partnerships with private schools, with parochial schools, religious schools, church schools, homeschool students. We actually have a significant amount of home-school students that take dual enrollment as well.”

Alabama public universities accept community college credits for transfer, allowing students flexibility to shorten their stays at four-year schools, select double majors or begin graduate studies sooner than they otherwise could have.

The cost savings are undeniable.

Brown says the average tuition at a community college is $168 per credit hour, while a four-year in-state university may cost twice as much. But with dual enrollment, students may not have to pay anything because of the amount of legislative funding, scholarships, support of local foundations and other forms of financial aid.

The Legislature appropriated $30 million for dual enrollment in the 2024 fiscal year, an increase of $4.5 million, Brown says.

“Our legislators definitely see the benefit that dual enrollment has for these

“We have dual enrollment partnerships with private schools, with parochial schools, religious schools, church schools, home-school students. We actually have a significant amount of homeschool students that take dual enrollment as well.”

—Tessa Brown, assistant director of strategic enrollment management – early programs for ACCS

students and for the workforce. That funding has steadily increased since it started in 2015.”

Brown believes dual enrollment also creates opportunities for students who

otherwise might not have them, such as those who are the first in their families to attend college, those who need financial help to make it and those who thought college was just not possible for them. The system lets students who may be part of an underserved population because of gender, race or economic disparities consider the possibilities and close those gaps.

“Maybe they just didn’t think they were college material because that’s not part of their environment,” Brown says.

“What we see is that when those students are introduced to higher education through the dual enrollment experience, they excel. They are truly breaking barriers.”

How does it work?

High school sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible to take community college coursework with the approval of a principal or other official. They must show a 2.5 grade point average on the traditional 4.0 scale to be eligible for an academic course or a 2.0 for technical courses. The GPA requirement allows 9th-graders to ease the transition from middle school and gives a student who may have an academic misstep another chance.

“Some would say it sounds like we’ve lowered the bar,” Brown says. “I don’t think it’s lowering the bar so much as it is removing a barrier.”

Students also need qualifying scores on the ACT test and possibly on placement tests. Guidance counselors are a crucial part of the process in helping students determine their pathways to graduation, their goals after high school and whether and what kind of dual enrollment classes will best fit them.

Recruiting is also collaborative between individual colleges and high schools. Colleges will likely send representatives to speak to groups of students and to parents at a parents’ night.

Often the students themselves seek out dual enrollment for technical or academic tracks they want to pursue, says Tom Hartner, secondary coordinator for the Baldwin County public school system.

Baldwin County has more than 31,000 students and is one of the fastest November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 19

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

“Our goal is if they graduate on a Friday they can start on a Monday and be making a very good wage in a high-paying job. They can be racking up a lot of college credits before they even walk across the stage and get their high school diploma.”

—Tom Hartner, secondary coordinator for the Baldwin County public school system

growing counties in Alabama. Demand is especially high for technically skilled graduates who can fill job openings as soon as they walk across the stage.

“Our goal is if they graduate on a Friday they can start on a Monday and be making a very good wage in a high-paying job,” Hartner says.

On the academic side Baldwin Coun-

ty has had students who have graduated with one or more years of college course work completed, sometimes without paying. “They can be racking up a lot of college credits before they even walk across the stage and get their high school diploma.”

With the costs of higher education ever rising, the financial advantages are

20 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

obvious, not only in out-of-pocket costs but in reduced student debt, Hartner says. “The money that that will save alone is just staggering.”

Baldwin County has dual enrollment partnership agreements with Coastal Alabama Community College, the University of South Alabama and the University of Alabama, Hartner says. The public

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

school system is studying ACT data to see where graduates are enrolling and whether more partnerships are needed.

Most of the dual enrollment course work is done online in Baldwin County, as high school students aren’t allowed to leave campus during the school day. Exceptions include night classes, which can be taken at a Coastal campus, and some technical courses at the public schools’ technology centers in the northern and southern parts of the county.

Students doing online work get a study period supervised by a facilitator, who is important in ensuring success.

Hartner says the facilitator is available to answer questions and monitor individuals to make sure they are correctly enrolled and completing assignments competently. Coastal also monitors progress closely and lets the high school know if a student has a problem.

Students who are focused and motivated are most likely to do well with dual enrollment, Hartner says.

“Most of the kids that are successful in these classes are goal-oriented,” he says. “They know what their end game is. They’re organized. They’re going to knock out the work. They don’t need someone sitting over them.”

They aren’t going to be coddled, but dual enrollment will serve as a transition for some between high school and college, Hartner says.

Drawbacks to dual enrollment are few, but they do exist. The main problem is what happens if the student can’t — or doesn’t — do the work. A student who drops a class or fails establishes a record that can follow him or her throughout post-secondary education. Further, the student must sit out a semester before reapplying for dual enrollment. Any financial aid may be lost. And a student who was also filling a high school graduation requirement with the class may have to repeat the course in high school summer school or online.

Students must know the risks and the

consequences going in, Hartner says. “If you slip up, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to go on your college transcript.”

Students taking college classes online also need a certain amount of technical savvy, and some students simply don’t learn well online. And those who aren’t committed to enrolling in a state public college or university will need to check on whether the private schools or out-ofstate schools they are considering will accept dual enrollment credit, just as they need to check on individual university requirements for AP test scores.

Both Brown and Hartner emphasize that students in dual enrollment programs may still be in high school, but they are also college students with the responsibilities and need for self-motivation that college entails. The opportunities, however, are rewarding and they continue to expand across Alabama.

Jane Nicholes is a Daphne-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 21

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Alabama Independent Colleges & Universities Ranked by Student Enrollment for Fall 2022.

RANK

compiled by ERICA JOINER WEST

INSTITUTION

ADDRESS

PHONE / WEBSITE

PRESIDENT

FALL 2022

FALL 2021

FALL 2020

1

Samford University

800 Lakeshore Dr., Birmingham, AL 35229

205-726-2871/samford.edu

Dr. Beck Taylor

5,682

5,758

5,729

2

Faulkner University

5345 Atlanta Hwy., Montgomery, AL 36109

334-386-7200/faulkner.edu

Dennis Mitchell Henry

2,817

2,874

2,961

3

Tuskegee University

1200 W. Montgomery Rd., Tuskegee, AL 36088

334-727-8011/tuskegee.edu

Dr. Charlotte Morris

2,570

2,654

2,747

4

University of Mobile

5735 College Pkwy., Mobile, AL 36613

251-442-2273/umobile.edu

Dr. Lonnie Burnett

1,804

1,911

2,016

5

Oakwood University

7000 Adventist Blvd. NW, Huntsville, AL 35896

256-726-7356/oakwood.edu

Dr. Leslie Pollard

1,470

1,452

1,374

6

Miles College

5500 Myron Massey Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35064 205-929-1657/miles.edu

Dr. Bobbie Knight

1,258

1,520

1,440

7

Spring Hill College

4000 Dauphin St., Mobile, AL 36608

251-380-3030/shc.edu

Dr. Mary Van Brunt

1,046

1,107

1,191

8

Birmingham-Southern College 900 Arkadelphia Rd., Birmingham, AL 35254

800-523-5793/bsc.edu

Daniel Coleman

975

1,058

1,129

9

Talladega College

627 W. Battle St., Talladega, AL 35160

256-761-6235/talladega.edu

Dr. Gregory Vincent

903

1,203

1,156

10

Huntingdon College

1500 E. Fairview Ave., Montgomery, AL 36106

334-833-4497/huntingdon.edu

Dr. J. Cameron West

817

844

920

11

Stillman College

P.O. Drawer 1430, Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

205-366-8817/stillman.edu

Dr. Yolanda Page

744

728

712

12

Amridge University

1200 Taylor Rd., Montgomery, AL 36117

334-387-3877/amridgeuniversity.edu

Dr. Michael Turner

647

723

775

13

United States Sports Academy

One Academy Dr., Daphne, AL 36526

251-626-3303/ussa.edu

Dr. Steve Condon

240

168

338

All institutions on this list are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

Start planning your future today.

P.R.I.M.E.

PATHWAY TO ROBOTICS, INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE, AND ENGINEERING

P.R.I.M.E. prepares Tuscaloosa and Bibb County high school students for future careers as electronic technicians. Students can earn up to 27 credit hours toward an Industrial Electronics Certificate and AAS degree at a high school campus.

Learn more at sheltonstate.edu.

It is the policy of the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees and Shelton State Community College, a postsecondary institution under its control, that no person shall, on the grounds of race, color, national origin, religion, marital status, disability, gender, age, or any other protected class as defined by federal and state law, be excluded from participation, denied benefits, or subjected to discrimination under any program, activity, or employment.

22 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Teaching the Business of Sports Samford preps students for the non-athletic side of sports

By JENNIFER WILLIAMS Darin White at Samford's Center for Sports Analytics, preparing students for work in the business of sports.

T

he idea of sports as a business is a relatively new concept, but one that has recently gained significant traction. And Samford University’s Center for Sports Analytics has led the pack in coaching a new, specialized generation of business executives — those who understand sports and how to best leverage data.

“In a lot of ways, Birmingham is becoming known as the Silicon Valley for sports analytics,” says Darin W. White, Ph.D., executive director for Samford University’s Center for Sports Analytics and a Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor. Birmingham is “one of the top cities because of the programs we have here at Samford designed to train and create that type of unique talent. Not many other schools are doing this yet.”

Samford University recognized this evolving mentality early on and launched its Center for Sports Analytics in 2017, the first-of-its kind collegiate program in the country. The program has since grown dramatically and now partners with Samford’s Brock School of Business

to offer several degree options.

“It’s just been amazing. Twenty years ago, no one really thought of sports as a business,” says White, a former collegiate soccer coach who helped to found not only the center but also the sports marketing program and sports business MBA program at Samford’s Brock School of Business.

“It used to be that teams would approach businesses with the idea that money came mainly from ticket sales and some merchandising,” he says. “Even in professional sports, television deals were done at the league level. But about 20 years ago, that mentality started to change, with Jerry Jones and other owners starting to recognize that their success on the field directly related to the business side of their organization and started hiring MBAs to help manage everything. Once that mentality changed, it rapidly swept through the entire sports industry at every level.”

And the business of sports is quite different from regular business, explains White.

24 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

“There’s a huge difference between fans and customers. While most business decisions are based on logic and comparing things like cost and benefits, sports is a different beast. We use the emotional side of our brains to drive us to make sports purchases. Think about it — your favorite team, if they lose every game, you’ll still be a fan and support them.

That kind of thing does not happen in regular business.”

This unique business model has created a need for business-trained executives that understand the sports industry.

“We first started seeing business schools create these programs about 20 years ago,” says White. “Oregon was the first one with Nike money. We followed a few years later and were the first ones in the Southern United States with a specific sports business program. Being at the front of this movement, as more and more leagues and teams have started adopting sport business practices…they need what we’re producing and it’s just opened up door after door after door… it’s been pretty remarkable.”

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

THE ORIGINS

White helped launch Samford’s Sports Marketing Program in 2011. “From there, we built a sports marketing board made up of about 30 top people from all over the country who basically run sports,” he says. “They come to campus every year and serve as our connection with the industry and help make sure we are doing what we need to do.”

Around 2015, the whole analytics tidal wave hit — and not just in sports, adds White. “Companies started getting inundated with data from people’s smartphones and internet usage. Almost overnight, companies were being drowned in data and needed help to understand and use it.

“My board basically said we need sports marketing executives, but we need those that also understand data.

“Because we already had our board and the marketing program in place,” he explains, “we were able to launch our Center for Sports Analytics in 2017 and we were the very first university in the country to do that.

“Now, our students are majoring in

the business school learning the business side of sports, but they also are trained in analytics and can take big data that’s being collected and leverage that to make business decisions for sports organizations,” says White. “It’s a more specialized kind of role. We are still in the beginning stages of this.”

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND

Pro sports teams all across the country are now adding entire sports analytics departments. Graduates who understand business — sports business specifically — and analytics…there’s not a lot of schools producing that unique combination.

And that means lots of opportunities for Samford students.

Brooke (Jenkins) Stuckey graduated from Samford in 2019 with a degree in sports marketing, already having amassed an enviable professional resume.

While at Samford, she worked with the athletic department, where she put together a full marketing program used by the university’s softball team. She interned with several professional teams,

including the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans and the Houston Astros. She even earned a World Series ring, having interned with the Astros during their championship season. She currently works as the marketing events manager at Amegy Bank in Houston, still leveraging her sports marketing knowledge.

Stuckey credits White and the opportunities she had while at Samford with her success. “I would not have this championship ring without him,” she says. “The relationships he has throughout the entire country in the sports industry is just incredible. He genuinely cares about his students, both current and former, and that really makes a huge difference.”

White says there were a few tough years for graduates during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the sports world basically shut down for a while, but that things have rapidly grown in the few years since then.

“Over the decade we’ve been doing this, our job placement rate hovers right around 90%,” he says. “And this is the hardest industry in which to get a job —

At the Samford Center. Photo by Jennifer Williams.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 25

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

{

Darin W. White, Ph.D. Executive director of Samford University’s Center for Sports Analytics and a Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor

everybody wants to work in sports. We took that into account when creating our program.”

The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Samford University as the top school in the nation for faculty-student engagement. “We strive to have an in-depth, experiential learning kind of relationship between faculty and students,” says White. “And so in my program, what that means isn’t just a student who has been in a classroom for four years, but someone who has actually experienced working in the industry and can hit the ground running once they graduate.”

White and his students have done ground-breaking projects for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Southeastern Conference, the Minnesota Vikings, the Seattle Storm and even a European professional soccer team, and the opportunities just keep coming.

A WINNING COMBO

Samford University athletics has even benefited from the center, says White.

Samford athletic teams experienced a historic athletic season in 2022-23, becoming the only NCAA Division I school in the country to win conference championships in football, soccer and volleyball last fall and the men’s basketball team was named the regular season champions earlier this year. Samford coaches credit a unique initiative involv26 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

“We strive to have an in-depth, experiential learning kind of relationship between faculty and students. And so in my program, what that means isn’t just a student who has been in a classroom for four years, but someone who has actually experienced working in the industry and can hit the ground running once they graduate.”

ing the Center for Sports Analytics with their success.

Launched in 2021, Project SAMson is a combined initiative by Samford, its athletic programs, Andrews Sports Medicine, American Sports Medicine Institute, Brock School of Business, the College of Health Sciences and the Center for Sports Analytics to create a new approach to sports performance.

The goal of the initiative is to enhance athletic performance through improved strength and conditioning training, reduced injury risk, advanced injury prediction and treatment, and datadriven return to play protocols.

Samford student-athletes across 17 NCAA Division I programs use wearable technology that tracks a wide array of performance metrics. The data is then analyzed by Samford students in Brock School of Business and the Center for Sports Analytics. Students from various areas within the College of Health Sciences then work with coaches and athletic trainers to develop unique training regiments and nutrition plans for each athlete.

Coaches credit Project SAMson for providing new insights for both injury prevention and performance and helping student-athletes compete at higher levels of play.

“The difference in us being near champions in previous years and conference champions [last] year is directly

related to the benefits our team received through Project SAMson,” says Head Football Coach Chris Hatcher.

EXPANSION PLANS

The program and center have shown so much success that Samford is doubling down and investing in their future.

Earlier this year, White agreed to commit 100% of his efforts into running the center and growing the sports business programs. He had split his time between the center and sports program with serving as a Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor of Marketing with the Brock School of Business.

And plans are underway to expand the center within the business school. “As cool as all the stuff is we’ve been doing, it’s about to go to a whole ’nother level,” says White. School officials are looking not only to grow the physical space for the center, but also to add personnel to help it expand.

“To have legs and longevity, we need to have more than just me running the center,” says White. “That’s the goal — to eventually hire a full-time assistant director. Over the next 5-10 years, there’s so much more potential…we’re going to try and capitalize on all that and truly become the Silicon Valley of sports analytics. That’s my vision.”

Jennifer Williams is a Hartselle-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Learning the techniques of robotic welding at Wallace State.

New welding center opens at Wallace State Community college system offers many options for would-be welders

W

elders make good money, and just a glance at job postings shows they have no trouble finding work. Now a new multi-million-dollar training facility at a north Alabama community college ensures they’ll have the latest welding skills — including operating robots.

The $8.8 million, 30,000-square-foot Welding Technology and Innovation Center opened Aug. 21 at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, with college officials describing it as the largest

By DEBORAH STOREY

training center in the Southeast.

“The new welding facility allows us to impact more lives by providing more opportunities for students to receive training that leads to high-demand, high-wage jobs,” says college President Dr. Vicki Karolewics.

The welding area includes 20 grinding booths, a fabrication area with two welders, pipe-welding equipment and three classrooms with built-in cameras, microphones and speakers for online classes.

Students had asked for training in robotics and more room to learn fabrication

methods, college officials say.

“We needed a larger training center to allow more students to attend and to have the ability to offer more specific types of training that we did not have the room to do before,” says Randy Hammond, Wallace State welding department chair and instructor.

“We are now the only college in the state to offer an associate degree in robotic welding technician,” Hammond says.

The program also offers various welding certificates and has three American Welding Society-certified inspectors

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 35

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Checking out new equipment in Wallace State's Welding Technology and Innovation Center.

36 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

on staff at its campuses in Hanceville and Oneonta.

The up-to-date technology will better prepare students to enter the Alabama workforce. They are learning the four main arc welding processes: shielded metal, gas metal, flux cored and gas tungsten.

Instructors also explain how to cut and bevel metal with various processes, such as oxy-fuel with acetylene and alternative fuels, plasma arc cutting, and carbon arc cutting and gouging. Students learn how to read and interpret fabrication prints and weld symbols. By learning blueprint reading, they can put the knowledge into action by fabricating parts.

Classes also teach principles of weld inspection and testing in both destructive and non-destructive testing methods, as well as theories of working with AC and DC currents.

In the robotic welding classes, Hammond says, students learn to work safely around robotic equipment and how to program and edit commands to create

‘‘

“The new welding facility allows us to impact more lives by providing more opportunities for students to receive training that leads to high-demand, highwage jobs.”

— DR. VICKI KAROLEWICS, PRESIDENT OF WALLACE STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

a program that will weld out assembly parts.

The center has 85 manual welding stations and four robotic welding cells, with three more scheduled for purchase this year. Students learn how to work with sensors, programmable logic controls and motor controls within a robotic welding cell.

For the fall semester, 99 students enrolled in the program. All welding students must pass two American Welding Society welding certification tests before graduating.

Then they walk right into a job.

“We have a 100% job placement with all graduates of the welding program,” Hammond says.

“We have numerous companies that come monthly and speak to our students about what they build or produce and the benefits that they have to offer employees,” he says. “Many of our students are working in internship programs with companies while they are here in classes.”

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 37

‘‘

“We needed a larger training center to allow more students to attend and to have the ability to offer more specific types of training that we did not have the room to do before.”

— RANDY HAMMOND, WALLACE STATE WELDING DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND INSTRUCTOR

The college received several grants for the center, including $2 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and $200,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The program is expected to provide an estimated 110 workers yearly in the Southern Appalachian region to supply the roughly 40 new and current manufacturing businesses there.

That approximate payroll for the next eight years is projected at $25 million.

Wallace State offers more than 200 options in academic, health and technical programs. Its main campus is in Cullman County on 300 acres in Hanceville, with a satellite location in downtown Oneonta.

Deborah Storey is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

38 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Welding for women

Calhoun, Wallace community colleges offer popular programs for females only

By DEBORAH STOREY

M

ore female students are turning to welding as a career choice. The job prospects are always hot in that field, and these students — grades 9 through 12 — are looking for a chance to grab those high-paying positions, too.

Alabama’s community colleges are recognizing this new interest by offering classes and camps to teach the latest technology in a really old trade.

At Calhoun Community College in North Alabama, this year marked the 16th anniversary of the Summer Welding and Electrical Technologies camp for girls.

The camp is designed to introduce hundreds of area high school girls to career opportunities available in technical industries. The annual June camp’s registration is limited to 24 campers.

“The camp was started at the request of local industry to help create awareness among high school girls of the high-paying job opportunities available in career and technical fields locally and around the country,” says Wes Torain, Calhoun’s director of public relations and digital media.

The camp provides hands-on experiences in welding, electrical and additive manufacturing work and helps students develop problem-solving and teamwork skills as they participate in instructor-led projects, he says.

In welding sessions, the campers learn basic applications and some structural welding. In electrical training they learn fundamental residential wiring concepts.

Additive manufacturing projects introduce campers to the basic concepts of 3-D printing.

Students interact with women role models during business-sponsored lunches.

Dothan-based Wallace Community College conducted Women in Welding boot camps at two of its campuses in

40 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Learning to weld in a program for women only at Wallace Community College.

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

The Women in Welding program drew a crowd of students.

2021. The grant-funded initiative was designed to attract non-traditional students.

“The bootcamp allowed females the opportunity to engage in various welding activities, initially in a non-threatening environment, in order to dispel myths

about the dangers of welding and associated tasks,” says Joe Johnson, Wallace’s director of Workforce Development.

“The participants had the opportunity to utilize virtual reality welding simulators to practice and hone their welding skills

prior to transitioning to the traditional welding lab,” he says.

After training on simulators, students moved to the traditional welding lab where they saw faculty demonstrations before entering welding booths.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 41

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

The first boot camp on the Dothan campus in January 2021 had 16 participants. In February 2021, 12 students went through the camp on the Sparks campus in Eufaula.

“The WIW bootcamp was hugely successful and garnered much attention, locally and nationally,” says Johnson.

“Given the success, we have increased enrollment in the non-credit industrial welding program at Wallace-Dothan.”

Half of the eight students in the fall industrial welding course are female, Johnson says.

Some lifting is required during welding but not as much as you might think, Johnson explains.

“Robotic welding has definitely increased in the welding industry,” he says.

“However, in my opinion, the manual welding process will never be replaced 100% by robots. There are so many variables when it comes to welding that an individual has to assess during the welding process and many small/tight areas that

‘‘

42 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

“The WIW bootcamp was hugely successful and garnered much attention, locally and nationally.”

— JOE JOHNSON, WALLACE’S DIRECTOR OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

are not conducive to robotic welding.”

Students who understand welding fundamentals have an easier time transitioning to robotic welding, he says.

Wallace State received a $279,000 National Science Foundation grant that led to creation of a Women in Diesel program. The Women’s Foundation of Alabama also provided funds to train women in welding, diesel technology and other STEM-related fields.

Welding education in Alabama isn’t limited to the traditional campus setting.

One program helps prepare prisoners for life after release.

J.F. Ingram State Technical College, based in Deatsville, provides educational opportunities to adults — including women — in prisons throughout Alabama. Those classes include welding certification.

Deborah Storey is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Alabama’s Public Universities

compiled by ERICA JOINER WEST

RANK

Ranked by Fall 2022 student enrollment.

INSTITUTION

ADDRESS

PHONE / WEBSITE

PRESIDENT

FALL 2022

FALL 2021

FALL 2020

1

University of Alabama

Box 870114, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0114

205-348-6010/ua.edu

Dr. Stuart Bell

38,645

38,320

37,842

2

Auburn University

107 Samford Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849

334-844-4000/auburn.edu

Dr. Christopher Roberts

31,764

31,526

30,737

3

University of Alabama at Birmingham 1720 2nd Ave. S., Birmingham, AL 35294

205-934-4011/uab.edu

Dr. Ray Watts

21,647

22,300

22,569

4

Troy University

University Ave., Troy, AL 36082-0001

800-414-5756/troy.edu

Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr.

13,862

14,537

16,087

5

University of South Alabama

307 University Blvd. N., Room 130, Mobile, AL 36688 251-460-6101/southalabama.edu

Jo Bonner

13,463

13,992

14,224

6

University of North Alabama

UNA Box 5004, Florence, AL 35621

256-765-4100/una.edu

Dr. Kenneth Kitts

9,830

8,526

8,086

7

Jacksonville State University

700 Pelham Rd. N., Jacksonville, AL 36265

256-782-5781/jsu.edu

Dr. William Meehan

9,633

9,540

9,238

8

University of Alabama in Huntsville

301 Sparkman Dr., Huntsville, AL 35899

256-824-1000/uah.edu

Dr. Charles Karr

9,237

9,636

10,000

9

Alabama A&M University

4900 Meridian St., Normal, AL 35762

256-372-5000/aamu.edu

Dr. Daniel Wims

6,007

5,969

5,977

10

University of West Alabama

239 Webb Hall, Livingston, AL 35470

800-621-8044/uwa.edu

Dr. Ken Tucker

5,851

5,594

5,734

11

Auburn University at Montgomery

P.O. Box 244023, Montgomery, AL 36124-4023

334-244-3000/aum.edu

Dr. Carl Stockton

5,112

5,073

5,212

12

Alabama State University

P.O. Box 271, Montgomery, AL 36101

334-229-4100/alasu.edu

Dr. Quinton Ross Jr.

3,828

3,964

4,072

13

Athens State University

300 N. Beaty St., Athens, AL 35611

256-233-8100/athens.edu

Catherine Wehlburg, Interim

2,895

2,794

2,867

14

University of Montevallo

Station 6001, Montevallo, AL 35115

205-665-6000/montevallo.edu

Dr. John Stewart III

2,586

2,625

2,600

Source: Alabama Commission on Higher Education

44 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Editor’s Note: For this Higher Education issue of Business Alabama, we asked some of our college partners to identify a standout member of their faculty or administration. Here’s who they are and some of their thoughts on the role of higher education in workforce development.

EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATORS

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR A CAREER

S

tudents need jobs; industry needs workers. So, Alabama’s higher education — especially its community college system — seeks to bridge those twin needs.

“Higher education is the bolt that should connect residents to valuable opportunities in business and industry,” says Alabama Community College System Chancellor Jimmy Baker, “but many times higher education programs are too expansive or too off target for what the workforce needs.

“The Alabama Community College System is focused on workforce development from a perspective of the resident’s return on investment. Whether a resident goes from high school through college to a career or is already in the workplace and seeking to upskill, the Alabama Community College System is committed to meeting residents where they are so that they can achieve the level of success that allows them to enjoy a quality of life of which they can be proud.”

Faculty members throughout the system and beyond echo Baker’s words.

As a finance professor and director of the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development at the University of North Alabama, J. Doug Barrett says, “A lot of our initiatives are geared toward

By NEDRA BLOOM

relationships with the local community.

From the university’s standpoint, we’re creating more opportunities for our students. We look at workforce development as one of our primary roles.”

In a program funded by the Daniel Foundation, some 80 UNA students were placed in high-level internships across northern Alabama, Barrett says. They consulted on strategic projects and often put their social media expertise into action on behalf of their company.

“It’s been very good,” says Barrett. “A lot of our local firms have benefitted.

Moreover, several students went on to work full time in the companies or nonprofits where they interned.”

The nursing program at Wallace State Community College also works closely with the surrounding community. The program “role models professionalism with a strong work ethic, and develops unique programs tailored to the needs of the facilities,” says Nursing Department Chair Deborah “Pepper” Hoover. “It is essential to listen to the needs of industry and creatively respond with program development to assist partners.”

To meet that goal, WSCC has partnered with University Hospital, creating employee scholarships to help build the current workforce and develop nurses of

the future. Starting next year, the college will offer evening classes in practical nursing. And it partners with four-year colleges and universities so that students can make progress toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing while studying at the community college.

For Mike Perry, dean of the College of Military Studies and Leadership at Columbia Southern, the interchange between college and career is critical. “The convergence of technology and society and globalization and all the disruption across the world and the workforce” require preparation. “And there is no better place to prepare workforce than in higher education.”

The goal, Perry says, is “not to tell people what to think but we have to develop creative ways how to think. We have to know how to think critically — to build a resilient workforce that can work through all the disruption.”

Perry spent more than three decades in the U.S. Air Force before joining Columbia Southern, and he values the overlapping careers. “Our militaries are some of the greatest leadership factories on the face of the planet. We’ve been doing that since the Revolutionary War.” Building on that example, his CSU programs also develop leadership skills. And those skills

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 45

E XC E P T I O N A L E D U C AT O R S

are in high demand in industry.

Joe Johnson, director of workforce development at Wallace Community College, appreciates the opportunity community colleges have to build workforce.

“The community college is truly the community’s college,” he says. They are involved in the community they serve, engaged with chambers of commerce and industry partners.

And when those partners have workforce needs, the community colleges can respond quickly — developing programs and writing grants to help with funding.

And the community colleges offer a wide array of options to students, he notes. Some students may jump right into a two-year academic program and move on to a four-year university. But other students may have limited time or resources — they may need a job now to support a family. For them, he notes, there are options like a short certificate in a specific skill. That gives the student a credential that can lead to a job. And with stability of a job and income, the student can come back for a long certificate.

“They can get into workforce and provide for themselves and their family and then come back for more,” Johnson says.

When they work their way into a degree program, they move beyond specific hands-on skills like welding or HVAC, finding themselves in English, math and speech classes as well.

“Our young students may not recognize it, but hopefully they will move up within whatever company they go with. That’s when math and English and speech are so important. You’re not always going to be behind a welding mask. When you’re a manager, you have to be able to communicate.

If you lead a project, you have to have the math skills. In a bid or board meeting, you have to be able to explain what your company can do."

Jean Ann Helm Allen, associate professor and department chair of kinesiology at the University of North Alabama, sums it up.

“I believe the ideal role for higher education is provide substantial opportunities for student participation in work-based learning. The University of North Alabama has centered our entire quality enhancement plan around this topic, ‘Preparing the Pride: Experiential and WorkBased Learning,’ to do this very thing. We want students to graduate with the skills necessary to enter their chosen fields as experienced as possible.”

Nedra Bloom is a Mobile-based writer/editor for Business Alabama.

46 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

JIMMY BAKER Chancellor, Alabama Community College System

T

he dynamic transformation of student experiences and training at Alabama’s 24 community and technical colleges is led by Jimmy H. Baker, chancellor of the Alabama Community College System.

In just five years as chancellor his combined five decades across every aspect of education have resulted in state-of-the-art workforce centers and robust infrastructure in every region, rapid training classes in several high-demand industries, nationally recognized apprenticeships, top academic instruction, additional athletics programs, top-notch campus security and more.

Every advancement is based on one core belief: that Alabama’s community colleges are the most affordable, accessible and practical avenue for all residents who want to strengthen their quality of life.

E XC E P T I O N A L E D U C AT O R S

J. DOUG BARRETT

DAVID CAMPBELL

Professor and Chair of Finance Department, University of North Alabama

President, Northeast Alabama Community College

D

D

r. J. Douglas Barrett is professor and chair of the University of North Alabama Finance Department in the Sanders College of Business and Technology and also serves as director of the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development.

Winner of this year’s Dr. Lawrence J. Nelson Outstanding Teaching Award, Barrett was honored for his commitment to innovation and love of learning. Students cite the challenging nature of his teaching as a particular plus.

Honored in years past for his research, scholarship and service, he says this year’s teaching award is particularly meaningful to him because teaching is fundamental at UNA. At UNA, teaching is the primary mission, he says. “This does not diminish the functions of scholarship or service, as they help support teaching. That said, teaching is at the center of everything we do. This recognition is humbling.”

Barrett earned his undergraduate degree in finance at the University of Montevallo and both master’s and Ph.D. degrees in applied statistics at the University of Alabama.

r. David Campbell has served as president of Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) since 2001. Under his leadership, the Aspen Institute has named the college among the top 10% of the approximately 1,200 community colleges in the United States. Northeast has received this recognition for five years.

CNN/Money and BestSchools.com each placed Northeast in the top 20 of American community colleges.

Campbell in particular has expanded the college's workforce and STEM programs, culminating in the addition of a state-of-the-art mathematics, science and engineering technology center and a health/workforce complex. Under his leadership, the college was one of the first in Alabama and the South to be totally Wi-Fi enabled.

Among his recognitions, Campbell had been named Citizen of the Year in both DeKalb and Jackson counties and he has won honors from academic organizations including a national service award from Phi Theta Kappa.

He has served as president of the Alabama Community College Association and the Alabama Community College Presidents' Association. He serves as chair of the Jackson County Economic Development Authority and chair of the DeKalb/Jackson Counties Industrial Development Board.

As chair of the Jackson County EDA, he was involved in the local efforts that brought Google to Alabama.

A native of North Alabama, he is a graduate of Auburn University with a master’s from Florida State University and Ph.D. from the University of Texas.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 47

E XC E P T I O N A L E D U C AT O R S

JEAN ANN HELM ALLEN Associate Professor and Department Chair, University of North Alabama

J

ean Ann Helm Allen is department chair and associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Alabama. She holds undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees, all from the University of Alabama, where she was honored for her teaching as a doctoral student.

She began teaching at UNA in the fall of 2013 and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in health and physical education pedagogy. She is passionate about teaching her students how to apply knowledge from the classroom into their careers, specifically related to working with individuals with disabilities.

In the past five years she has been the recipient of the University of North Alabama’s Lawrence J. Nelson Award for Outstanding Teaching by Faculty, The College of Education and Human Sciences Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, and this year, the Phi Kappa Phi Eleanor Gaunder Excellence in Teaching Award.

She is married to Jon Allen, a fellow faculty member at UNA, and they have three children. She is an avid reader and enjoys working out, living out in the country, and spending time with her family at their lake house.

48 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

DEBORAH “PEPPER” HOOVER Chair of the Nursing Department, Wallace State Community College

D

eborah “Pepper” Hoover joined Wallace State in 1990 and became chair of the nursing department in 2010.

Early in November, she will be inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame, one of just eight nursing professionals so honored.

“I am extremely honored to be inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame,” Hoover said. “I am passionate about nursing and blessed to be a part of a field of health science that touches the lives of so many people when they need us most. I’m especially proud to play a part in educating future nurses and grateful for my colleagues in the field and in education who are also dedicated to providing the best opportunities for our students.”

Last year, Hoover was appointed to the Alabama Board of Nursing to represent education. In her local community, she has worked to help establish the first hospice in Cullman County, has served on numerous boards including the United Way of Cullman County, Good Samaritan Clinic and more.

Her many honors include an award for outstanding teacher at UAB, where she taught before joining Wallace State, and a Chancellor’s Award from the community college system.

E XC E P T I O N A L E D U C AT O R S

JOE JOHNSON

MIKE PERRY

Director of Workforce Development, Wallace Community College

Dean, College of Military Studies and Leadership, Columbia Southern University

J

C

Prior to joining Wallace in 2010, he worked in the construction industry for 19 years, serving as a quality control manager, training developer and training coordinator.

Before joining Columbia Southern, Perry spent 31 years in the military, serving at the highest levels of the U.S. Air Force as the Air Force first sergeant special duty manager where he was responsible for the overall policy, guidance, training and development of more than 2,900 personnel supporting missions around the world.

oe Johnson is director of workforce development at Wallace Community College. During his 13 years at Wallace, Johnson has served as a career and technical education faculty member, division director and currently in the workforce development division.

Johnson is an Alabama native and holds a master’s degree in career and technical education, with a focus on leadership from Athens State University.

His passion is developing and providing training that will connect people with employment opportunities, as well as providing opportunities for growth for individuals within their current career field.

When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons and playing golf.

hief Master Sgt. (Ret.) Mike Perry joined Columbia Southern University in August 2023, serving as the dean of the College of Military Studies and Leadership.

He served as advisor to the 19th chief master sergeant of the Air Force supporting more than 485,000 service members and their families. Perry’s military career included various assignments leading teams in operations, logistics, health care and human resources. He has deployed in support of operations in Afghanistan and other overseas contingency operations.

Perry earned a bachelor’s degree in management from Wayland Baptist University and a master’s degree in organizational management with a concentration in human resources from the University of Arizona Global Campus.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 49

MANUFACTURING

Motion Quickness Irondale-based company acts fast to keep the global distribution supply chain moving

By CARY ESTES — Photos courtesy of MOTION

50 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Motion EVP and COO Joe Limbaugh at the company in Irondale.

M A N U FAC T U R I N G

Senior Service Technician Marlon Messer measures a bearing fit in the Motion Repair Shop.

T

here is an old proverb that illustrates step by step how the loss of a single nail from a horseshoe can lead to the downfall of a kingdom.

According to the proverb, the horseshoe fell off and the horse could no longer continue, so the rider was unable to deliver a vital message to the commander of a battle. As a result, the battle, then the war and then the kingdom were lost. All for the want of a nail.

In modern times, Motion is a purveyor of that critical nail, providing a key link in the worldwide distribution supply chain. And the company — which is expected to generate more than $8 billion in sales this year — offers this service from its longtime headquarters in Irondale, just outside Birmingham.

Motion does not sell the parts that go into various commercial products. Rather, the company sells the parts that go into the assembly lines and other manufacturing machinery that produce those products. Items such as bearings and belts, chains and cylinders, pulleys and pumps.

And, yes, even small nails.

“Anywhere there is machinery, that’s where you’re going to find us,” says Motion Executive Vice President and COO Joe Limbaugh, who has been with the company for 40 years. “We help keep industry operating. But unless you’re in this business, you don’t really know about it. People never relate us to the scale of what we do.”

That scale actually is quite extensive.

Motion works with more than 200,000 companies across a wide variety of industries. These include automotive, food and beverage, iron and steel, lumber and wood, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and rubber and plastics.

“Our customers might be good at canning pickles,” Limbaugh says, “but they’re not necessarily good with hydraulic systems.”

Through growth and acquisitions, Motion now has more than 600 locations — counting branches, distribution centers, service centers and such — throughout the United States. In addition, there are

approximately 50 locations in Canada, nearly a dozen in Mexico and more than 150 in the Asian Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore). Combined, all of Motion’s entities total more than 9,000 employees, with the company stocking or distributing more than 19 million different items worth $1 billion.

Keeping the shelves stocked is essential, Limbaugh says, because one of the keys to the company’s success is the ability to quickly provide the parts needed whenever there is a problem.

“More than 50% of our filled orders are unplanned,” Limbaugh says. “That’s why we have to have so many parts on the shelf ready just in case something breaks, so we have the right part and expertise to keep their factory operating.

If somebody’s line goes down at 3 a.m., they contact us and we find out what they need and get it to them. We never really go to sleep. We always make sure industry is operating.

“For example, if the deep-fryer line goes down during the process of turning

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 51

M A N U FAC T U R I N G

In motion at Motion.

potatoes into bagged potato chips, it’s important for us to have our inventory at the right location. So, when they call, we can get what they need to them very quickly. Because the longer they’re down, the more money they lose. Especially in food production. If the bottling or canning line is down, the longer it’s down, the more food you have to throw away because it didn’t make it into its final container in time. So, it’s very important that we’re on our game.”

The roots of what eventually became Motion dates back a century to the 1920s, when the Owen-Richards Company provided maintenance, repair and operations to the iron-and-steel producers that were prevalent throughout the Birmingham area at the time. Shortly after World War II, in 1946, Caldwell Marks and William Spencer purchased Owen-Richards and set about expanding it beyond its single-building operation, including a major warehouse expansion.

In 1970, Owen-Richards merged with Bearings & Transmission Supply to form the renamed Motion Industries. Six years later, Motion became a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Genuine Parts

Company (which also owns NAPA Auto Parts and Alliance Automotive Group) and moved into a new 95,000-square-foot headquarters at its current location in Irondale.

Despite the acquisition by GPC, Motion continued to market and conduct business independently. And to grow. By the mid-1990s, sales exceeded $1 billion and the company expanded into Canada.

A decade later, sales had tripled and the number of North America locations topped 500. Along the way, Motion began offering additional services, such as inventory management, parts repair and fabrication.

All this outward growth necessitated some internal development as well.

Motion’s Irondale footprint has expanded several times over the decades, and three years ago the company invested $10 million in a major renovation of the existing buildings.

Then earlier this year, Motion completed a $5 million investment into its Learning & Development center. In total, with a new repair shop, the AutoStore and the Learning & Development Center, the company has invested close to $35 million in its facilities.

52 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Limbaugh says the Learning & Development Center — which includes multiple rooms for online instruction as well as a 100-seat auditorium — is used to train both the company’s employees and customers on its various products and services.

“There is nowhere you can go to learn the processes of our business that well,” Limbaugh says. “So, we decided to take that responsibility ourselves.”

Motion interacts so closely with its customer base because the customers have significant input to the direction of the company.

While Motion executives obviously maintain a long-term strategic plan, Limbaugh says rapid developments in technology make it imperative that the company is open to sudden shifts in direction when needed.

“In many ways, our customers inform what our strategy will look like,” Limbaugh says. “The technology is changing so quickly that one must be agile. You can’t be firmly cemented in your strategic plan, because by the time you get halfway through it, it might be obsolete. Five years ago, the technology in our distribution center would have seemed very forward-thinking, but now you see a lot more of it.”

Regardless of the future direction, Limbaugh says Motion will continue to be there when needed, even as the company remains unnoticed by many people. At least, until a nail or some other crucial component is lost.

“When you walk into your kitchen and turn on your light switch, you don’t think about everything that had to take place in order for that light to come on. But you sure know if it doesn’t come on,” Limbaugh says. “We’re very much that same way. When factories need us, they’re glad we’re here.”

Cary Estes is a Birmingham-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

REAL ESTATE

Office, Suite Office Employees increasingly are seeking home amenities while at work

By CARY ESTES D&A Companies designed 2222 Arlington with amenities that tenants' employees appreciate in an office. D&A Companies/Jean Allsopp.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 53

R E A L E S TAT E Natural light pours into workspace, replacing a “labyrinthian” feel with an open, inviting feel.

A

s the height of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes further into the rearview mirror, employees are slowly but steadily leaving home and returning to the office. In doing so, however, they still want to enjoy a feeling of home.

According to a Gallup poll conducted in August of employees who have worked from home part time, the number of days spent working remotely each month has declined 35% since 2020 — though it remains 25% more than in 2019. And increasingly, the offices they are returning to do not look or feel the same as before.

This is an intentional change on the part of many employers and commercial real estate agents looking to repair an office market that was damaged by the pandemic. People will be more willing to leave home for the office, the thinking goes, if the office reminds them of home.

“If you’d rather be working from home because it’s comfortable and welladorned, bringing a little bit of that to the workspace makes it more of a homey experience,” says James McCormick, director of construction development at New York-based D&A Companies, which recently completed the redevelopment of the 2222 Arlington office building on Birmingham’s Southside.

“Having things like hardwood floors, curtains, a nice kitchen and dining area, takes the cubicle corporate stigma out of coming to the office.”

Or as broker Tommy Gleason, of CRE Mobile, says, “It may look more like your living room, with couches and chairs where you can sit around and

D&A’s Evan Watts takes a look at the newly renovated space with hardwood accents to make it look more like home, less like an office.

talk, than just a bland institutional office with a sea of cubicles.”

Overall, offices have been moving away from the structured cubicle approach for decades, spurred by the tech firms of Silicon Valley with their foosball tables and yoga rooms. This trend has only accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Folks really want to incorporate light and a sense of the outdoors into an office building,” says D&A co-founder Evan Watts, a native of Atlanta who has family in Birmingham. “They’re asking for a blend of private space and flexible communal workspace. We’re helping tenants

54 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

“It may look more like your living room, with couches and chairs where you can sit around and talk, than just a bland institutional office with a sea of cubicles.”

— Tommy Gleason, of CRE Mobile

envision these spaces in a way that was not commonplace just a few years ago.”

Watts says the 55,000-square-foot building at 2222 Arlington is a good example of the changes taking place within the CRE world. Constructed in 1976, the building’s former design was “labyrinthian,” Watts says, with limited natural light and “cubicle after cubicle after cubicle.”

One of the first things D&A did was create a second lobby on the opposite side of the original one, then divide the remaining space into sections, mostly between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet each. “Tenants are looking for less space,” Watts says, “but they’re willing to spend almost the same amount every month in order to have more amenities.”

Those amenities vary greatly, though almost all are designed to enhance employee comfort and enjoyment while at work. For example, McCormick says the building’s anchor tenant — Atlas Senior Living — asked for an expansive recreation and entertainment area that can be used by individual employees but also for large corporate events such as a college basketball March Madness watch party.

Meanwhile, McCormick says the law firm Marsh, Rickard & Bryan requested a lounge area that looks and feels like an upscale coffee shop.

“It’s an aspect that they wanted in order to break up having it feel like a traditional office,” McCormick says.

“None of our tenants were interested in a spec office space. Instead, they wanted to bring these other spaces that people enjoy into the office.”

Gleason says he is seeing similar requests from prospective tenants in

Mobile for such in-office amenities as fitness centers and game rooms. In particular, he says, there is an emphasis on improving employee lounge areas, since simply gathering around the water cooler or coffeemaker no longer is considered an acceptable way for employees to take a break.

“The biggest problem with working from home is you don’t have the collaboration that comes from just being around your fellow workers,” Gleason says. “So, lounge areas where people can sit and relax but also collaborate are popular.

That’s something we’ll probably be doing more often in the future.”

Tenant requests are extending beyond the office walls as well. The numerous indoor restrictions that were introduced during COVID placed an emphasis on access to safe and enjoyable outdoor spaces, and the desire for such spaces did not go away once the indoor restrictions were lifted. So outside beauty is now considered by many to be an office amenity.

“We want to encourage people to walk out of the (2222 Arlington) building,” Watts says. “We’ve invested a lot into the landscaping and the hardscaping. We have these plazas in front and a garden in back. Spaces where people can just enjoy themselves.”

But it’s not all fun and games. Some of the requested amenities have a practical purpose. Home maintenance tech company Shipshape wanted a room filled with video screens on the wall (“Like a NASA command center,” McCormick says), and Gresham Smith architects asked for multiple Zoom rooms equipped specifically to handle conference calls.

McCormick says Gresham Smith also has embraced a concept call hot-desking, in which employees do not have an assigned desk. Instead, they simply choose any available desk when they arrive each day.

It is an approach that has long been used in the Navy, where sailors will share a bunk on a rotating basis when each one is off duty. McCormick says the idea is the same in the modern office now that many employees work from home several days each week.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 55

“If you have 50 employees, but only 25 or 30 are ever in the office at one time, there’s no need to have 50 desks. This way, you can have a smaller office space.”

—James McCormick, director of construction development at New York-based D&A Companies “If you have 50 employees, but only 25 or 30 are ever in the office at one time, there’s no need to have 50 desks,” McCormick says. “This way, you can have a smaller office space.”

Gleason also has witnessed a shift toward office downsizing. He says after the COVID pandemic began, CRE Mobile “went more than a year without signing a single new office lease.” While the situation has improved significantly this year, he says much of the leasing has been for smaller spaces.

“We’ve had to take some larger vacancies, divide up the space, and then add some of these (amenities),” Gleason says.

“That seems to be working. Because once we make those changes, the spaces lease pretty quickly.”

After all, while there may be no place exactly like home, the office is becoming a little bit closer.

Cary Estes is a Birmingham-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

56 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

R E A L E S TAT E

Commercial Real Estate Firms YEAR FOUNDED

# ALABAMA PROPERTIES MANAGED/DEVELOPED

compiled by ERICA JOINER WEST

RANK

# ALA. EMPLOYEES

Ranked by number of Alabama employees

FIRM MANAGING PRINCIPAL(S)

1

JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) Carter Burwell

850 Shades Creek Pkwy.

Ste. 320 Birmingham, AL 35209

205-718-8988 jll.com

100

Did Not Disclose

2

Colliers|Alabama Joe Sandner III, Joe Sandner IV

880 Montclair Rd. Ste. 250 Birmingham, AL 35213

205-445-0955 colliers.com

62

76

2007 Leasing, brokerage, real estate management, capital markets, asset management, investment services

3

Graham & Co. Henry Graham II, Matthew Graham

1801 5th Ave. N. Ste. 300 Birmingham, AL 35203

205-871-7100 grahamcompany.com

52

74

1978 Sales/leasing, management, corporate services, development, investment

4

Centennial Real Estate Co.

2200 Magnolia Ave. S. Birmingham, AL 35205

205-939-3111 centennialrec.com

52

6

2022 Leasing, property management, marketing, asset management, accounting, market research and data analytics, development and construction

5

NAI Chase Commercial Realty Charlie Grelier Jr.

2705 Artie St. Bldg. 500, Ste. 40 Huntsville, AL 35805

256-539-1686 chasecommercial.com

47

83

1985 Brokerage, office, retail, industrial, medical, leasing & sales development, property management, asset management, construction management, receiverships

6

Southpace Properties John Lauriello, Bill McDavid, Bryan Holt

300 Richard Arrington Jr. 205-326-2222 Blvd., Ste. 900 southpace.com Birmingham, AL 35203

43

80

1984 Retail, office, multifamily, investment leasing and brokerage, property management

7

Red Rock Realty Group Tom Carruthers, Tommy Joyce, Jack Little, Charles Robinson

1425 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. S., Ste. 100 Birmingham, AL 35205

205-324-3383 redrockrg.com

40

155

1934 Property management, brokerage, investing, developing

8

Shannon Waltchack Andrew Patterson

1616 2nd Ave. S. Ste. 100 Birmingham, AL 35233

205-977-9797 shanwalt.com

39

140

2005 Investments, property management, brokerage, leasing

9

Retail Specialists Robert Jolly, Mead Silsbee

2200 Magnolia Ave. S. Ste. 100 Birmingham, AL 35205

205-313-3676 retailspecialists.com

36

30

2005 Leasing, property management, tenant representation, development

10

Cushman & Wakefield/EGS Commercial Real Estate Mark Byers

2100 3rd Ave. N. Ste. 700 Birmingham, AL 35203

205-939-4440 egsinc.com

26

40

1987 Tenant representation, agency leasing, property management, development, investment sales, asset management, real estate, economic development consulting

11

Marcus & Millichap Jody McKibben

800 Shades Creek Pkwy.

Ste. 815 Birmingham, AL 35209

205-510-9200 marcusmillichap.com

23

Did Not Disclose

12

Beeker Property Group Inge Beeker

1460 Northbank Tuscaloosa, AL 35406

205-534-5818 beekerpropertygroup.com

22

35

2010 Development, investment, brokerage

13

Stirling Will Barrois

1 St. Louis St., Ste. 4100 Mobile, AL 36602

251-342-7229 stirlingprop.com

20

22

2014 Brokerage, development & redevelopment, acquisitions & investments, asset & property management

14

Watts Realty Co. Inc. Chip Watts

1527 3rd Ave. S. Ste. 102 Birmingham, AL 35233

205-251-1267 wattsrealty.com

16

154

1906 Commercial brokerage, leasing, property management and insurance

15

Right Space Commercial Richard Henry

1901 8th Ave. Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

205-292-4643 rightspacecre.com

16

27

2023 Leasing, investments, management, brokerage, tenant representation

16

CRE Mobile Allan Cameron Jr., David Dexter, Jay Roberds II, Pete Riehm, Thomas Gleason Jr.

164 St. Francis St. Ste. 200 Mobile, AL 36602

251-438-4312 cre-mobile.com

15

124

2013 Brokerage, leasing, sales, property management

17

White-Spunner Realty Inc., Blacksher White-Spunner Matt White, John White-Spunner, Katherine White-Spunner Trotter

3201 Dauphin St., Ste. A, 251-471-1000 Mobile, AL 36606 white-spunnerrealty.com

13

130

1954 Property management, brokerage, leasing, retail center management, site selection

For more firms, visit BusinessAlabama.com

ADDRESS

PHONE/WEBSITE

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

1783 Tenant representation, commercial brokerage, integrated portfolio services, capital markets, retail, corporate solutions. Integrated facility management, project & development services

2007 Brokerage, investment sales, research, financing

Source: Business Alabama Survey

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 57

WORKFORCE

Child care dilemma

Initiatives around Alabama aim to increase access to child care for the workforce

By GAIL ALLYN SHORT — Photos by BILL STARLING

Autumn Zellner shares a story with youngsters at her STARS Early Learning Academy in Fairhope.

58 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

WO R K FO RC E

A

s early as 6:30 a.m., parents arrive at the STARS Early Learning Academy in Fairhope to drop their young children off for the day before heading off to work.

The day care center is open year-round from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. “We cater to double-working families,” says the facility’s director and owner, Autumn Zellner.

A thoughtful moment at the start of the day.

Zellner, a former elementary school teacher, launched her day care center in 2020 at a time that includes science, technology, readwhen many day cares around the nation ing, the arts and sports. struggled to remain open during the But, Zellner says her day care has a COVID-19 pandemic. But she pretwo-year waiting list. vailed, the culmination of a long-held The anxious parents on that list are dream, she says. not alone in their frustration. The truth “I taught for 15 years, but I always is, for many parents across Alabama, knew I liked the littles. I like the energy accessible, affordable, high-quality child of it and how much they can grow withcare is simply out of reach, and that inin a year’s time,” she says. accessibility is having a troubling impact Today, she and her staff of 17 oversee on the state’s workforce. and teach around 60 youngsters ranging For example, a survey by Alabama from infants to pre-K with a curriculum Partnership for Children reported a gap

of 85,554 in available child-care slots and that an estimated 60% of Alabama children under the age of five lived in “child care deserts,” where either no child care exists or where too few exist to serve at least a third of the need.

Furthermore, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center reports that even preCOVID, the number of licensed child-care centers in Alabama fell from 2,340 in 2010 to 1,698 in 2019.

And among licensed family day care homes, the numbers fell from 844 in 2010 down to 428 in 2019.

In 2023, the number of licensed child care centers fell even further to 1,484 while licensed family day care homes rose to 562, according to the state Department of Human Resources.

Many Alabama parents are also grappling with the high cost of child care. In a recent Care.com survey of 3,000 parents nationwide, 67% reported spending

Everything is designed with youngsters in mind at STARS.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 59

WO R K FO RC E

“One of the problems is that we have so many people that are sitting around the table of whitecollar decision makers, and they automatically focus on what they know. We’re looking at a holistic approach,” — Donny Jones, executive director of West AlabamaWorks

20% or more of their annual household income on child care.

In Alabama, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor national database of child-care prices, the median yearly price at infant- and toddler-care centers in 2018 was about $6,728 while the annual price for pre-school center care was about $6,101.

By 2023, the median yearly price at infant- and toddler-care centers had risen to $7,919 and $7,182 for pre-school center care.

And when parents either cannot afford or access child care, businesses suffer, too, through increased absences, employee turnover, reduced hours of operations and even closures, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, employers lose anywhere from $400 million to $3 billion annually due to the resulting employee absences and turnover, says a U.S. Chamber study.

The Alabama Department of Labor reported that while the state enjoyed a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of just 2.1% in August 2023, the labor participation rate was a staggering 57%, up from 56.9% in August 2022.

As a matter of fact, Alabama ranks

48th out of 51 states and the District of Columbia for labor participation, according to the World Population Review.

George Clark, president of Manufacture Alabama, a trade association representing some of the largest manufacturers in the state, says he believes the child care shortage is one reason for the low labor participation rate.

It is so bad that child care is a frequent topic of conversation among the members of Manufacture Alabama, Clark says.

“I’ve been around the state numerous times in breakout sessions and one of the barriers of people going to work or training, and, it has been stated by not just me but others, is that child care or the lack thereof is a major obstacle to increasing the labor participation rate,” Clark says.

“We’ve got to find additional workers to get into the system, and solving the problem of child care would help immensely,” he says.

For now, however, some of state’s automakers are helping their workers access quality day care.

In Madison, for example, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing has teamed up

60 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

with the on-demand, online child care platform called TOOTRiS. The TOOTRiS platform gives workers access to a network of licensed child-care providers in their area. From their PC or mobile phone, parents can compare child-care providers, vet them and enroll their child in an affordable day care center or in places that offer temporary care, drop-ins or even child-care settings that accommodate non-traditional work schedules.

Furthermore, MTM team members can bring their preferred provider into the network and access up to $3,000 per year that MTM provides to each team member as a subsidy for child care expenses through their TOOTRiS program, MTM External Affairs Specialist Jessica Luther says.

MTM provides a child care subsidy through TOOTRiS for team members’ annual child-care costs if they are enrolled with TOOTRiS. This subsidy provides 30% or up to $250 a month — $3,000 annually — in child-care expenses, including daycare, afterschool care, summer camps and in-home care, she says.

Besides the TOOTRiS program,

WO R K FO RC E

MTM, as part of the employee benefits package, offers its team members Dependent Care FSA accounts where they can contribute up to $5,000 annually, tax free, to pay for child care.

And in Vance, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) maintains an onsite day care called Shining Stars Early Learning Center for its team members’ children.

Open since 2002, Shining Stars Early Learning Center serves children from infants to pre-school age, says MBUSI spokesperson Felyicia Jerald.

And while the company does not provide subsidies for Center fees, the rates are comparable to what workers would pay at other child care centers, but with the added convenience of being on-site, she says.

But while some companies are attempting to address the child-care issue for workers, Clark, a former chairman of Alabama’s Workforce Investment Board, says the lack of affordable day care is also having a negative effect on efforts to attract students for workforce training.

Autumn Zellner and some of her young charges.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 61

“The problem is they’re not going to get trained because of child-care issues, and they’re not going to work,” Clark says.

In Tuscaloosa, West AlabamaWorks, the workforce division of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, is engaged in an initiative to help create more quality, in-home day care businesses in the region.

The initiative, called the Community Childcare Cultivation program or 3by3, is a partnership among West AlabamaWorks, Shelton State Community College, Paths for Success Foundation and the state Department of Human Resources to train participants to operate their own in-home day cares.

Donny Jones, executive director of West AlabamaWorks, says in-home day care options are important since most child care centers close in the late afternoon or early evening and may not accommodate parents in certain fields and blue-collar jobs that require overnight and rotating shifts.

“In home child care is more conducive to those shift type scenarios when it comes to manufacturing,” Jones says.

At the same time, the program is training participants to become entrepreneurs, he says.

“One of the problems is that we have so many people that are sitting around the table of white-collar decision makers, and they automatically focus on what they know. We’re looking at a holistic approach,” he says.

But in the meantime, Zellner says she frequently finds herself advising parents to get on as many day care waiting lists as possible and consider their options.

“They might find that they have to get their child into some place that might not be their home forever,” she says.

“That might be a necessity for them to find any child care until they can find a quality spot that they’re really looking for.”

Gail Allyn Short and Bill Starling are freelance contributors to Business Alabama. She is based in Birmingham and he in Mobile.

62 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

TECHNOLOGY

Revolutionizing Tax Software

Meet the innovators of a promising new startup that is changing the game

By GAIL ALLYN SHORT — Photo by JOE DE SCIOSE

Behind the wizardry: Jordan Ward, Bria Johnson, Tevin Harrell and Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 63

T E C H N O LO G Y

A

lmost any tax preparer or accountant will tell you that gathering mounds of client documents, analyzing them and calculating their taxes can take hours.

Just ask Bria Johnson.

“The issue that a lot of tax pros face is difficulty with the client intake process.

Every single client has a lot of information; the W-2s, the 1099s, a house or dependents,” says Johnson.

Taking in all that information takes time. But not only that, tax preparers these days often struggle to gain access to clients’ third-party apps like QuickBooks.

So, Johnson, who has a master’s degree in information systems and data analytics from Auburn University, and her fellow alumni, Tevin Harrell, Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye, Jordan Ward and Justin Robinson, developed a software platform that uses artificial intelligence to make tax preparation faster and more efficient.

The Wiz Group, headquartered in Birmingham, is the startup that produces the SmartWiz AI platform. The platform is made specifically for tax professionals and takes tax return preparation down from four hours to as little as 20 minutes, says Johnson, who is head of growth for The Wiz Group.

The startup recently won $150,000 from the 2023 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. The fund provides cash awards without requiring company founders to relinquish equity. The winners also get hands-on support that helps the minority entrepreneurs build and grow their companies.

“That was super huge for us and for our business because we were able to pour a lot of that money into resources for our product and engineering teams,” Johnson says.

The story of SmartWiz began at Auburn University, where the five partners met on campus.

Aladebumoye says his journey started after he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Auburn, along with Harrell, Ward and Robinson.

“That fraternity is where we learned to work together. We weren’t the typical frat guys because we treated everything like business,” he says.

“We were looking at budgets before throwing events, and marketing events

Working together since their days at Auburn are, from left, Justin Robinson, Bria Johnson, Tevin Harrell, Jordan Ward and Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye. Photo courtesy of The Wiz Group.

or figuring out strategic ways to get the campus to an event or the entire state.

So, that’s initially how we started out,” Aladebumoye says.

Then, Harrell, The Wiz Group’s CEO who came from a family of tax preparers, got the opportunity to operate his own tax preparation office and called on Aladebumoye, Ward and Robinson to help him. Their first customers were friends and family, Aladebumoye says.

That is how Johnson met the four, she says, enlisting their services after the former Auburn women’s basketball player launched her own clothing line.

“I was already an entrepreneur, and I saw what the guys were doing, and they saw what I was doing on campus, and we

64 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

came together because they did my taxes,” she says.

Before long, Johnson joined the group and learned how to prepare tax returns as well.

In 2015, Aladebumoye graduated from Auburn and he, Harrell and the other partners continued growing the business, then called TaxxWiz. But making the tax prep business grow meant the five partners all worked their “day jobs” and did taxes at night in the Birmingham office during tax season.

Aladebumoye and Harrell, at the time, both worked at the Honda manufacturing plant in Lincoln during the day. Aladebumoye managed electrical infrastructure at the plant, he says.

T E C H N O LO G Y

Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye Partner, The Wiz Group

“Every tax season it was us going to a 9-to-5. But for me and Tevin, it was more like six-to-three because we had to be at the plant by 6 a.m., leave by 3 p.m., and then drive to the tax office, work at the tax office until midnight. Get home around 1 a.m., and then wake up at 4 a.m. to do it all over again,” he says.

“We learned how to get more efficient when we learned how to put systems in place to help us go faster and build things a little bit better. We found our way, but initially we were heads down. Stay up late.

Figure it out,” he says.

Eventually, the entrepreneurs had more customers than they could handle and began turning people away.

Consequently, they attended an Internal Revenue Service forum, hoping to see if anyone there knew of a software program that could help them work faster.

Turns out, no one they talked to knew of such a software program, Johnson says.

“What ended up happening was we decided, since they keep telling us no, there’s not a way for them to build software that can incorporate the things we knew we needed as tax professionals, we said, well, let’s build our own. We’re engineers. How difficult could it be?” she says.

So, they built the software.

SmartWiz, formally branded as TaxxWiz, is an all-in-one tax software product that uses AI technology to increase customer service efficiency and speed up the tax prep time.

By 2020, the five started the arduous

{

“Our company is a B Corporation, so we have an obligation to serve our communities, and we’re just as much a for-profit as we are for impact. We’re huge on giving back, and we’re super excited to launch our academy for this upcoming tax season.”

process of applying for IRS approval of their software platform. They won that approval in 2022, Johnson says.

Also in 2022, the startup won the early-seed stage prize of $50,000 in the Alabama Launchpad Cycle 2 competition — an early-stage seed fund investor and a program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

The five later rebranded their software as SmartWiz, and in 2023 they won $150,000 in developmental funds from Google.

“Right now, we’re in a funding phase that’s a mix between pre-seed and seed,” says Aladebumoye, an MBA who is the startup’s chief operating officer.

Aladebumoye says that although their latest round of funding has ended, they are interested in forming relationships with anyone interested in investing in the business.

“After next tax season is when we plan on reevaluating where we stand and if we want to take on new investors,” Aladebumoye says.

The Wiz Group’s co-founders Ward and Robinson are the company’s head of product and head of partnerships, respectively, and the co-founders are currently overseeing a network of tax professionals who are undergoing training and are using SmartWiz. They have also released the second version of their software platform, Johnson says.

Furthermore, Aladebumoye says the

company is preparing to roll out WizWorld Marketplace, an online platform listing top recommended tax professionals who use the SmartWiz software. Customers could then choose a tax professional who uses the SmartWiz technology and who best fits their needs.

Aladebumoye jokingly describes his job as “the interrogator,” spending much of his time monitoring the business’ key performance indicators.

“A lot of my role is making sure that every single part of the business is doing what it needs to from product development to go-to-market to, ‘Hey, are our sales hitting the metrics?’” he says.

But in addition to producing the software, the five will soon operate The Tax Academy that will offer a self-paced course to teach people the skills needed to become tax preparers to earn extra money or start their own business.

“Our company is a B Corporation, so we have an obligation to serve our communities, and we’re just as much a for-profit as we are for impact,” Johnson says. “We’re huge on giving back, and we’re super excited to launch our academy for this upcoming tax season.”

Aladebumoye adds, “We want to pour back into other individuals and see people become successful at whatever it is they want to do.”

Gail Allyn Short and Joe De Sciose are Birmingham-based freelance contributors to Business Alabama.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 65

2023 National Philanthropy Day

November 3, 2023 The Harbert Center Birmingham

SPECIAL SECTION

A F P A L A B A M A N AT I O N A L P H I L A N T H RO P Y DAY

Welcome to the AFP Alabama National Philanthropy Day Luncheon For more than 40 years, the Association of Fundraising Professionals Alabama Chapter has hosted the National Philanthropy Day luncheon to recognize and celebrate the individuals and organizations whose achievements have made a significant impact across the state of Alabama.

This year is no exception, with AFP honorees coming from all facets of the philanthropy spectrum:

• • • • • • • •

A couple whose philanthropic endeavors have included a transformative gift to an Alabama medical school.

A woman whose mother’s battle with cancer inspired a groundbreaking cancer foundation.

An attorney who has forged a career working with nonprofits on planned giving and endowment.

A university development director who has raised millions.

A golf professional whose battle against cerebral palsy hasn’t stopped him from becoming the top adaptive golfer in the country.

A teenager who founded his own nonprofit helping the homeless at age 6.

A nonprofit organization that uses photographs to connect youth in foster care with caring adults.

An auto care company that brings an art program to hospitalized children.

These eight honorees will be celebrated at the 2023 National Philanthropy Day Luncheon.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals includes 27,000 members in more than 240 chapters throughout the world, including more than 140 members representing 84 organizations across Alabama. Members are working to advance philanthropy through education, training, professional development and networking opportunities.

The 2023 National Philanthropy Day honorees were selected by a committee of community leaders in Alabama.

None of the committee members are affiliated with AFP Alabama as board or chapter members.

Please join us as we honor the 2023 National Philanthropy Day honorees.

AFP Alabama Chapter National Philanthropy Day Nov. 3, 2023, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Harbert Center Welcome Morgan Emahiser, CFRE President, AFP Alabama Chapter Director of Development, Childcare Resources Invocation Presentation of Awards Janice Rogers, Morning Anchor, WBRC Fox 6 Closing Brynne MacCann President-Elect, AFP Alabama Chapter Director of Philanthropic Giving, American College of Cardiology

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 69

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A F P A L A B A M A N AT I O N A L P H I L A N T H RO P Y DAY H O N O R E E S

Dr. and Mrs. Marnix Heersink

William M. and Virginia B. Spencer Outstanding Philanthropists Nominated by the University of Alabama at Birmingham She’s an international food safety advocate. He’s a successful ophthalmologist. Together, Mary and Marnix Heersink are among Alabama’s most prolific philanthropists. “As Saint Francis Assisi said many years ago, ‘For it is in giving that we receive,’” Marnix Heersink says. And give they have, including a $95 million gift to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the university’s largest gift ever, to name the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and create two institutes – the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation and the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health. Marnix Heersink is the co-founder of Dothan’s Eye Center South and has supported numerous organizations with financial and leadership support. Those organizations include Wallace Community College, Troy University, Marion Military Institute and Boys and Girls Club of Alabama. Mary Heersink, trained as a visual artist and a published medical illustrator, co-founded STOP Foodborne Illness, an organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens.

They split their time between Alabama and the Netherlands, where they also are involved in philanthropic efforts. The Heersinks have six children – five physicians and one dentist – and 10 grandchildren. Marnix Heersink says he and his family have been privileged to be able to give back to the many organizations that they support. “My hope and dream is that our family’s use of our resources is seen as an inspiration to others,” he says.

Lori Livingston

United Way of Central Alabama Outstanding Civic Leader Nominated by the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation Lori Livingston created the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation after her mother died at age 65 from ovarian cancer in 1992. “She was my best friend, and when she was diagnosed she was stage 4c with hardly any options for treatment,” Livingston says. “Losing her was the hardest challenge our family ever faced, and I wanted to change the face of ovarian cancer treatment and possible cures.” With guidance from Dr. Mack Barnes, Livingston created the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation, which has donated more than $1.8 million to research for cures and early detection of ovarian cancer. The foundation has created patient, family and survivor support programs, created an ovarian cancer car tag and hosted many events to raise awareness, including the Motherwalk 5K and Fun Run and an annual butterfly release at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover. The foundation will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024 with goals to increase its reach throughout Alabama.

Livingston hopes she has led by example. “My husband and I have taught our children the value of philanthropy and certainly hope they will carry on and make their own choices of what’s important to them in their respective communities,” she says, adding that she has lofty goals for her own foundation. “In my heart of hearts, I want the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation to live on forever and find a tool for early detection and a cure for ovarian cancer.”

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 71

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A F P A L A B A M A N AT I O N A L P H I L A N T H RO P Y DAY H O N O R E E S

Jennifer Philpot

William S. Roth Outstanding Fundraising Executive Jennifer Philpot, senior director of development at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, is a trusted health care fundraising executive with more than 24 years of experience in fundraising operations and steering strategic development for health care organizations. Her expertise in major gift and grateful patient fundraising, strategic operations management and building comprehensive fundraising programs has been the hallmark of her career, through work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,Vanderbilt University, Baptist Health Foundation, St.Vincent’s Foundation and others. At UAB, Philpot and her team are charged with supporting the philanthropic initiatives of eight departments within the UAB HSOM and Callahan Eye Hospital. Philpot has been a member of the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy, the Alabama Planned Giving Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is the immediate past president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Alabama.

She has served on the board of Leadership Vestavia Hills as community events chair and was a founding board member of the Community of Hope Health Clinic. Philpot is also a past board president of Camp Bridges Foundation and has volunteered her time with the Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation and Easter Seals of Birmingham. Her advice to would-be philanthropists? “You can make a difference right where you are,” Philpot says. “Do not wait until you have more money or more time. If you see a need that you can fill, do it. Every minute and every dollar spent in the service of others is significant – the amount does not matter as much as the dedication and commitment.”

Kathryn W. Miree

Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Outstanding Professional Advisor Nominated by United Way of Central Alabama and the Alabama Association of Charitable Gift Planners Kathryn Miree worked as a law clerk in the United States District Court before going to work for AmSouth Bank (now Regions), eventually serving as senior vice president and manager of the Personal Trust Division, working with nonprofits and their boards.

“It was fascinating to learn so much about the charities in the Birmingham area,” Miree says. After establishing and serving as president and CEO of Sterne, Agee & Leach’s Trust Co., Miree in 1997 established the consulting firm Kathryn W. Miree & Associates, where she focuses on charitable gift planning, administration and planned gifts and endowments compliance. Her clients include nonprofits across North America. A leader in several planned giving organizations, she is a member of both the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners Hall of Fame and the National Association of Estate Planners and Council Estate Planning Hall of Fame. She’s also a published author and frequent lecturer and has been chair of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, United Way of Central Alabama and the Altamont School. “My advice to donors and volunteers who want to make a difference is to select a charity you are passionate about and then get fully involved,” Miree says. “The more you engage, the more your contributions (time and/or financial) will not only add capacity and impact but will inspire others.”

72 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

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Christopher Biggins

AFP Alabama Chapter IDEA Award Nominated by United Ability Chris Biggins grew up in Maryland, and after graduating from Methodist University, he moved to Birmingham, where the golfer is director of player development at the Country Club of Birmingham. Soon after his arrival in Birmingham, he found United Ability, a nonprofit that provides services for adults and children with disabilities. “My connection to United Ability is one of the main reasons that I made plans to stay in Birmingham long-term,” he says. “This is personal for me. I have cerebral palsy and had some major struggles due to my disability in the early 2010s. United Ability helped get me through those times, and I certainly felt the need to give back to them somehow.” Biggins serves on United Ability’s board of directors and has helped raise more than $1 million for the organization with various fundraisers he has co-chaired or co-hosted over the years. He’s also the top adaptive golf player in the U.S. and No. 3 in the world. “Sports have always been my passion, and one of my main goals has been to introduce sports to as many disabled individuals as possible,” he says. He does that with United Ability, as well as Hand in Hand, the European Disabled Golf Association and the United States Golfers Association, among others. “The work that I have a passion for and that UA does has a unique goal,” he says. “We don’t want to help disabled individuals become ‘impressive for a person with a disability.’ We want the help them become ‘impressive’ period.”

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 73

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A F P A L A B A M A N AT I O N A L P H I L A N T H RO P Y DAY H O N O R E E S

Ethan Hill

Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Nominated by The Altamont School A 13-year-old in the 8th grade at The Altamont School, Ethan David Hill is already a seasoned philanthropist, having founded the nonprofit Ethan’s Heart Bags4Blessings when he was 6. Hill’s mission is to provide essential survival supplies to the unhoused homeless population, and since 2016, he has distributed more than 5,000 care packages and other supplies to those in need. In 2022, Hill introduced The Ethan’s Heart Free Mobile Store and Educational Unit, a mobile unit that goes into homeless encampments, allowing people to shop for needed supplies without financial burden. “That Hill is able to make a substantial, immediate improvement in the lives of others is exemplary,” his nomination letter says. “That he is able to multiply his own passion by inspiring and organizing others makes him an exceptional philanthropist.” Hill has garnered media attention for his philanthropic efforts from local and international news outlets, as well as Nickelodeon, “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “The Wonderful World of Disney Magical Holiday Celebration.” He’s been named to the 2023 Hormel 10 Under 20 Food Hero list, 2023 Humanitarian of the Year from the Women’s Committee of 100 and 2023 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes Award, among other accolades. In school, Hill is in the orchestra and jazz bands as a trumpeter, and he is a member of the varsity golf team. He has a simple motto: “Every day is a day to help someone in need.”

Express Oil Change and Tire Engineers Outstanding Corporate Citizen Nominated by Children’s of Alabama

The name Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers leaves little doubt as to the main focus of that company, but for the past 15 years, there has been another aspect of the company and its employees. Since 2008, Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers has been the sole supporter of Children’s of Alabama’s Art and Expressive Therapy program as part of the company’s Changing Oil, Changing Lives campaign. “We are passionate about supporting our communities,” says Nicole Self, senior marketing manager for Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers. “It is a privilege to support an incredible hospital like Children’s of Alabama and to provide art therapy. The therapy offers the patients and their families a creative outlet to express their feelings.” Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers’ support comes in the form of $1 donated for every oil change in Alabama during the month of April. (The company has a similar partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta). Money raised in Alabama goes toward supporting two areas of Children’s – the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders and the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center – with the art therapy program. The program provides a much-needed creative outlet for patients, the nomination letter says. “This not only fosters a sense of normalcy but also provides strength and comfort to patients, granting them a much-needed respite from the intense emotions associated with their hospital stay.”

74 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

SPECIAL SECTION

A F P A L A B A M A N AT I O N A L P H I L A N T H RO P Y DAY H O N O R E E S

Heart Gallery Alabama

Outstanding Charitable Organization

For nearly 20 years, Heart Gallery Alabama has taken professional photos and video to help foster children get adopted in Alabama. “Before Heart Gallery was formed, all the social workers had to use to advocate for our youth was a Polaroid photo and every diagnosis that a child had ever been given,” the organization says. “They were often not even put on a website. For potential families, the portraits and the videos that are produced by Heart Gallery Alabama can be used to spark a lifelong connection.”

Inspired by Heart Gallery New Mexico, Michelle BearmanWolnek, Karen Nomberg and Julie Marks founded Heart Gallery Alabama in 2005, with the first gallery of photos exhibited in November 2005 at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Heart Gallery Alabama isn’t a placement agency, but it recruits potential parents by exhibiting photos and videos at ballparks, churches, businesses and other high-traffic areas. Heart Gallery Alabama has featured more than 2,100 children in photoshoots, including 141 in 2022 (of those, 107 were adopted). “It is very fulfilling to attend the adoption proceedings for a child that

you have recruited for,” says BearmanWolnek, executive director of Heart Gallery Alabama. “The photos that we take for Heart Gallery are beautiful portraits, but to see the difference in the children’s smiles on their actual adoption day is a feeling that you will never forget.”

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 75

SPECIAL SECTION

AFP VOLUNTEERS IN PHILANTHROPY HONOREES

2023 National Philanthropy Day Sponsors Presenting Sponsors:

Cathy and Tom Adams

Ingram Equipment Company

Honored by Ascension St. Vincent’s Foundation

Honored by Childcare Resources

For Tom and Cathy Adams impacting futures through Jeremiah’s Hope represents “a gift to us through giving to them.” Jeremiah’s Hope is a collaborative program between Ascension St.Vincent’s and Jefferson State providing training for careers in health care.

“Participating in the ‘pinning’ ceremony for Jeremiah’s Hope graduates reinforced our commitment to continue to contribute to as well as to raise both awareness and money for this life-enhancing program,” explains Cathy. Since 2003 Jeremiah’s Hope has trained hundreds of individuals for quality, in-demand jobs.

Major Sponsor:

Supporting Sponsors:

The Adams are also active supporters of the Ascension St.Vincent’s Bruno Cancer Center Patient Assistance Fund. In 2018 Cathy co-produced a play at Virginia Samford Theatre, raising more than $30,000 to benefit Bruno Cancer patients.

“Our children were born at St.Vincent’s, and Tom and I have both received outstanding St.Vincent’s medical care for serious illnesses,” explains Cathy. “We appreciate that St.Vincent’s deeply cares about patients on a spiritual level.Years ago, after a simple carpel tunnel surgery, a Sister came and prayed over my hand, making me a St.Vincent’s person for life. Treatment at St.Vincent’s encompasses much more than science.”

A “professional volunteer,” Cathy is former Senior Editor of Portico magazine and the author of four published books. She is an avid gardener, historic preservationist, and animal advocate. Tom is chairman of AutoTec, a family-owned insurance and technology company. They are active members of Independent Presbyterian.

Family owned and operated since 1979, Ingram Equipment Company (IEC) is an environmental, waste management, and commercial equipment company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. As the dealer for fifteen industry leading manufacturing partners across five locations in the southeastern United States, IEC holds a deep, persistent belief in transforming the community around them through a commitment to charity, philanthropy, and volunteerism.

Their generous philanthropic support of causes across Alabama over the last 40 years has focused on agencies committed to education, human services, and youth activities, partnering with numerous charitable organizations including Childcare Resources, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, NorthStar Soccer Ministries, the Lovelady Center, Banks Academy, Manna Ministries, and the Crippled Children’s Foundation.

Over the last five years, IEC has made a transformative impact on the lives of children and families in Central Alabama through their support of the Childcare Resources mission. Their most profound impact has come through their support of the agency’s Supplemental Child Care Program – the only program of its kind in our state providing child care financial assistance to low-to-moderate income, working parents (primarily single, working mothers). Their 2023 investment in this program offset the cost of care for nearly 20 families in our community, demonstrating a profound commitment to Alabama’s children, while also acting as an investment in securing the future economic strength of our community and our state.

Ascension St.Vincent’s Foundation is deeply grateful for the support of the Adams family.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 77

SPECIAL SECTION

AFP VOLUNTEERS IN PHILANTHROPY HONOREES

Sara Sciara

John Braggment

Walter M. Beale

Honored by Greater Birmingham Humane Society

Honored by Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School

Honored by Lakeshore Foundation

Sara Sciara has volunteered with the Greater Birmingham Humane Society (GBHS) since 2017 when she joined the Young Professionals Board. As the Social Committee Chair, Sara has helped plan and develop several fundraising opportunities. In 2021, Sara joined the GBHS Auxiliary Board and is currently in her second term as President. Charitable fundraising has always been one of her passions, and the mission statement of GBHS, “to promote the humane treatment of people and animals through education, advocacy, and services,” is very special to her. She feels extremely fortunate to work alongside several other dedicated volunteers to raise money and bring awareness to GBHS.

Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School’s Board of Directors is proud to honor John Bragg as an exceptional Volunteer in Philanthropy. Hundreds of Birmingham Cristo Rey students have had the opportunity to develop confidence, social capital, and career skills in professional work experiences that John helped secure for them as the leader of our Corporate Work Study Committee over the past five years.

Professionally, Sara works as the Senior Property Manager for Hertz Investment Group and manages the Shipt Tower in downtown Birmingham and four other properties.

Sara is fortunate to have an entire family that volunteers with GBHS in some capacity, including her partner and best friend, Alex. Sara and Alex are the proud parents to Jack (1 year old) and three pets, Ruby, Professor Purr and Dr. Mew.

His generosity of spirit, incisive organizational assessment, emotional intelligence, and dedication have epitomized his entire board service. He is a tireless and joyful promoter of HFCR’s life-changing college preparatory academic program combined with four years of weekly real work experience. John exemplifies the values of the Cristo Rey movement, working to ensure that the talent that God distributes equally among our children is matched by opportunity, regardless of income.

Currently Executive Vice President of Corporate Services for SouthState Bank, John has leveraged his distinguished 40-year career in banking and the respect he has garnered to expand his community impact in service to the causes he and his wife Tracy generously support. HFCR is not the only beneficiary of John’s benevolence and commitment, but few leadership volunteers have benefitted HFCR as much as John has, and perhaps none with as joyful a heart.

78 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

In the heart of Homewood, Alabama, the Lakeshore Foundation stands as a testament to the power of community and service. At the core of its success lies individuals like Mac Beale, whose unwavering dedication to volunteerism and philanthropy has left an indelible mark on the foundation.

Beale’s involvement with the Lakeshore Foundation dates to its inception, making him an original member of the Board of Directors. Over the years, he has not only been a steadfast supporter but has also assumed pivotal roles, including serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors. His tenure, spanning almost four decades, speaks volumes about his commitment and enduring passion for the foundation’s mission.

Through his strategic guidance, Lakeshore has been able to expand its reach and impact, touching the lives of countless individuals with disabilities including senior adults and veterans. Beale’s philanthropic endeavors have been instrumental in funding crucial programs and initiatives, ensuring that the foundation continues to make a difference in the lives of those it serves.

Beyond his formal roles, Beale’s compassionate spirit shines through in his interactions with staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries alike.

His genuine concern for the well-being of others is a testament to his character and underscores the essence of volunteerism.

In recognizing Walter M. Beale’s remarkable contributions, we celebrate not only a dedicated Lakeshore Foundation Board Member but a true beacon of volunteerism and philanthropy. His legacy will continue to inspire generations to come, reminding us of all the profound impact one individual can have on a community.

SPECIAL SECTION

AFP VOLUNTEERS IN PHILANTHROPY HONOREES

Wendy Feild

Rt. Reverend Dr. Abraham “Abe” William Wilson Mitchell Honored by University of South Alabama

Honored by Samford University

Honored by The Lovelady Center

Wendy Feild is a Senior Account Executive with Gartner, Inc. Over the course of her 23+ year sales career, she has helped both her clients and the companies she works for in the medical and technology sectors achieve mutually beneficial outcomes and growth. In addition to her professional endeavors, Wendy has served in multiple volunteer roles across the Birmingham community. As a graduate of Samford, she has remained actively involved on the Executive Council of the Samford University Alumni Association. This includes her current role serving as association President. She has also served in multiple lay leadership roles with her church, Brookwood Baptist, and as a service volunteer and donor at First Light Women’s Shelter, The Greater Birmingham YMCA and Vestavia Hills City Schools. Wendy lives in Vestavia Hills with her husband, Mark, and daughters, Kendall and Eliza.

Rt. Reverend Dr. William Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1937 to alcoholics, in squalid poverty on the violent streets of Kensington. Nineteen and planning suicide, his hunger for answers led him to enter a Trappist Cistercian Abbey in Iowa. After a quarter century as a monk, including seven years living in solitude as a hermit, William became a spiritual father and teacher.

After serving as spiritual director and chaplain to contemplative Trappistine Nuns, William was made Formation Director at New Melleray Abbey. He felt called to live as a monk among the destitute poor in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, established a medical clinic for the sick and injured destitute Quechua natives, and founded an orphanage. He founded the Amistad Mission to support this work (AmistadMission.com).

At 52, William felt free in the Lord to consider marriage. Against all traditions of men, he married Dr. Susan Winchester.

During 34 years of marriage, God favored William and Susan with two children, and one grandchild.

Six years as prison chaplain at Tutwiler Prison for women introduced William to The Lovelady Center (a faith-based transitional facility for women and their children in Birmingham, specializing in prisoner re-entry into society and addiction) where he has served as a counselor and teacher for nine years (LoveladyCenter.org). William is the 2024 honoree at The Legacy of Love, benefiting 500+ women and children, on February 14th at 6pm at The Club.

Spiritual Life Ministry Foundation, a 501©3, allows William to minister to those in need (TheSpiritualWell.com).

Abraham “Abe” Mitchell built a real estate development empire and is one of Alabama’s leading philanthropists in support of higher education. His contributions to the University of South Alabama reach $128 million, making Mitchell the most generous donor in the history of the institution.

Included are gifts to the Mitchell College of Business, Mitchell Cancer Institute and Mitchell-Moulton Scholarship Initiative. The latter has expanded scholarship availability across the University through a dollar-for-dollar match. In 2023, he announced a $20 million gift for a new performing arts center on campus.

Along the way, Mitchell has helped create a culture of philanthropy that has set an example for other donors and supporters of the University and USA Health.

In Mobile, Mitchell is known for his support of Congregation Ahavas Chesed, along with the Mobile Public Library, the Mobile Arts Council and the Mobile Symphony. Other beneficiaries include Alabama Public Television, Alabama Contemporary Dance and the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center.

Mitchell attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a law degree from the University of Alabama and a master’s of law in taxation from the New York University School of Law. In 1958, he and his brother, Mayer, founded the Mitchell Company, which became one of the most successful real estate development firms in the southeastern United States, and one of the largest employers in Mobile. The Mitchell Company built more than 25,000 single family homes, 20,000 apartment units and 175 shopping centers.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 79

SPOTLIGHT JACKSON COUNTY

MARSHALL COUNTY

DEKALB COUNTY CHEROKEE COUNTY

Jackson, Marshall, Dekalb & Cherokee Counties

by LORI CHANDLER PRUITT

Lake Guntersville at sunset.

Freedom Fest.

J

ackson, Marshall, DeKalb and Cherokee counties in northeast Alabama offer easy access to high-tech and manufacturing opportunities in the Huntsville/Madison County area but in a setting known for its beautiful lakes, fascinating caves and state parks.

While economic developers are keen to attract industry in established sectors and in new ones, of late, many are focused on hiring workers to fill existing jobs. Agencies such as the Marshall County Economic Development Council work very closely with K-12 schools and programs for industry partners.

“We are still definitely recruiting industry, but we have backed off a bit because we want to make sure we can fill the jobs we already have here,” says Matt Arnold, president and CEO. “We are

Downtown Fort Payne.

spending more money and time on our workforce development.”

Nathan Lee, president and CEO of Jackson County Economic Development Authority, adds, “We want to do whatever we can to make sure that Jackson County has a very strong workforce.”

To meet that goal, economic developers are partnering with schools to create work-relevant programming. Northeast Alabama and Snead State community colleges have new Workforce Skills Centers in progress. Students can prepare for industrial maintenance, construction crafts, HVAC, welding and other needed career paths.

Public schools also are opening new career-oriented facilities.

Career-tech centers in all four counties offer programs such as construction, collision repair, drone aviation, masonry and aviaNovember 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 81

S P O T L I G H T: OV E R V I E W

tion technology.

Along with economic development, counties are creating recreational and community improvement projects to benefit and attract residents and attract tourists. Projects include sports parks, amphitheaters, splash pads, waterparks, walking trails, downtown beautification, riverfront and lake projects — especially appealing to people who can work remotely and want to live in a more picturesque place.

A major boost for the region is Guntersville City Har-

bor, which opened in the summer of 2022 and combines live entertainment, restaurants, shopping and short-term luxury condominium accommodations. The project will soon include a $15 million destination hotel, taking the overall harbor area investment to $30 million.

M E D I A N H O U S E H O L D I N CO M E

P O P U L AT I O N Total Alabama Population: 5,074,296

Lori Chandler Pruitt is a freelance writer for Business Alabama. She lives in Birmingham.

Madison County: $71,153 Baldwin County: $64,346 Jefferson County: $58,330 Morgan County: $56,128 Marshall County: $52,938 Blount County: $52,830 Montgomery County: $52,511 Mobile County: $51,169 Etowah County: $46,984 State of DeKalb County: $44,037 Alabama $54,943 Jackson County: $43,785 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Cherokee County: $43,475

Jefferson County: 665,409 Mobile County: 411,411 Madison County: 403,565 Baldwin County: 246,435 Montgomery County: 226,361 Morgan County: 124,211 Etowah County: 103,088 Marshall County: 99,423 DeKalb County: 71,998 Blount County: 59,512 Jackson County: 52,891 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Cherokee County: 25,302

affordable education close to home

BEGIN YOUR FUTURE HERE Flexible Schedules Tech Programs

Online Degrees

Financial Aid

Certificates

Learn more and apply now at www.nacc.edu!

Northeast Alabama Community College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the Associate Degree. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Northeast Alabama Community College.

It is the official policy of the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees and entities under its direction and control, including Northeast Alabama Community College, that no person shall be discriminated against on the basis of any impermissible criterion or characteristic, including, without limitation, race, color, national origin, religion, marital status, disability, sex, age, or any other protected class as defined by federal and state law.

82 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

InFocus

‘ALL-IN ON NORTH ALABAMA’ Guntersville’s Patrick Lawler has transformed his city’s waterfront and has plans for more

By ALEC HARVEY — Photos by JEFF WHITE

84 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

A

bout a year ago, Patrick Lawler decided it was time to move home.

The Guntersville native had been in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas in 1984, forging a career in real estate development in one of the largest markets in the country.

But a decade ago, Lawler started visiting friends in his hometown, developing properties such as the Reserve at Lake Guntersville, the Landing at Snug Harbor and the Creek Path residential area.

“I just looked around and saw a lot of opportunity,” says Lawler, president and CEO of P. Lawler Enterprises. “And a year ago last May, my family moved back here and just went all-in on North Alabama.”

That’s about the time that Lawler’s latest venture, the more than $50 million development City Harbor, opened, bringing lodging, food, drinks, retail and more to its prime spot on Lake Guntersville.

The development has become a focal point in Guntersville, is already financially successful, and there are more North Alabama developments on the way, Lawler says.

“Five years ago, if you had asked if I would ever be back, I would have said, ‘No,’” Lawler says. “Not because I didn’t love it. I just didn’t think there would be enough opportunities here. But as I started doing more and more and more here, I’m like, ‘Wow!’ It’s absolutely great to be home.”

A lot has changed in Guntersville since Lawler left a couple of years after “barely graduating” from high school. “It was a challenge,” he says with a chuckle.

But he started an automobile buying and selling business while he was in school, continuing to operate it while he built his real estate career in Texas.

“I started buying property out there when I was in my early 20s,” Lawler says.

“It was baby steps, and over time it just kept growing.”

Now, he’s growing his business in Guntersville, part of a “tremendous opportunity fueled by Huntsville’s growth.”

Once an 88-room under-construction Home 2 Suites by Hilton is completed, City Harbor will be 134,000 square feet of restaurants, retail and hospitality. The

“I just looked around and saw a lot of opportunity. And a year ago last May, my family moved back here and just went all-in on North Alabama.”

— Patrick Lawler, president and CEO of P. Lawler Enterprises

development includes a bar on the boardwalk, Levi’s on the Lake, that’s named after Lawler’s grandson.

“It’s been just insanely successful,” Lawler says.

He’s referring specifically to Levi’s, but that also applies to City Harbor itself, which not only draws tourists who come to Guntersville for fishing and other recreational activities, but locals as well.

“If you’re here on the weekend and you look at the tags, there are people from all over, not just the county we live in,” Lawler says. “They’re coming from all over the place.”

Part of it is City Harbor’s prime location. “When you’re coming into Guntersville, when you come over the bridge, it’s there, like on the 50-yard-line in a football stadium,” Lawler says. “It’s at the absolute

best spot.”

But the main draw is Guntersville itself, Lawler says.

“Everybody talks about the fishing, which is great, but there’s a lot of opportunity here,” he says. “I’ve been a lot of places, and this is one of the prettiest places in America. I really believe that.”

Lawler plans similar waterfront developments in other Alabama cities. Decatur’s Ingalls Harbor is up next, with other as yet undisclosed locations to follow.

“It has got to be on the waterfront or I’m not interested,” Lawler says. “I’m just continuing to search for opportunities.”

Alec Harvey is executive editor of Business Alabama, working from the Birmingham office. Jeff White is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 85

Economic Engines regularly. Marshall County ranks first in the state in processing poultry and second in producing poultry for processing.

TOURISM

Guntersville HydroFest boat race event.

JACKSON COUNTY

a company in Scottsboro that makes fiber and yarn for airbags, announced a $9.2 million expansion that adds 30 jobs.

CARPET/RUG MANUFACTURING/ FLOORING

The county’s largest manufacturing sector is carpet, rugs and flooring, with at least 2,000 employees. The larger companies include Maples Industries in Scottsboro, which makes bath rugs; Engineered Floors in Scottsboro, which makes hardwood flooring; and Mohawk Industries in Bridgeport, which makes carpet backing.

AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS

Jackson County has continued to gain automotive suppliers with the robust auto manufacturing sector in the state. Among the largest employers in this sector are Sanoh America Inc. in Scottsboro, which makes automotive brake lines, and KTNA in Hollywood, which makes automotive interior carpeting. Recently, PHP Fibers,

B U S I N E S S JACKSON COUNTY AUGUST 2023: The Kevin Dukes Career and Innovation Academy opens in Hollywood.

AUGUST 2023: CFD Research, which provides innovative solutions for the aerospace/defense, biomedical/life sciences and energy/materials industries, opens an additional facility at its Engineering Test

DIVERSIFIED MANUFACTURING

Jackson County’s top industrial manufacturers also include those who make commercial refrigeration units, store fixtures, corrugated paperboard, industrial plastics and gypsum board.

MARSHALL COUNTY POULTRY PROCESSING/ FOOD PRODUCTION

The largest industrial employers in Marshall County are poultry processors — including Pilgrim’s Pride, Farm Fresh Foods, OK Foods, Wayne Farms, Tyson Foods and AlaTrade Foods — and these companies employ more than 6,600 people with expansions announced

Tourism is a big draw here. Marshall County is the only county in the state with three state parks — Bucks Pocket, Cathedral Caverns and Lake Guntersville.

One of the most high-profile success stories for Guntersville is the HydroFest boat race event. The event is sponsored

by Marshall County Tourism and Sports with Guntersville serving as host city. It brings thousands of visitors to Lake Guntersville and generates almost $3 million in direct local expenditures, with more than $4 million in total economic impact. Known as “NASCAR on the water,” HydroFest races include the H1 Unlimited hydroplanes, which reach speeds of 200 mph on an oval course set along the scenic lakeside.

Also in Guntersville, City Harbor brings in many visitors. It combines live entertainment, restaurants, shopping and short-term condominium accommodations. The project will soon include a $15 million destination hotel, taking the overall harbor area investment to $30 million. Lawler Hotels LLC, a subsidiary of P. Lawler Enterprises, has been awarded the hotel project at the harbor. P. Lawler Enterprises is already working on two related harbor projects, including shops and restaurants, a brew pub, short-term rental condos and an 8,500-square-foot event facility.

B R I E F S

Center in Hollywood, a $5.2 million investment.

AUGUST 2023: The Scottsboro Municipal Airport continues to acquire surrounding property for potential economic development and future expansion.

AUGUST 2022: Ashley Pool is named president of Highlands Medical Center.

88 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

JANUARY 2023: PHP Fibers, a Scottsboro automotive supplier that makes fiber and yarn for airbags, announces a $9.2 million expansion that will add 30 jobs.

NOVEMBER 2022: CFD Research in Hollywood adds 63 acres of property to its facility and an additional test stand four times larger than its previous capability.

JULY 2022: Silver Eagle Trucking in Scottsboro announces it will build a warehouse and distribution center, a $2.2 million investment.

JULY 2022: Wenzel Metal Spinning in Scottsboro announces a $2 million expansion.

APRIL 2022: WestRock in Stevenson, which makes corrugated paperboard,

announces an expansion valued at $40 million.

MARSHALL COUNTY DECEMBER 2023: Circulus, a plastic recycling company plans to open a $4.2 million location in Arab with 100 employees. It joins a growing recycling sector in Marshall County that includes Roy Tech Environ in Grant and AR Recycling in Arab.

S P O T L I G H T: ECO N O M I C E N G I N E S

AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS/ DIVERSIFIED MANUFACTURING

Thanks to nearby automotive assembly plants, Marshall County has grown significantly in the automotive sector. Key companies include TS Tech Alabama and Newman Technology, both of which have expanded recently.

The county has several diverse manufacturers, from Progress Rail, which makes railcar components, to Mueller, which makes fire extinguishers. Tile Liquidators is expanding to make its own products. It also is home to Colormasters in Albertville, which makes flexible packaging.

AEROSPACE

Marshall County’s proximity to Huntsville companies is paying off.

For example, International Defense & Aerospace Group, a leading provider of global aviation solutions, acquired Ace Aeronautics LLC based at the Guntersville Municipal Airport. This sector is expected to grow. The county also has two jet-capable airports, Guntersville and Albertville, which are undergoing major improvements and are vital to economic growth.

DEKALB COUNTY

DIVERSE MANUFACTURING/ DATA CENTERS

JUNE 2023: Marshall Medical Centers opens a $61.3 million Patient Tower — the largest construction project on Sand Mountain in more than a decade.

JUNE 2023: Site work begins at Tile Liquidators

PROPERTY TAX JACKSON COUNTY: 13.5 mills INSIDE LANGSTON, HYTOP: 11.5 mills MARSHALL COUNTY: 13.5 mills

TOURISM

Tourism is a major industry in the county.

With two state parks and camps that host more than 12,000 children each summer, plus beautiful canyons and waterways, it is a huge draw. Lookout Mountain Alabama is the gateway to the Appalachians, and there are many opportunities to see the beauty of nature.

Fort Payne is also home to the Boom Days Fest, a popular music festival. The picturesque town of Mentone attracts visitors with its scenery, artistic enterprises and even snow skiing.

POULTRY

DeKalb County has three major hatcheries, which makes it No. 2 in the state in production. Those facilities employ hundreds, and they are expanding with millions in capital investment and adding jobs.

CHEROKEE COUNTY AGRICULTURE

The largest economic engine in the county, diverse manufacturing employs thousands. The county is home to several auto suppliers, plastic recycling facilities, playground equipment makers, packaging, metals companies and more.

SEPTEMBER 2023: Guntersville City Schools are building a $53.5 million high school off U.S. Highway 431.

TAXES

A few decades back, hosiery was the leader here. Despite offshoring, which undercut much of the business, several hosiery firms still call DeKalb County home. And distribution centers also are major sectors in the county.

Agriculture and related agribusinesses remain a major industry for Cherokee County. The county’s agribusinesses include grain and egg processing, nursery/ grower suppliers, cattle and dairy, forestry and consumer landscape product suppliers.

Dixie Green is a major wholesale

in Guntersville for an expansion that will allow the company to manufacture its own products. It will employ about 70 new workers.

MARCH 2023: International Defense & Aerospace Group acquires Ace Aeronautics LLC, based at the Guntersville Municipal Airport. Ace provides service life extension and upgrades for UH-60

Blackhawks to global customers.

JANUARY 2023: Officials break ground for the Workforce Skills Training Center, a Snead State Community College project.

DEKALB COUNTY: OUTSIDE FORT PAYNE: 14.5 mills INSIDE FORT PAYNE: 11.5 mills CHEROKEE COUNTY: 13.5 mills

NOT INCLUDING SCHOOLS OR MUNICIPALITIES

STATE OF ALABAMA: 6.5 mills

SALES TAX JACKSON COUNTY: 2% Cities within the county:

BRIDGEPORT: 3% DUTTON: 3% HOLLYWOOD: 3% HYTOP: 1% LANGSTON: 2% PISGAH: 3% SCOTTSBORO: 3% SECTION: 3% SKYLINE: 2% STEVENSON: 3% WOODVILLE: 3% MARSHALL COUNTY: 1% Cities within the county:

ALBERTVILLE: 5% ARAB: 5% BOAZ: 5% CHEROKEE RIDGE: 5% GRANT: 3% GUNTERSVILLE: 5% UNION GROVE: 1% DEKALB COUNTY: 1% Cities within the county:

COLLINSVILLE: 4% CROSSVILLE: 4% FORT PAYNE: 4% FYFFE: 4% GERALDINE: 4% HAMMONDVILLE: 3% HENAGAR: 4% IDER: 4 % LAKEVIEW: 3% MENTONE: 4% PINE RIDGE: 4% POWELL: 3% RAINSVILLE: 4% SHILOH: 3% SYLVANIA: 4% VALLEY HEAD: 4% CHEROKEE COUNTY: 3.5% Cities within the county:

DEKALB COUNTY SEPTEMBER 2023: Fort Payne city schools’ BEAT (Building, Electric, Aviation Technology) Center is

CENTRE: 2.5% CEDAR BLUFF: 2.5% LEESBURG: 1.5% GAYLESVILLE: 2% SAND ROCK: 2%

STATE OF ALABAMA: 4%

Source: Alabama Department of Revenue

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 89

S P O T L I G H T: ECO N O M I C E N G I N E S

greenhouse in Centre that supplies poinsettias and other plants, including annual poinsettias to Disney World and Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.

JACKSON COUNTY

Maples Industries | SCOTTSBORO Bath rugs • 1,200 employees

HTPG Inc. | SCOTTSBORO

TOURISM

Cherokee County is nestled in the quiet countryside of northeast Alabama, and centrally located in the ABC Triangle of Atlanta, Birmingham and Chattanooga.

Campgrounds, children’s sporting events, fishing from boats and backyard piers on Weiss Lake, water skiing, boating, sailing, canoeing, noodling, hiking, hunting, birdwatching, geocaching, a water park and much more can be done here.

One of the newest additions is the Pirate’s Bay Water Park, which opened in Leesburg and is a part of Chestnut Bay Resort on Weiss Lake.

CENTRE-PIEDMONT-CHEROKEE COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT

well underway. The $5.8 million facility also will offer drone aviation, electric vehicle technology and building and construction programs.

SEPTEMBER 2023: Lee Industrial Services Inc. DBA American Buffalo Metals Inc. opens its $12.5 million aluminum processing plant in Crossville.

Progress Rail | ALBERTVILLE

Lozier Corp. | SCOTTSBORO

Fire hydrants • 500 employees

WestRock | STEVENSON

The Children’s Place | FORT PAYNE

Store fixtures • 444 employees

Corrugated paperboard • 416 employees

Polymer Industries | HENAGAR

Mueller | ALBERTVILLE

DEKALB COUNTY

Distribution center • 1,000 employees

Heil Environmental | FORT PAYNE

Industrial plastics • 266 employees

Garbage truck bodies • 1,000 employees

Engineered Floors | SCOTTSBORO

Koch Foods Inc. | COLLINSVILLE

KTNA | HOLLYWOOD

Renfro Corp. | FORT PAYNE

MARSHALL COUNTY

Moriroku Technology North Alabama | RAINSVILLE

Hardwood flooring • 250 employees Automotive interior carpeting 120 employees

Farm Fresh Foods | GUNTERSVILLE Food processing • 1,200 employees

OK Foods | ALBERTVILLE

Poultry processing • 950 employees

Poultry processing • 800 employees Hosiery • 636 employees

Injected plastic automotive parts 550 employees

PlayCore | FORT PAYNE

Playground and park equipment 433 employees

CHEROKEE COUNTY

KTH Leesburg Products | LEESBURG

Wayne Farms | ALBERTVILLE

Honda automotive parts • 464 employees

Tyson Foods Inc. | ALBERTVILLE

Military outerwear • 228 employees

TS Tech Alabama | BOAZ

Porcelain and enamel frits • 85 employees

Colormasters | ALBERTVILLE

Wholesale greenhouse • 47 employees

Poultry processing • 938 employees Poultry processing • 927 employees

The airport is currently undergoing a new taxiway, new hangars and other improvements geared to increase economic development.

Poultry processing • 600 employees

Railcar components • 560 employees

Poultry processing • 1,500 employees

Cherokee County’s largest manufacturing employer is KTH Leesburg Products, a metal framing automotive parts supplier.

Other large employers include American Apparel, which makes military outerwear, and Pemco International, which makes porcelain and enamel frits.

AlaTrade Foods | ALBERTVILLE/BOAZ

Commercial refrigeration units 550 employees

Pilgrim’s Pride | GUNTERSVILLE

AUTOMOTIVE/DIVERSIFIED MANUFACTURING

B U S I N E S S

Largest Industrial Employers

Automotive supplier • 773 employees Flexible packaging/master extrusion 700 employees

American Apparel | CENTRE

Pemco International | LEESBURG Dixie Green Inc. | LEESBURG

Sources: Local economic development officials

B R I E F S

SEPTEMBER 2023: Taylor Coatings LLC, an automated shotblasting and powder coating facility in Ider, plans to open later this year with a $2 million investment and 20 new jobs.

JULY 2023: A new business incubator, the DeKalb County Entrepreneurial Center, opens in Rainsville.

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JUNE 2023: North Alabama Community College officials break ground for a $27 million Workforce Skills Center.

JUNE 2023: Fort Payne metal fabricator Feralloy Corp. has invested $8.2 million in new equipment.

MARCH 2023: Nucor Corp. DBA Vulcraft Alabama invests more

than $14.6 million in new manufacturing equipment. The company makes fabricated structural metal.

NOVEMBER 2022: Rainsville Technology is now Moriroku Technology North America. The company, which makes injected plastic automotive parts, has invested more than

$15.9 million in new equipment.

CHEROKEE COUNTY SEPTEMBER 2023: The Centre-PiedmontCherokee County Regional Airport has finished its new hangars, and the new runway is underway.

Health Care

Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center.

HIGHLANDS MEDICAL CENTER

Jackson County is home to Highlands Medical Center in Scottsboro. It is a 170-bed full service, acute care facility that is part of the Huntsville Hospital Health System. It has more than 850 employees and is one of the largest employers in the county.

Highlands provides a wide range of medical and surgical services with related facilities offering primary care, occupational medicine, ob-gyn, pediatrics and long-term nursing home care.

The hospital is Joint Commission accredited and is rated a four-star quality hospital by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, making it one of the top-rated hospitals in the state.

In August 2023, Cumberland Health

& Rehab celebrated four new renovated suites and a new chapel. And in July 2023, its occupational medicine moved to a new location on the hospital campus.

Ashley Pool was appointed president of the facility in 2022. She has 25 years of health care experience as an ICU nurse, nurse practitioner, rural clinic owner and hospital administrator. She comes to Highlands from Lakeland Community Hospital in Haleyville, where she was CEO and COO. MARSHALL MEDICAL CENTER

Marshall Medical Center has more than 1,700 employees between its two hospitals — in Guntersville and Boaz — and other facilities, placing it among the

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county’s largest employers. It is affiliated with Huntsville Hospital Health System.

In June 2023, the hospital opened a $61.3 million Patient Tower that replaces all patient rooms and converts the north end of Marshall Medical South in Boaz into a new entrance. It represents the largest construction project on Sand Mountain in more than a decade.

The expansion features a 64-room, twofloor bed tower of patient suites that are each supported by its own nursing staff.

Each room has critical care technology for those who have life-threatening injuries and illnesses. Rooms have a wall of windows over the Marshall South campus.

The project also includes a 25,000-square-foot concourse with natural light, cafeteria, coffee shop, gift shop

S P O T L I G H T: H E A LT H C A R E

and waiting areas.

There also is a new check-in and consult room for outpatient surgery and a waiting area, along with meeting facilities.

Marshall South’s ICU also was expanded to 18 beds and upgraded for better safety, additional storage and equipment that helps with noise control and privacy.

Additional renovations included the emergency entrance and replaced aging windows with energy-efficient ones. The hospital added 113 more parking spaces on the north side of the hospital and a vehicle bridge.

The health system also includes Marshall Professional Center and the Marshall Cancer Care Center.

DEKALB REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

DeKalb Regional, in Fort Payne, is licensed for 134 beds and provides a full range of medical and surgical services. In 2021, it celebrated its 35th anniversary.

The hospital has about 450 employees and more than 125 affiliated physicians and providers.

DeKalb Regional is also affiliated with physician practices in primary and specialty care in eight locations, including family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, sports medicine, neurology, sleep medicine and interventional cardiology.

In February 2022, the hospital named Darrell Nolon Blaylock as CEO. He has more than 30 years of experience with community hospitals throughout the country.

ATRIUM HEALTH FLOYD CHEROKEE MEDICAL CENTER

Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center is a not-for-profit acute care hospital licensed for 60 beds. Located in Centre, the hospital primarily serves the residents of Cherokee County and the vacationers who frequent Lake Weiss, which stretches from the eastern border

of the county to its western border.

Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center is accredited by the Joint Commission and has approximately 100 employees. It has an economic impact on the community of approximately $33.3 million.

The hospital provides emergency care, imaging, drug and alcohol treatment, lab work, a pharmacy, respiratory care, sleep studies and surgical services. Since affiliating with Atrium Health Floyd, the hospital has installed a new, 64-slice CT scanner, doubled the size of its emergency room and expanded and remodeled the emergency room’s waiting area.

The total cost of the emergency room’s expansion and renovation was approximately $1 million.

Atrium Health Floyd operates rural health clinics in Piedmont and Centre, providing primary and urgent care services, and is the E-911 ambulance provider for Cherokee County with three EMS stations covering the county.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 93

Movers & Shapers BRIAN BAINE is mayor of Fort Payne.

He is a graduate of Fort Payne High School and attended Northeast Community College and Gadsden State Community College.

He worked at Bruce’s Foodland Plus for 37 years. He has volunteered for various community events and organizations for many years. He currently serves on the board of DeKalb CAC, Leadership DeKalb, DC Gas and Main Street Fort Payne.

MAGGIE BARNES is the sales director

for Lake Guntersville State Park. She previously served as vice president of sales and marketing internationally and Christian education director for the United Methodist Church in Hampton, Iowa. She is a member and graduate of the Marshall County Leadership Challenge and is a member of Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association and Southeastern Tourism Society.

JASON BARNETT is superintendent

of Guntersville City Schools. In 2020, Barnett was inducted into the Jacksonville State University College of Education Hall of Fame and also received the Southern Regional Education Board District Leadership Award. In addition, Barnett previously has been awarded the distinction of Jacksonville State University Educational Leadership “Alumnus of the Year” and local school “Teacher of the Year” during his time as a classroom teacher.

DARRELL BLAYLOCK is CEO of

DeKalb Regional Medical Center in Fort Payne. He earned a master’s degree in health care administration at Mississippi College and a master’s in public administration from the University of Mississippi. He was a member of the Leadership DeKalb County Class of 2022. He is also a member of the Fort Payne Rotary Club.

JENNIFER BRAY is district attorney

for the 27th Judicial Circuit in Marshall County, after working nine years as an assistant district attorney. She graduated from the University of Alabama and Cumberland School of Law. She serves on the board of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Marshall County and Marshall County Community Punishment and Corrections Authority, and she is president of the board of Marshall County Youth Leadership. She previously served on the boards of Family Services of North Alabama and Domestic Violence Crisis Services.

DAVID CAMPBELL is president of

Northeast Alabama Community College.

Under his leadership, the college increased enrollment and expanded workforce and STEM programs, adding a math, science and engineering tech center and a health workforce complex. Honors include Citizen of the Year in both DeKalb and Jackson counties, a meritorious service award from SACSCOC, Exemplary Leader honors from the Chair Academy and a national service award from Phi Theta Kappa. He is a graduate of Leadership Alabama. Campbell is a graduate of Auburn University with a master’s from Florida State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas.

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DANIEL COLON is assistant branch

manager at Family Savings Credit Union in Scottsboro.

He attended Northeast Alabama Community College and Auburn University and is also a graduate of Leadership Jackson County. He is president of Jackson County United Givers Fund and treasurer of Jackson County Children’s Advocacy Center board. He is co-chair of the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural Emissary program and serves on the chamber’s board. Colon is active with the Parks and Recreation Department, serving as a volunteer coach for various sports throughout the year.

A. JASON DAVIDSON is

superintendent of Jackson County schools. A graduate of Jacksonville State University, he also holds secondary education credentials and a master’s from JSU. Prior to being named superintendent, Davidson was supervisor of career technical education and worked as a classroom teacher and coach. He participated in the first cohort of the Pre-K-3 Leadership Academy conducted by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, the NAESP and CLAS. He was selected for the 2022 University of Alabama’s Superintendent Academy. He also serves on the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce.

LEIGH DOLLAR is a Guntersville native

and became mayor 40 years after her father was elected to the same position.

Dollar is a University of Alabama graduate and a CPA. She opened an accounting office, Dollar & Watson, in 1999. She is past chair of the Lake Guntersville Chamber of Commerce and has served on many other boards and organizations in the community. She is

S P O T L I G H T: M OV E R S & S H A PE R S

past president of the Alabama League of Municipalities and serves on numerous boards and committees at the state level.

Dollar is a graduate of Marshall County Leadership Challenge and Leadership Alabama.

ERIC M. DUDASH served more than 30

years of active duty with the U.S. Air Force. He is a Life/ Bronze Legacy VFW member and serves as the Department of Alabama senior vice commander and is a member of the DeKalb County VFW Post 3128. He and his battle buddy “Phantom,” a German shepherd, assist combat wounded veterans who suffer from TBI and PTSD. He recently was honored with the 2022 Top 20 Community Leaders in DeKalb County, 2022 Spirit of the Eagle Award, Liberty’s Learning Foundation 2022 Super Citizen Award and was awarded the Governor of Alabama Veteran of the Year 2022 award.

JAMES B. DURHAM JR. is executive

director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Authority. He has served on the Fort Payne City Board of Education for 20 years and is an adjunct business professor at Northeast Alabama Community College. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Auburn University. He has served on the TVA Rural Economic Development Cabinet and is a graduate of Leadership Alabama, TVA Valley Leadership Program and the Auburn University Intensive Economic Development Program. Earlier, he was executive director of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in the Shoals and executive director of the Alabama International Airport Authority.

within Alabama. Johnson is active with the Broadband Association of Alabama and Mississippi and has served on the board of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, including a term as its chairman.

CONNIE J. FULLER is executive

director of Fort Payne Main Street.

She serves on the Fort Payne Boom Days Committee and helped secure funding for Life’s Journey Reflection and Meditation Garden on the Susie P. Stringfellow Memorial Garden Trail. She is a graduate of Auburn University and Troy State University. A retired educator, she has worked in reading programs here and abroad and owned a bookstore. She also manages the Fort Payne Main Street Farmers Market. In 2022, the Times Journal selected her as a Citizen of Influence. She is a member of the Optimist Club and the DeKalb Tourism board.

DAVID LEE JONES is a Guntersville

BRIAN L. JETT is superintendent

of Fort Payne City Schools.

He is a graduate of Northeast Community College with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Jacksonville State University. He has overseen several major projects during his tenure — redesigning curriculum, adding the vocational education BEAT Center and adding the Little Ridge Intermediate Facility, a state-of-the-art power over ethernet school, energy saving and environmentally friendly.

FRED JOHNSON is CEO of

the Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative in Rainsville. A CPA, he is a graduate of Southern Wesleyan University with a master’s from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is working toward a doctorate. He is vice president of the board of the Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative and serves on the Alabama 9-1-1 board, which oversees the funding of emergency communication districts

attorney and chair of the Guntersville Industrial Development Board. An Auburn University graduate, Jones graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. Aside from his legal practice, Jones has been a community leader for many years. A past president of the Guntersville Chamber of Commerce, he has served on the Guntersville Airport Board, the Marshall County Economic Development Council and the Guntersville Planning Board. An avid historian, Jones is also former president of Guntersville Historical Society.

DR. MESSALINA JORDAN is owner of

Boaz and Albertville Family Care and is a board-certified family physician and surgical obstetrics fellow after 23 years as a nurse.

She graduated from the Medical SchoolPhiladelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine-Georgia campus and trained at UAB Huntsville Family Medicine residency program. She is active in the community, working with Boaz City Schools, the Snead State Community College Foundation, Junior Achievement, Shepherd’s Cove Hospice, Marshall County Leadership Challenge, Boaz Rotary and adjunct teaching at Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. She was Boaz Citizen of the Year in 2022.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 95

S P O T L I G H T: M OV E R S & S H A PE R S

KATIE KIRKLAND is events and

marketing coordinator and the Main Street director for the city of Scottsboro. The program has earned seven Awards of Excellence since she began her tenure. The Main Street project includes revitalization of Trade Days, a 120-year-old tradition in Scottsboro. She is a communications graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a degree in biological sciences from Mississippi State University.

STACY LEDWELL is a lifelong resident

of Jackson County, where he has been a small-business owner in Scottsboro for the past 25 years. He also serves as the solid waste disposal authority director for Scottsboro. He attended Northeast Alabama Community College and holds three technical degrees. He has previously served on various boards, including past president of Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce and past president of the Scottsboro Rotary Club, Jackson County Economic Development Authority, Jackson County Sports Hall of Fame, was elected to the Jackson County Commission and is the current chairman of the Jackson County Healthcare Authority.

WAYNE LYLES is superintendent of

DeKalb County Schools. He has 28 years of experience as an educator, including administrative, teaching, coaching and principal positions. A native of Fyffe, Lyles attended Snead State Community College and earned his bachelor’s degree from Auburn University. He earned his master’s and education specialist degrees from Jacksonville State University.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIE B. NANCE JR.

is chairman of the Jackson County Commission. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a master’s from Florida Institute of Technology. Nance is a member of the Northeast Alabama Community College advisory board and of Scottsboro Lions Club. Nance entered the Army as a private and retired after more than 34 years as a major general. He led Cypress International for a decade.

In 2021, Gov. Kay Ivey appointed him chairman of the Jackson County Commission, and in November 2022, he was elected to a four-year term.

JIM OLYNIEC worked 24 years with the

TVA. He earned an engineering degree from Christian Brothers University, MS from the University of New Mexico and an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology.

He served three years in the U.S. Army, including one year in Vietnam. His career was in power plant heavy construction.

He served more than 20 years on the Scottsboro Planning Commission, 10 years on the Goose Pond Colony Board, 10 years coordinating and building Habitat for Humanity homes and on several other community projects.

LYDIA PENNINGTON is executive

director of tourism for Jackson County.

Previously, she served as director of communications and marketing for the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce and as industry relations and workforce development director at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber. She is a native of north Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Alabama.

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JOY PERRY, who grew up in Cherokee

County, is executive director of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Centre, Centre Lions Club and serves on the board of Alabama Bass Trail, Alabama Birding Trail, Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association, Alabama Scenic River Trail, East Alabama Works, Industrial Development Authority of Cherokee County, Spirit of Cherokee and TheatreCentre. She served on Cherokee County Board of Education for six years and is a graduate of Leadership Cherokee.

ASHLEY POOL is president of

Highlands Medical Center. A nurse practitioner and administrator, she has more than 25 years of health care experience. Before coming to HMC, Pool spent five years as an intensive care nurse and more than 16 years as a nurse practitioner owning her own clinic in rural Limestone County. She served as CEO and COO of Lakeland Community Hospital in Haleyville. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and her master’s degree in health care management from Vanderbilt University.

CHRIS RUSH is president of Marshall

Medical Centers.

He was vice president of the Huntsville Hospital Health System’s Physician Network of more than 200 physicians in 30 locations when he took the role of president of Marshall Medical Centers in February 2022. Before joining Huntsville Hospital Health System, he served as the CFO of Rush Health Systems Inc., and previously served as the CEO/administrator of Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi, a

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He is a graduate of Wofford College and holds two master's degrees from American University in Washington, D.C.

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That’s the Business Alabama difference.

STACEY WHITE is CEO and general

manager of Arab Electric Cooperative and is president of the Albertville Chamber of Commerce.

She is on the boards of the Alabama Rural Electric Association, North Alabama Industrial Development, United Way of Marshall County and Marshall County Economic Development. She also serves on several local boards including Marshall County Homeless Ministries, Marshall County Tourism & Sports, Marshall County Leadership Challenge and the Albertville City Schools Foundation.

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CINDY WIGLEY is serving her third term

as superintendent of Marshall County Schools. She graduated from Auburn University and earned a doctorate from the University of Alabama. Wigley has been active in local and state organizations, including the 2021 SSA District 9 president, CLAS board member, Albertville Rotary and Marshall County Workforce Development. In addition, Wigley has been recognized as Superintendent of the Year, won the Marbury Technology Innovation Superintendent Award and completed the National Superintendent Certification Program.

RANDI GASKIN WRIGHT is director

of Gadsden State Cherokee. Previously, Wright served as the Cleburne County coordinator for the Alabama Cooperative Extension. She has a master’s degree in adult education from Auburn University, a bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville State University and an associate degree from Gadsden State Community College.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 97

Higher Education

Northeast Alabama Community College.

Northeast Alabama Community College.

The campus of Snead State Community College.

NORTHEAST ALABAMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Northeast Alabama Community College, located at the Jackson-DeKalb county line, has 3,469 credit students, 1,866 non-credit students and 316 employers.

The main campus is in Rainsville in DeKalb County, with salon and spa management and truck driving programs in Scottsboro in Jackson County.

NACC offers a variety of career and technical programs, certificates and preparation for transfer to four-year colleges.

In June 2023, officials broke ground for a new Workforce Skills Center — a 50,000-square-foot, $27 million technology project to upgrade the

workforce and economic development in the area. Plans include laboratory space for programs in industrial systems maintenance, precision machining, design and 3D modeling and building construction craft training, with some space adaptable to meet local workforce needs.

The project is part of the Alabama Community College System ASPIRE 2030 initiative and received a $1 million grant from the state legislature.

NACC is an Accredited Training and Education Facility through the National Center for Construction Education and Research. Also, the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council has designated NACC as a training site and assessment center.

Intercollegiate athletics are being

expanded at NACC. Ground was broken in August for a $7.8 million women’s softball facility, with plans for the team to compete in 2024. NACC also has new men’s and women’s cross-country teams, which began this fall.

Since 2022, the college also has offered esports. The four teams compete in a custom-designed esports lab. NACC’s Invitational Team competed in the Invitational Season and was ranked 8th in the nation. NACC’s Esports compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports, the national governing body for two-year college esports in the U.S. SNEAD STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Snead State Community College, with approximately 2,500 students, has its main campus in Boaz and four instructional sites — one in Arab, one at the Alabama Aviation College in Albertville, one at the Marshall Technical School in Guntersville, and one at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham. The college offers dozens of academic and career technical programs for certifications and associate degrees.

Snead State offers opportunities for adult learners, recent high school or GED graduates, and even current high school students who qualify to enroll as dual enrollment students. Snead also

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S P O T L I G H T: H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

Richard Lindsey Arena grand opening on the Gadsden State Cherokee campus.

has transfer agreements with four-year universities, including Jacksonville State University. Instruction is available online and in person.

In January 2023, officials broke ground for the Workforce Skills Training Center next to Marshall Technical School in Guntersville. The 45,000-square-foot facility for high-demand jobs and as a

training center for business and industry throughout northeast Alabama. The center will offer HVAC and refrigeration, welding technology, machine tool technology, industrial systems technology and additive manufacturing. There also are plans to have flexible space, as well as engineering design and a 3D laboratory.

100 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Nursing students at Gadsden State Cherokee.

GADSDEN STATE CHEROKEE

Gadsden State Cherokee offers courses for academic transfer, as well as nursing classes, adult education and a poultry science program.

More than 130 students are enrolled at Gadsden State Cherokee, which is housed in a multi-level complex that includes learning laboratories, meeting rooms and a hospitality room. The multi-purpose, 2,500-seat complex at Gadsden State Cherokee was recently named the Richard Lindsey Arena in honor of the long-time Alabama representative largely responsible for the construction of the complex.

Gadsden State Cherokee’s campus is also home to the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Center.

Gadsden State Cherokee employs 12 full-time and seven part-time faculty and staff members. Around 44% of the student population is from Cherokee County with about 20% more from west Georgia counties approved for in-state/ reciprocal tuition.

Gadsden State Cherokee offers flexible scheduling with day and evening classes in classrooms, online or a hybrid of both.

Nursing students can take courses three to four nights a week, as well as weekend clinical experiences for those who are already employed. Students also have the option to complete three semesters and take the licensed practical nursing exam through the Alabama School of Nursing.

Another program offered is the 2+2 Poultry Science Program for students planning to transfer to Auburn University’s poultry science program.

Community Development

Tiger Lily opened in late 2022 in Fort Payne. Photo by Steven Malcom.

City Harbor, Guntersville.

JACKSON COUNTY

The city of Scottsboro, the county seat, continues to attract and build amenities that enhance quality of life and bring in visitors. The city has several new retail and restaurants, including Publix, TJ Maxx, Jersey Mike’s, Chick-fil-A, Whataburger, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, says Mayor Jim McCamy. The city also has worked on major intersections in the city to accommodate new businesses and traffic flow.

Downtown, a lot of individuals have purchased property for redevelopment.

Main Street Scottsboro has worked to keep the momentum going, with a new website coming to highlight businesses, a grant program for businesses to improve their façades and a pocket park underway

Pete the Cat Mural in Fort Payne.

on Peachtree Street, says Katie Kirkland, Main Street Scottsboro director.

At the recent Main Street Alabama Awards of Excellence banquet, Scottsboro Main Street was presented awards in business development through networking socials, reinvestment award and a Hero Award in memory of Julie Gentry-Michaels.

A mixed-use building downtown that offers living space, plus proximity to the courthouse, businesses and other attractions, has generated a lot of interest.

The city recently opened new pickleball courts and upgraded tennis courts and added lighting and trails at King Caldwell Park. Meanwhile, the Scottsboro Electric Power Board has been installing fiber optic broadband, which is

nearly complete, McCamy says.

The city’s airport has continued to expand and acquire more property in the last two years, McCamy says.

Jackson County schools started the 2023 school year with the opening of the Kevin Dukes Career and Innovation Academy. The facility offers a variety of hands-on programs such as building construction, collision repair, aviation technology, cosmetology, diesel technology, drafting design, CAD, electrical technology, health science, HVAC/R, masonry, precision machinery technology, welding and fine arts, along with STEM and gifted programs.

The academy is named after the late Kevin Dukes, a lifelong educator and former superintendent of Jackson County schools, who believed the career academy

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 103

S P O T L I G H T: CO M M U N I T Y D E V E LO PM E N T

be located next to Marshall Technical School. The land was donated by the Marshall County Board of Education and Superintendent Cindy Wigley.

Guntersville City Schools are building a new $53.5 million, 140,000-square-foot high school off U.S. Highway 431, which will include engineering and robotics labs, fine arts, career and technical development and more. It replaces the system’s 50-year-old high school.

The Albertville High School Aggie Band was invited to participate in the 135th Annual Rose Parade on New Year’s Day — the third time the band has marched in this parade.

Little Ridge Intermediate School, part of the Fort Payne City School System.

would be a game changer for all of Jackson County’s students.

The Scottsboro city school system is working on adding classroom space at Caldwell Elementary School, a project that should be completed in 2025.

MARSHALL COUNTY

Marshall County, with Lake Guntersville, is a top vacation home destination.

The city of Guntersville, the county seat, already known for its beauty and tourism, is promoting its new City Harbor project, a $30 million mixed-use development with restaurants, brewery, a waterfront event venue and short-termrental condos. Projects now underway include a $15 million, 88-room Hilton brand hotel plus additional privately owned condos.

“City Harbor is driving the traffic here,” says Matt Arnold, president and CEO of the Marshall County Economic Development Council. “Downtown is packed on the weekend. It’s so popular, the city is working on more parking.”

One of the most high-profile success stories for Guntersville is the HydroFest boat race event. Completing its fifth year on the national boat racing circuit, the event is sponsored by Marshall County Tourism and Sports with the city of Guntersville serving as host city.

It brings thousands of visitors to Lake Guntersville and is a huge economic impact for the county.

DEKALB COUNTY

Guntersville offers an extensive network of park areas, lakeside and others, currently being expanded with a $10 million-plus upgrade project.

Recreation facilities include baseball fields, soccer park, a community gym and swimming complex, and miles of lakeside multi-purpose trails for walking and biking.

Guntersville’s tourism draw also includes the 68,000-acre lake’s longstanding position as one of the most sought-after fishing destinations in the world and hosts Bassmaster, Major League Fishing and other pro tournaments, as well as everyday fishing enthusiasts.

In the city of Albertville, the Sand Mountain Park and Amphitheater is a huge success, Arnold says. Two new hotels are in the works and new restaurants and retail have been successful.

The city of Arab also has welcomed new retail.

The county’s one-cent sales tax increase is in effect, benefiting all five city school districts within the county and the county district.

Marshall County schools have new equipment, new STEM programs for elementary and middle schools, and an established technical school.

And a new development that will benefit the entire county is the Workforce Skills Training Center, a Snead State Community College project that will

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DeKalb County is about to start a new community storm shelter in the Kilpatrick community and just finished a trail construction project at High Falls Park, says Ben Luther, county engineer.

The county will do some courthouse remodeling to accommodate a new district judge seat, he says.

This summer, the DeKalb County Entrepreneurial Center in Rainsville opened. It is a business incubator that offers space and resources for those who want to open their own businesses, civic organizations, students or others who want to incubate a business or idea and more. It has flexible workspace, an online digital network, office spaces and a 720-square-foot space available for light manufacturing.

In the city of Fort Payne, the county seat, the city is remodeling its sports complex turf on all its playing fields, along with painting and new fencing, says Mayor Brian Baine. The city also is remodeling its police department building downtown, a $4 million project that should be finished in July 2024.

New retail includes Food City, which is underway. The city is rehabbing its sewer line on Airport Road, an $8 million project, and is working to get a railroad overpass built for tracks that run through the city, Baine says. The city also is working on a comprehensive plan.

Main Street Fort Payne, very active in the community, recently was honored at the 10th annual Awards of Excellence banquet. Mayor Brian Baine was awarded

S P O T L I G H T: CO M M U N I T Y D E V E LO PM E N T

the Community Hero Award, and the group also won an award in Placemaking for the Pete the Cat mural downtown, and a reinvestment award for its $5 million in improvements and investment downtown, says Connie Fuller, Main Street Fort Payne director.

“We work well with the city, and we have a shared vision,” Fuller says. “We’ll be starting sidewalk projects soon.” A developer also has bought the rest of the empty buildings downtown and plans to revive them for new uses, she says.

DeKalb County also offers the picturesque town of Mentone on Lookout Mountain, popular with tourists and retirees.

DeKalb County Schools offer several programs at the DeKalb County Technology Center, plus programs at each of the eight schools. The technology center offers auto mechanics, auto body collision, cosmetology, criminal justice, drafting/pre-engineering, fire science, law enforcement, masonry, medical science, building construction, welding and work-based learning. It also offers dual enrollment with North Alabama Community College.

Fort Payne city schools’ BEAT (Building, Electric, Aviation Technology) Center is well underway. The $5.8 million facility also will offer drone aviation, electric vehicle technology and building and construction programs.

The Fort Payne City School System also opened Little Ridge Intermediate Facility, a new power over ethernet school, which is energy saving and environmentally friendly, with motionactivated lighting, Bluetooth capability, a STEAM lab with 3D printers, coding, robotics and art options.

In June 2023, North Alabama Community College officials in Rainsville broke ground for a new Workforce Skills Center, to be built between the Industrial Systems Technology Center and the Tom Bevill Lyceum on campus.

The 50,000-square-foot, $27 million technology project will further boost workforce and economic development in the area.

economic development that focuses on community development. There is a new water park at Chestnut Bay Resort on Weiss Lake. The Centre-PiedmontCherokee County Regional Airport is getting a new taxiway, new hangars and other improvements.

The city of Centre, the county seat, opened the Albert L. Shumaker Aquatic

Center in June 2023, which includes a new competitive swimming pool, new pickleball and tennis courts.

Cherokee County schools have a robust career and technology center that offers several programs for grades 9-12.

Those include business, health care, collision repair, work-based learning, finance and electronics/robotics.

CHEROKEE COUNTY

Cherokee County has concentrated on November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 105

Culture & Recreation festivities and events: PBR BULL BASH — January | Rainsville SKIRMISH AT FORT HARKER — April | Stevenson MEMORIES OF MAYBERRY — May | Valley Head FREEDOM FEST — June | Rainsville HYDROFEST — June | Lake Guntersville SKYLINE DAY — June | Skyline

Guntersville Concert Park.

DEPOT DAYS — June | Stevenson SAND MOUNTAIN POTATO FESTIVAL — July 4 | Henagar UFO DAY — August | Fyffe WORLD'S LONGEST YARD SALE — August | Lookout Mountain Parkway LABOR DAY FESTIVAL — September | Section BOOM DAYS — September | Fort Payne TRAIL OF TEARS MOTORCYCLE RIDE — September | Bridgeport

Indian Mountain ATV Park.

ENJOY THE WATER

Northeast Alabama is rich with water fun. Try these options: Jackson County Park on the Tennessee River in Scottsboro; Lake Guntersville and Lake Guntersville State Park on the state’s largest lake, created in 1938 by the Tennessee Valley Authority; Weiss Lake, with 447 miles of shoreline.

PADDLE IT

Paint Rock River offers 58 miles of pristine water in Jackson County for canoeing, kayaking or just looking.

Terrapin Creek has 14 miles of floatable water, also good for fishing, canoeing and kayaking. The Alabama Scenic River Trail offers all sorts of paddling and powerboat options. Check out Yellow Creek Falls when exploring near Leesburg or Miller's Bend Paddle Shack when kayaking on Little River overlooking DeSoto Falls.

WATCH FOR ROCKS

Cherokee Rock Village offers 250 acres of boulders, rising some 200 feet. It is

popular for climbers and hikers. Or check Rock Zoo in Fackler, where rocks have been painted like various animals.

CHECK THE CAVES

Northeast Alabama is cave country.

Never-Sink Pit and Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve, both in Jackson County, require vertical caving skills and permits. These are for experienced climbers only. Beginners and seasoned cavers can enjoy John T. Dolberry Tumbling Rock Cave Preserve, including some passages that become sandy crawls.

For more casual cavers, try Cathedral Caverns or Russell Cave National Monument.

ENJOY THE VIEW

Pisgah Gorge offers scenic, wildfloweredged trails to three waterfalls. The Walls of Jericho offers a difficult trek, but rewards with magnificent views and rare flora and fauna. Little River Canyon Center National Preserve offers access to a mountaintop river that cascades more than 1,000 feet to Weiss Lake.

SUGAR FEST — September | Arab ART SUNDAY — September | Scottsboro FALL FESTIVAL — October | Mentone BBQ FESTIVAL — October | Scottsboro HARVEST FESTIVAL — October | Boaz

DeSoto State Park and High Falls Park both feature rushing waterfalls. Bucks Pocket State Park boasts hiking and camping and more on Sand Mountain.

Weathington Park in Section offers one of Jackson County’s most popular and scenic overlooks. Graham Farm and Nature Center offers a 491-acre farm within the Paint Rock Valley of Jackson County with hiking, biking, kayaking, canoeing, farm tours and more. Longdistance hikers enjoy the Pinhoti Trail, which covers 171 miles in Alabama and another 163 in Georgia. And if you prefer to catch the view from your car, try the Appalachian Highlands Byway or the Lookout Mountain Parkway.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 107

S P O T L I G H T: C U LT U R E & R EC R E AT I O N

Fort Payne Hosiery Museum traces the industry that once made Fort Payne the sock capital of the world.

demonstrations, interactive programs and guided field trips. Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge is home to the largest bat emergence east of the Mississippi, with some 250,000 bats emerging every evening from June to August. Tigers for Tomorrow at Untamed Mountain is an exotic animal park and rescue preserve, home to more than 160 animals, including tigers, mountain lions, African lions, bears, wolves and black leopards.

Shady Grove Horse Ranch atop Lookout Mountain has miles of riding trails.

Jackson County has more than 75,000 acres of public land with whitetail deer, quail, dove, squirrel, rabbit and turkey.

REMARKABLE

MUSEUM MUSINGS

Flag Day & Pirates Bay. LEGENDARY

Alabama Fan Club/Museum in Fort Payne celebrates the country music group Alabama – from local youths to awardwinning artists.

SOCK IT TO ME

Watch the glass artist at work at Orbix Hot Glass or see what luggage gets lost at Unclaimed Baggage.

OFF-ROAD IT

Indian Mountain ATV Park offers ATV and OHV trail riding — plus fishing and hiking and camping — on 4,700 acres in Cherokee County.

CATCH A MOVIE

Some 250 cars at a time can catch a movie at the 411 Drive In in Centre.

TRAIL THROUGH HISTORY

Visit history on a 67-mile Civil War Trail to the region’s battle sites and a Historical Churches Trail, highlighting landmark churches, each at least 75 years old. Or check the Cherokee County Geo-Tour, following your GPS to historic sites, geological wonders and popular recreational areas that start in Centre and lead to popular lakefront sites.

LIONS, TIGERS AND BEARS

— and bats and eagles range in Alabama’s northeast. Lake Guntersville State Park offers Eagle Awareness programs on select weekends in January and February, all highlighting majestic birds of prey, with live bird

Museums share local history in Guntersville, Scottsboro, Albertville and Collinsville and at the Cherokee Historical Museum in Centre.

HISTORIC HIGHLIGHTS

Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center is dedicated to events that many consider the first seeds of the civil rights movement in America. Arab Historic Village is a tribute to the pioneer-spirited people who settled and built the area with a schoolhouse, church, homestead and working grist mill. Cornwall Furnace, built in 1862, was the first cold blast furnace in the country to be powered by water.

Cherokee County Country Club, DeSoto Country Club and Lil' Mole Run. DOWNTOWN DELIGHT

Guntersville’s latest development, City Harbor, offers a mix of event venue, restaurants, lodging, shopping and fun on the waterfront.

REMEMBRANCE

Veterans Memorial Park of Jackson County in Scottsboro memorializes the men and women who paid the ultimate price in service to their country and acts as a museum with relics from wars and informational kiosks. Patriotic events are held throughout the year at this site.

Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel, atop Lookout Mountain in Mentone, was built

by Col. Milford Howard as a memorial to his first wife, Sallie.

MARKET TIME

The cash-only, modest-dress-requested Mennonite Market in Section offers locally grown produce, canned and baked goods. Boom Town Makers Market, open year-round, offers hand-crafted jewelry, home goods, pottery, furniture and more.

OUTDOOR FUN

Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater features an aquatic center, an outdoor water park, a fitness and tennis center, an RV park, dog parks and event spaces.

The amphitheater hosts multiple concerts throughout the year. Its sports park is a popular destination for teams of all kinds, with turf fields and stadium seating.

Pirates Bay Water Park, in Leesburg in Cherokee County, offers all kinds of family-friendly attractions, from slides to splash pad to putt-putt to ziplining.

FRUIT FEST

Antique cars are the start of the Third Saturday Sunset Cruise in Fort Payne.

Crow Mountain Orchard, in Fackler in Jackson County, offers apples, peaches, nectarines, pears, berries and cherries.

RAILROAD MEMORIES

CHEERS

CRUISE IN

Towns across the northeast corner of Alabama have preserved railroad depots, often with local history, too. Check out depots in Bridgeport, Stevenson, Scottsboro and Fort Payne.

FORE!

There's golf — at Goose Pond, Scottsboro Golf and Country Club,

108 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Jules J. Berta Vineyards in Albertville is the first stop on the Alabama Wine Trail.

ARTS ABOUND

Mentone Arts Center serves to preserve Mentone and the greater Lookout Mountain area’s artistic, musical and cultural heritage.

Career Notes

by ERICA JOINER WEST

ASHLEY TAYLOR

ERICA BAILEY

HOLLY TUCKER

MARGARET RIETHMAIER HANNAH HITE

BLAKE WILLIAMS

PATRICIA SIMS

CHRIS DURST

NATALIE BAUER

PATRICK WHITNEY

NASSER LAKKIS

WILLIAM CUTCHEN

PENNY ALRIDGE

VINCE JERNIGAN

COLIN DEAN

DAVID CROW

DOUG BLAKE

ACCOUNTING

Ashley Taylor and Erica Bailey, both employees in Jackson Thornton’s Montgomery office, have been honored

by Troy University. Taylor was named to the Troy Accounting Hall of Honor and Bailey was named Troy’s School of Accountancy’s Young Alumnus of the Year. In addition, Holly Tucker, a manager in the firm’s Prattville office, was recognized as a Top 20 under 40 by the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce.

BANKING

ServisFirst Bank has hired Caryn Cope Hughes as executive vice president, market president Montgomery; J. Dean Peevy as senior vice president, commercial banking officer; Charles Hardy Jr., vice president, commercial banking officer; and Elizabeth DuBard, private banking officer. In addition, Margaret Riethmaier was promoted to first vice president, regional branch officer for the Huntsville region.

COMMUNICATIONS

Hannah Hite has joined NP Strategy, a strategic communications firm, in Birmingham.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Blake Williams, communication & research specialist with the Limestone County Economic Development Association, has completed the Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College, becoming certified as a travel marketing professional.

EDUCATION

Dr. Patricia Sims, president of Drake State Community & Technical College, has been selected to join the sixth term of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Regional Energy Resource Council.

LOUANNE GIANGRECO

Tuscaloosa Academy has appointed Chris Durst as director of college preparedness.

Natalie Bauer has been appointed assistant dean for admissions at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama.

ROBERT CUMMINGS

Ascension St. Vincent’s Birmingham has promoted Penny Alridge to chief nursing officer.

American Family Care, headquartered in Birmingham, has appointed Dr. LouAnne Giangreco as its new chief medical officer.

University of Alabama in Huntsville Research Institute Director Virginia “Suzy” Young has been elected to the 2023 Hall of Fame under the Order of Prometheus by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Pathfinder Chapter.

ENGINEERING

R.E. Warner & Associates Inc., an engineering, architecture and surveying firm based in Ohio, has opened a Birmingham office and named William Kesterson as its Southern general manager.

INSURANCE

SBK Insurance, a SmartBank company, has opened an office in Dothan and named Vince Jernigan risk manager.

LEGAL

Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers LLP has added Kristin Goulart as an associate in the firm’s workers’ compensation section.

Colin Dean has joined McGlinchey Stafford as of counsel in the firm’s Birmingham office.

Jacob Salow, Nicholas Langford, Kayla Williams and Tyler Yarbrough have joined Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in the firm’s Birmingham office.

Robert Cummings has joined Overstreet & Associates PLLC as a senior project manager in the Daphne office.

J. Craig Campbell, a member of Hand Arendall Harrison Sale LLC in Mobile, has joined the International Association of Defense Counsel.

HEALTH

Lt. Col. (ret.) Dr. Patrick Whitney has rejoined Southeast Health’s Westgate Clinic team. He is board certified in family practice and most recently was practicing at Southeast Health Medical Group’s facility at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

LUMBER

USA Health has appointed Dr. Nasser Lakkis as chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Richard Menger has been named vice chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. In addition, Dr. William Cutchen has joined USA Health as an orthopaedic surgeon focused on children with musculoskeletal problems.

Josh Hendrickson has been promoted to president of Wilson Lumber Co. He previously served as vice president of sales and marketing for the company.

SECURITY

DSI Security Services, of Dothan, has promoted David Crow to vice president of sales for the East Division and Doug Blake to vice president of sales for the West Division.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 113

RETROSPECT

Up in the Alabama air The Wright Brothers fly high over Montgomery

F

By SCOTTY E. KIRKLAND

or a few weeks in the early spring of 1910, a field outside Montgomery was the site of the world’s first civilian flight training school. Five students were given instruction by none other than Orville Wright, who alongside his brother Wilbur had pioneered sustained flight just seven years earlier. For the Wright Brothers, the school was an attempt to maintain their share of a burgeoning commercial market. Montgomery boosters enticed the Wrights to their fair-weathered city, confident that the ensuing publicity would be worth the effort.

In the years since their first flight, the skies around the Wright Brothers had become rather crowded. New plane makers transformed flight into a business market. The brothers saw their initial stronghold endangered by competitors on the horizon. The amount of money for exhibition flights was lucrative, indeed. The

114 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Wrights received $15,000 for a flight along the Hudson River during an anniversary ceremony. To continue collecting the veritable fortune in the skies, and maintain their market share, the Wrights needed more pilots.

But the brothers felt their homebase of Dayton, Ohio, too cold for such a training camp.

Seeking a warmer climate, Wilbur Wright toured several southern cities. In February 1910, he arrived in Montgomery, where he was soon recognized. Locals alerted Fred Ball, president of the Montgomery Commercial ABOVE: The Wright Brothers' biplane flies over Kohn plantation in Montgomery in 1910, shortly before they set up a flying school there. Photo courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives & History.

BELOW: Brothers Wilbur, left, and Orville Wright.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

R E T RO S PE C T

Club, a forerunner to the returned two weeks later, chamber of commerce. and the flights resumed.

Ball accompanied Wright Throughout the many on a hastily arranged tour weeks of training, Orville of the city scouting potenrejected “with uniform tial sites for the training politeness” all requests school. The most suitable from locals for personal location proved to be a flights. The aviator broke cotton plantation owned this rule on May 3, taking

by Frank Kohn a few miles landowner Frank Kohn outside of the city. aloft for a brief excursion.

Ball presented Wright One makes exceptions with an attractive set of infor benefactors, of course. centives. The Montgomery “The machine obeys his Commercial Club would slightest touch,” Kohn prepare Kohn’s land and said. “I felt no more in Archibald Hoxsey, right, a graduate of the Wright Flying School, took build a hangar according danger than I would in a former President Theodore Roosevelt on a flight in October 1910 in St. to Wright’s specifications. streetcar.”

Louis, Missouri. Hoxsey would die in a plane crash in December. Photo Free accommodations A few days later, courtesy of the Library of Congress. would be supplied at Wilbur telegraphed his the palatial Exchange Hotel downtown. A local dealer offered younger brother and suggested he return to Dayton to begin automobiles for transportation needs. Their time in Montgompreparations for a summer of exhibition flights. Before he deery would cost the Wright Brothers nothing. Ball and others parted Montgomery, Orville oversaw the 12-minute solo flight knew the publicity would be worth the expense. “The press of of student Walter Brookins, marking the first and only graduathe world will watch…this city,” the Montgomery Advertiser tion from the Montgomery school. Brookins then assumed the predicted. continued training of the remaining students, including ArLocal businesses were quick to see the school’s commercial chibald Hoxsey, with whom he embarked on a historic evening value as well. Once the construction firm of D. F. Gorrie & flight by the light of a full moon on May 25, 1910.

Son stood up the hangar, businesses festooned it with advertiseSoon thereafter, a broken motor chain brought an end to the ments. “Our Prices, Like Wilbur, are Right,” read a sign for a historic Montgomery flight school. The pupils boxed up the local wholesaler, “but they are not ‘up in the air!’” Atop the roof plane, bid adieu to the Alabama skies and returned to Dayton. of the structure, where only aviators in flight could see, was a “The Wright Brothers are gone from Montgomery,” the rather sign promoting a local brand of biscuits — a targeted advertisecynical editor of the Clayton Record wrote, “and that big bunch ment if ever there was one. of money which the Capital City spent to build an aviation During the springtime school, the industrious Wright Brothcamp is gone, too.” ers were uncharacteristically separated from each other. While The short-lived school had the desired outcome. Montgomit was Wilbur who had selected the school site, it was Orville ery’s boosters were satisfied with the publicity and their city’s who served as the teacher. Wilbur Wright attended to matters in place in aviation history. And the Wright Brothers had new Dayton and elsewhere. pilots. Brookins and several other students who began their The biplane arrived by rail on March 15, 1910, followed training in Montgomery flew under their banner for several soon thereafter by Orville Wright. In Montgomery, he comyears. In October 1910, Montgomery student Archibald Hoxpleted a design change to the plane, adding a rear wing to the sey (who would die in a crash later that year) had the privilege rudder, which he felt might stabilize the machine at higher of taking former President Theodore Roosevelt on a plane ride altitudes. It was the first major modification since Kitty Hawk in St. Louis. in 1903. On March 26, Orville Wright tested the new design.

Within a few years, the advertisement-laden hangar on Satisfied with the change, he commenced student training two the Kohn plantation was torn down. A decade later, the War days later.

Department purchased the land from Frank Kohn for the sum “A strange new bird soared…to the West of Montgomery,” of $34,000. Today, a stone monument marks the site of the the local paper reported. To help accommodate spectators Wright’s hangar, located within the sprawling Maxwell Air flocking to see the school, the Mobile & Ohio Railroad offered Force Base complex. A few miles away, on a ridge overlooking six daily excursions from Montgomery’s Union Station to the the interstate, a replica Wright biplane sits in a small city park, airfield for 25¢ per ticket. Thousands came. a reminder of those exciting days when a “strange new bird” Flight training continued on until the second week of April, appeared in the Alabama skies. when a persistent engine problem brought instruction to a temporary halt. Seeking the familiarity of his Dayton workshop, Historian Scotty E. Kirkland is a freelance contributor to Business Alabama.

Orville removed the plane’s engine and headed to Ohio. He He lives in Wetumpka.

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 115

Company Kudos

by ERICA JOINER WEST

Apex Roofing & Restoration, of Birmingham, for a fourth consecutive year has made the top 20 of the Top 100 Roofing Contractors list in the United States in Roofing Contractor Magazine.

This year, the company came in at no. 17. The company, founded in 2009, has installed more than 1 million square feet of roofing since its inception.

DECEMBER Economic Development: Building Alabama Business Here’s to Philanthropy Best Companies To Work For In Alabama Geographic Spotlight: Lee, Russell & Macon Counties

The Admiral, in Mobile, has ranked no.

15 on Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers Choice Award’s Top 25 Hotels in the South category.

JANUARY

During the 2023 AlabamaWorks!

Workforce Conference, Innovator Awards were presented to Four Star Freightliner, Lockheed Martin, TechBirmingham, Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s Second Chance Program, Hartselle High School’s Tiger Launch Program and Kim Murray, a teacher in region 2.

Who’s Running Alabama?

Our annual listing of elected officials Growing Better, Agriculturally Workforce Wonders State of the Stocks: Our Eye on the Market Geographic Spotlight: Autauga & Elmore Counties Check BusinessAlabama.com for daily business headlines and additional content

Follow us: Business Alabama @BusinessAlabama

Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama has been recognized by Gov. Kay Ivey for entering an alliance with OSHA to protect skilled tradesmen through outreach and training.

Avadian Credit Union has won the Credit Union National Association’s 2022 Louise Herring Philosophy in Action Award for Alabama. The award was presented for its member-friendly overdraft policy, launching a home improvement loan and opening a branch in midtown Birmingham.

For a fourth consecutive year, Baker Donelson has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status, recognizing the law firm’s fair and equal opportunity to advance into leadership policy.

Bank Independent, with offices across North Alabama, has come in at no. 33 in Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces list.

116 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Recreation.gov and Booz Allen Hamilton have been recognized with a 2023 Service to the Citizen Award

by LaunchDarkly. The team is being recognized for their work with 12 federal partners to reinvent Recreation.gov during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Capstone Communities and Hoar Construction, both based in Alabama, are being recognized for developing Inspire Atlanta, a student housing project by the Multifamily Executive Conference.

Columbia Southern University, based in Orange Beach, and Alabama Coastal Foundation, also based on the coast, are both celebrating their 30th anniversaries this year, with planned joint environmental stewardship events.

Constellium SE has received the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative Performance Standard certificate for its facilities in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Bowling Green, Kentucky.

JJ’s Coffee and More, in Ardmore in North Alabama, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

Pentecom, an information technology company with an office in Scottsboro, has received HUBZone certification from the Small Business Administration.

Southern Veterinary Partners, of Birmingham, has been recognized by Newsweek in its annual Most Loved Workplace - healthcare list.

Index 2222 Arlington, Birmingham............................53 411 Drive In, Centre.......................................107 44 First Alabama Plaza...................................119 Abbott, Tim.....................................................................9 Ace Aeronautics LLC..........................................88 Admiral Hotel, The..........................................116 Alabama 9-1-1 Board........................................94 Alabama A&M University....................................6 Alabama Aviation College.................................99 Alabama Bass Trail...........................................94 Alabama Birding Trail.......................................94 Alabama Board of Nursing................................45 Alabama Coastal Foundation..........................116 Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine.........94 Alabama Community College Association..........45 Alabama Community College Presidents' Association....................45 Alabama Community College System.... 18, 45, 99 Alabama Cooperative Extension........................94 Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education....................................................94 Alabama Department of Human Resources........58 Alabama Department of Labor..........................58 Alabama Fan Club/Museum............................107 Alabama International Airport Authority...........94 Alabama Launchpad.........................................63 Alabama League of Municipalities....................94 Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association.....94 Alabama Music Hall of Fame.............................94 Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame..........................45 Alabama Partnership for Children.....................58 Alabama Power Co..............................................8 Alabama Rural Electric Association....................94 Alabama Scenic River Trail........................ 94, 107 Alabama Sports Council......................................7 Alabama State University....................................7 Alabama Wine Trail........................................107 AlabamaWorks...............................................116 Aladebumoye, Olumuyiwa...........................................63 AlaTrade Foods.................................................88 Albert L. Shumaker Aquatic Center..................103 Albertville Chamber of Commerce....................94 Albertville High School...................................103 Albertville Museum.......................................107 Albertville, City of..........................................103 Aldridge, Penny......................................................... 113 Allen, Jon......................................................................45 Alliance Automotive Group...............................50 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity................................63 Aluminum Stewardship Initiative...................116 Amegy Bank....................................................24 America's Rehab Campuses................................8 American Apparel....................................... 88, 90 American Buffalo Metals Inc..............................88 American Family Care.....................................113 American Sports Medicine Institute...................24 American University.........................................94 American Welding Society................................35 Andrews Sports Medicine.................................24 Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center........................................58 Anniston, City of................................................7 Apex Roofing & Restoration............................116 Appalachian Highlands Byway........................107 Appalachian Regional Commission...................35 AR Recycling....................................................88 Arab Electric Cooperative..................................94 Arab Historic Village.......................................107 Arab, City of...................................................103 Arnold, Matt......................................................... 81, 103 Ascension Providence Hospital...........................8 Ascension St. Vincent's Birmingham........... 7, 113 Aspen Institute................................................45 Associated Builders and Contractors................116 Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems.....113 Athens State University....................................45 Atlanta Falcons.................................................24 Atlas Senior Living...........................................53 Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center...92 Auburn University...........................45, 63, 94, 99 Austal USA.........................................................8 Avadian Credit Union.....................................116 B.L. Harbert International...................................6 Bahou, A.J.......................................................................7 Bailey, Erica................................................................ 113 Baine, Brian......................................................... 94, 103 Baker Donelson..............................................116 Baker, Jimmy................................................................45 Baker, Tom......................................................................5

A guide to businesses (bold) and individuals (light) mentioned in this month’s issue of Business Alabama.

Baldwin County Public School System...............18 Ball, Fred.................................................................... 114 Bank Independent.........................................116 Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.....................6 Barnes, Maggie............................................................94 Barnett, Jason...............................................................94 Barrett, J. Doug.............................................................45 Bassmaster Fishing Tournaments....................103 Bauer, Natalie............................................................ 113 Bearings & Transmission Supply.......................50 Bender Real Estate Group...................................5 Bender, Gavin.................................................................5 Benoit Group, The...............................................7 Better Business Bureau.......................................5 Bitzer, Phillip................................................................11 Blake, Doug............................................................... 113 Blaylock, Darrell................................................88, 92, 94 Boaz and Albertville Family Care.......................94 Boaz City Schools..............................................94 Boaz Ventures....................................................6 Boom Days Fest, Fort Payne...............................88 Boom Town Makers Market, Fort Payne...........107 Booz Allen Hamilton.......................................116 Bradford Health.................................................5 Bradley Arant Boult Cummings...........................7 Brasfield & Gorrie LLC.........................................8 Bray, Jennifer................................................................94 Broadband Association of Alabama and Mississippi..................................................94 Brock School of Business, Samford University......................................24 Brookins, Walter........................................................ 114 Brown, Michael...............................................................5 Brown, Tessa.................................................................18 Browning, Deborah........................................................5 Bruce's Foodland Plus......................................94 Bucks Pocket State Park............................ 88, 107 Bullock, Jimmy...............................................................6 Caldwell Elementary School, Scottsboro..........103 Calhoun Community College............................40 Campbell, David.....................................................45, 94 Campbell, J. Craig..................................................... 113 Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve....................7 Capstone Communities..................................116 Capstone Development Co..................................9 Capstone Development Partners.........................6 Care.com..........................................................58 Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies.................11 Carnival Cruise Line..........................................10 Cathedral Caverns State Park.................... 88, 107 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services........92 Center for Sports Analytics, Samford..................24 Centre-Piedmont-Cherokee County Regional Airport....................... 88, 103 Centre, City of................................................103 CFD Research....................................................88 Cherokee County............................................103 Cherokee County Board of Education.................94 Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism............................. 94, 99 Cherokee County Country Club.......................107 Cherokee County Economic Development Center....................................99 Cherokee County Geo-Tour..............................107 Cherokee County Schools................................103 Cherokee Historical Museum..........................107 Cherokee Rock Village....................................107 Chestnut Bay Resort................................. 88, 103 Chick-fil-A Inc.................................................103 Chief Ladiga Trail................................................7 Children's Advocacy Center of Marshall County......................................94 Children's Place, The........................................90 Christian Brothers University............................94 Christopher, David..........................................................5 Circulus Holdings PBLLC...................................88 City Harbor, Guntersville....... 81, 84, 88, 103, 107 Civil War Trail.................................................107 Clark, George................................................................58 Clayton Record...............................................114 Coastal Alabama Community College................18 Coastal Gateway Park.........................................7 Colon, Daniel................................................................94 Colormasters LLC..............................................88 Columbia Southern University.................. 45, 116 Concordia Technologies......................................6 Condé Nast Traveler Magazine........................116 Constellium SE...............................................116 Cornwall Furnace...........................................107 CRE Mobile......................................................53

Credit Union National Association...................116 Crow Mountain Orchard..................................107 Crow, David................................................................ 113 Cullman Regional Medical Center.......................8 Cumberland Health & Rehab............................92 Cumberland School of Law...............................94 Cummings, Robert.................................................... 113 Cutchen, William....................................................... 113 Cypress International.......................................94 D.F. Gorrie & Son.............................................114 D&A Companies...............................................53 Daniel Foundation............................................45 Davidson, A. Jason........................................................94 DC Gas.............................................................94 Dean, Colin................................................................ 113 DeKalb County...............................................103 DeKalb County Economic Development Authority...............................94 DeKalb County Entrepreneurial Center........................ 88, 103 DeKalb County Industrial Development Board.....................................45 DeKalb County Schools............................. 94, 103 DeKalb Regional Medical Center........... 88, 92, 94 DeKalb Tourism Board......................................94 DeSoto Country Club......................................107 DeSoto State Park....................................... 5, 107 Discovery Life Sciences.......................................8 Dixie Green Inc........................................... 88, 90 Dollar & Watson...............................................94 Dollar, Leigh.................................................................94 Domestic Violence Crisis Services......................94 Doster Construction Co.......................................8 Drake State Community & Technical College....113 DSI Security Services.......................................113 DuBard, Elizabeth...................................................... 113 Dudash, Eric..................................................................94 Duke Health.......................................................8 Dukes, Kevin.............................................................. 103 Dunkin Donuts...............................................103 Durham, James Jr.........................................................94 Durst, Chris................................................................ 113 East Alabama Works.........................................94 East Lake Initiative.............................................7 Economic Development Partnership of Alabama..................................................63 Edgehill at Southtown........................................7 Education Trust Fund........................................18 Edwards Motor Co. Building................................9 Engineered Floors...................................... 88, 90 Enviva Inc..........................................................7 Evans, Lisa......................................................................5 Exchange Hotel..............................................114 Family Savings Credit Union.............................94 Family Services of North Alabama.....................94 Farm Fresh Foods........................................ 88, 90 Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative.........94 FCFD Research..................................................88 Federal Reserve Building....................................9 Feralloy Corp....................................................88 Fernandes, David............................................................5 First National Bank of Montgomery.................119 Fite Building Co..................................................6 Florida Institute of Technology..........................94 Florida State University.............................. 45, 94 Food City, Fort Payne......................................103 Fort Belvoir, Virginia..........................................6 Fort Payne City Board of Education....................94 Fort Payne City Schools............................. 94, 103 Fort Payne Hosiery Museum...........................107 Fort Payne Main Street......................................94 Fort Payne, City of.................................... 94, 103 Foster, Dontrelle Young..................................................7 Four Star Freightliner.....................................116 Fuller, Connie...................................................... 94, 103 Fuqua & Partners Architects................................8 Gadsden State Community College - Cherokee................................. 94, 99 Gentry-Michaels, Julie............................................... 103 Genuine Parts Co..............................................50 Geostationary Lightning Mapper......................11 GH Metal Solutions...........................................88 Giangreco, LouAnne.................................................. 113 Gleason, Tommy...........................................................53 Good Samaritan Clinic......................................45 Google Inc.............................................. 6, 45, 63 Goose Pond Colony Board.................................94 Goulart, Kristin.......................................................... 113 Gradkell Systems Inc..........................................6 Graham Farm and Nature Center.....................107

Gresham Smith................................................53 Greyhound Bus Terminal, Birmingham...............9 Gulf Shores, City of.............................................7 Guntersville Airport Board................................94 Guntersville Chamber of Commerce..................94 Guntersville City Schools.................... 88, 94, 103 Guntersville Historical Society..........................94 Guntersville Industrial Development Board......94 Guntersville Municipal Airport..........................88 Guntersville Planning Board.............................94 Guntersville, City of............................ 84, 94, 103 Habitat for Humanity........................................94 Hammond, Randy........................................................35 Hand Arendall Harrison Sale LLC.....................113 Hardy, Charles Jr........................................................ 113 Harrell, Tevin.................................................................63 Hartner, Tom.................................................................18 Hartselle High School.....................................116 Hatcher, Chris...............................................................24 Heil Environmental..........................................90 Helm Allen, Jean Ann...................................................45 Help at Home LLC...............................................6 Hendrickson, Josh..................................................... 113 High Falls Park....................................... 103, 107 Highlands College..............................................6 Highlands Medical Center........................... 92, 94 Hill, Tom.........................................................................5 Hilton Hotels & Resorts...................................103 Historical Churches Trail.................................107 Hite, Hanna............................................................... 113 Hoar Construction..........................................116 Home 2 Suites by Hilton...................................84 Honda Manufacturing of Alabama....................63 Hoover, Deborah "Pepper"...........................................45 Housing Authority of the Birmingham District......................................7 Houston Astros.................................................24 Houston Texans................................................24 Howard, Milford........................................................ 107 Hoxsey, Archibald...................................................... 114 HTPG Inc..........................................................90 HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology............8 Hughes, Caryn Cope.................................................. 113 Hughes, Sean.................................................................9 Huntsville Alabama Marx Meter Array...............11 Huntsville Hospital Health System.............. 92, 94 Huntsville, City of..............................................5 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce...................................................94 HydroFest, Lake Guntersville..........................103 Indian Mountain ATV Park..............................107 Industrial Development Authority of Cherokee County.....................................94 Ingalls Harbor, Decatur.....................................84 Innovation Depot, Birmingham......................7, 9 Inspire Atlanta...............................................116 Internal Revenue Service..................................63 International Association of Defense Counsel........................................113 International Defense & Aerospace Group..........88 International Space Station...............................11 Intuit QuickBooks............................................63 Ivey, Gov. Kay....................................................8, 94, 116 J.F. Ingram State Technical College....................40 Jackson County Commission.............................94 Jackson County Economic Development Authority................... 45, 81, 94 Jackson County Healthcare Authority................94 Jackson County Industrial Development Board.....................................45 Jackson County Park......................................107 Jackson County Schools............................ 94, 103 Jackson County Sports Hall of Fame..................94 Jackson County United Givers Fund..................94 Jackson Thornton...........................................113 Jacksonville State University...................... 94, 99 Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency...........11 Jerald, Felyicia..............................................................58 Jernigan, Vince.......................................................... 113 Jersey Mike's ................................................103 Jett, Brian.....................................................................94 JJ's Coffee and More......................................116 John T. Dolberry Tumbling Rock Cave Preserve............................................107 Johnson, Bria................................................................63 Johnson, Fred...............................................................94 Johnson, Joe..........................................................40, 45 Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation......92 Jones, David Lee...........................................................94 Jones, Donny................................................................58

November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 117

INDEX

Jones, Jerry..................................................................24 Jordan, Messalina........................................................94 Jules J. Berta Vineyards..................................107 Junior Achievement.........................................94 K-VA-T Food Stores Inc.....................................103 Karolewics, Vicki...........................................................35 Kesterson, William.................................................... 113 Kevin Dukes Career and Innovation Academy, Hollywood...................................88 King Caldwell Park.........................................103 Kirkland, Katie..................................................... 94, 103 Koch Foods Inc..................................................90 Kohn, Frank............................................................... 114 Kotobukiya/Treves North America Inc................88 KTH Leesburg Products............................... 88, 90 Lake Guntersville............................. 84, 103, 107 Lake Guntersville Chamber of Commerce..........94 Lake Guntersville State Park............... 99, 94, 107 Lakeland Community Hospital.................... 92, 94 Lakkis, Nasser............................................................ 113 Lamb, Neil......................................................................8 Landing at Snug Harbor....................................84 Langford, Nicholas..................................................... 113 LaunchDarkly.................................................116 Lawler Hotels LLC.............................................88 Lawler, Patrick...............................................................84 Leadership Alabama.........................................94 Leadership Cherokee........................................94 Leadership DeKalb...........................................94 Leadership Jackson County...............................94 Ledwell, Stacy...............................................................94 Lee Industrial Services Inc.................................88 Lee, Nathan..................................................................81 Levi's on the Lake.............................................84 Life's Journey Reflection and Meditation Garden.......................................94 Lifepoints Rehabilitation....................................8 Lightfoot, Frankin & White LLC........................113 Lil' Mole Run..................................................107 Limbaugh, Joe..............................................................50 Limestone County Economic Development Association................................................113 Lindsey, Richard...........................................................99 Lions Clubs International..................................94 Little River Canyon Center National Preserve......................................107 Lockheed Martin...................................... 11, 116 Lookout Mountain Parkway............................107 Lozier Corp.......................................................90 Luther, Ben................................................................ 103 Luther, Jessica..............................................................58 Lyles, Wayne.................................................................94 Magic City Classic...............................................7 Main Street Fort Payne.............................. 94, 103 Main Street Scottsboro.............................. 94, 103 Major League Fishing.....................................103 Manufacture Alabama......................................58 Manufacturing Skills Standards Council............99 Maples Industries...................................... 88, 90 Marks, Caldwell............................................................50 Marsh, Rickard & Bryan................................................53 Marshall County Community Punishment and Corrections Authority.........94 Marshall County Economic Development Agency..................... 81, 94, 103 Marshall County Homeless Ministries...............94 Marshall County Leadership Challenge.............94 Marshall County Schools.......................... 94, 103 Marshall County Tourism & Sports....... 88, 94, 103 Marshall County Workforce Development.........94 Marshall County Youth Leadership....................94 Marshall Medical Center....................... 88, 92, 94 Marshall Space Flight Center.............................11 Marshall Technical School.................................99 Maxwell Air Force Base...................................114 Mazda Toyota Manufacturing........................5, 58 McCamy, Jim............................................................. 103 McCormick, James.......................................................53 McGlinchey Stafford.......................................113 Menger, Richard........................................................ 113 Mennonite Market, Section.............................107 Mentone Arts Center.......................................107 Mentone, Town of...........................................103 Mercedes-Benz U.S. International......................58 Mercy Health Youngstown Rehabilitation Hospital..................................8 Messer, Marlon.............................................................50 Miller's Bend Paddle Shack.............................107 Missile Defense Agency......................................6 Mississippi College..........................................94

Mississippi State University..............................94 Mobile & Ohio Railroad..................................114 Mobile, City of..................................................10 Mohawk Industries..........................................88 Montgomery Advertiser.................................114 Montgomery Commercial Club.......................114 Moriroku Technology North America........... 88, 90 Motion Industries............................................50 Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce............94 Mouron, Michael............................................................9 Mueller Industries Inc......................................88 Multifamily Executive Conference...................116 Murphy, Kelley.............................................................11 Murray, Kim............................................................... 116 Nance, Willie B. Jr.........................................................94 NAPA Auto Parts...............................................50 NASA...............................................................11 National Center for Construction Education and Research...............................99 National Collegiate Athletic Association.............24 National Forest System.......................................6 National Junior College Athletic Association......99 National Science Foundation.............................40 National Weather Service..................................11 Nature Conservancy of Alabama..........................6 Never-Sink Pit, Jackson County.......................107 Newman Technology........................................88 Newsweek Magazine......................................116 Nextec Building, Birmingham.............................9 Nexus on Holmes, Huntsville..............................6 Nike Inc............................................................24 North Alabama Community College.......... 88, 103 North Alabama Industrial Development............94 Northeast Alabama Community College....................45, 81, 94, 99 Northrop Grumman Corp....................................8 NP Strategy....................................................113 NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association............94 Nucor Corp.......................................................88 Occupational Safety and Health Administration..........................................116 OK Foods.................................................... 88, 90 Olin Corp...........................................................7 Olyniec, Jim..................................................................94 Optimist Club...................................................94 Orbix Hot Glass..............................................107 Overstreet & Associates PLLC...........................113 Owen-Richards Co.............................................50 P. Lawler Enterprises................................... 84, 88 Paint Rock River.............................................107 Paths for Success Foundation............................58 Peak Rehabilitation Hospital..............................8 Peevy, J. Dean............................................................ 113 Pemco International................................... 88, 90 Pennington, Lydia........................................................94 Pentecom LLC.................................................116 Perry, Joy......................................................................94 Perry, Mike....................................................................45 Phi Theta Kappa......................................... 45, 94 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine-Georgia........................................94 PHP Fibers Inc..................................................88 Pilgrim's Pride........................................... 88, 90 Pima Transitional Living Facility..........................8 Pinhoti Trail...................................................107 Pirate's Bay Water Park, Leesburg............. 88, 107 Pisgah Gorge..................................................107 PlayCore..........................................................90 Polymer Industries...........................................90 Pool, Ashley............................................................92, 94 Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce.............113 Prattville, City of................................................6 Progress Rail Services Corp...............................88 Pruitt, Ronnie..................................................................5 Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama..........8 Publix Super Markets Inc................................103 R.E. Warner & Associates Inc........................ 7, 113 Radiance Technologies.......................................6 Rainsville Technology.......................................88 Recreation.gov...............................................116 Redstone Arsenal...............................................8 Regions Foundation...........................................7 Reid, Mitch.....................................................................6 Renfro Corp......................................................90 Reserve at Lake Guntersville.............................84 Resource Management Service LLC......................6 Retirement Systems of Alabama.........................5 Riethmaier, Margaret................................................ 113 Riverview Plaza Hotel.........................................5 Riverview Plaza, Mobile.....................................5

118 | BusinessAlabama.com November 2023

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail...............................6 Robinson, Justin...........................................................63 Rock Zoo, Fackler............................................107 Roofing Contractor Magazine..........................116 Roosevelt, President Theodore.................................. 114 Rose Bowl Parade...........................................103 Ross Bridge Golf Course......................................6 Rotary International.........................................94 Roy Tech Environ..............................................88 Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative................94 Rush Health Systems Inc...................................94 Rush, Chris....................................................................94 Russell Cave National Monument...................107 Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel......................107 Salow, Jacob.............................................................. 113 Samford University..........................................24 Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater...... 103, 107 Sanders Capital Partners.....................................8 Sanders Trust, The..............................................8 Sanoh America Inc............................................88 Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge...............107 SBK Insurance................................................113 Schroeder, Christopher...................................................5 Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center....................................107 Scottsboro City Schools...................................103 Scottsboro Electric Power Board.......................103 Scottsboro Golf and Country Club....................107 Scottsboro Municipal Airport.............................88 Scottsboro Planning Commission......................94 Scottsboro Solid Waste Disposal Authority.........94 Scottsboro, City of..........................................103 ServisFirst Bank.............................................113 Shady Grove Horse Ranch...............................107 Shelton State Community College.....................58 Shepherd's Cove Hospice..................................94 Shipshape Solutions Inc....................................53 Silver Eagle Trucking........................................88 Sims, Patricia............................................................. 113 Smart Financial Inc.........................................113 SmartAsset Advisors LLC.....................................5 SmartBank.....................................................113 Smithfield Court, Birmingham............................7 Smithsonian Tropical Institute..........................11 Snead State Community College............................... 81, 88, 94, 99, 103 SoundPath Investment Advisors.........................8 Southeast Health............................................113 Southeast Tourism Society........................ 94, 113 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools....94 Southern Museum of Flight..............................99 Southern Regional Education Board .................94 Southern Research.............................................7 Southern Veterinary Partners..........................116 Southern Wesleyan University..........................94 Southside Development Co.................................7 Spencer, William..........................................................50 Spirit of Cherokee............................................94 Sports Hospitality Ventures................................5 Sports Illustrated Magazine................................5 Sports Illustrated Resorts....................................5 Spring Hill College.............................................6 Starbucks Corp...............................................103 STARS Early Learning Academy..........................58 Stella Source......................................................9 Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve.............107 Steward Machine Co...........................................6 Stimpson, Sandy...........................................................10 Stough, Sara.................................................................11 Stuckey, Brooke Jenkins...............................................24 Susie P. Stringfellow Memorial Garden Trail.......94 Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers LLP....................113 TaxxWiz ...........................................................63 Taylor Coatings LLC...........................................88 Taylor, Ashley............................................................. 113 TechBirmingham............................................116 Tennessee Valley Authority............... 94, 107, 113 Terrapin Creek................................................107 TheatreCentre..................................................94 Tigers for Tomorrow at Untamed Mountain......107 Tile Liquidators................................................88 Times-Journal, Fort Payne.................................94 TJ Maxx.........................................................103 Torain, Wes...................................................................40 Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama................5 Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi............5 Tquila Automation.............................................9 Travel + Leisure Co.............................................5 TRO Jung Brannen Architects..............................8 Troy University......................................... 94, 113

TS Tech Alabama......................................... 88, 90 Tucker, Holly.............................................................. 113 Turner, John....................................................................8 Tuscaloosa Academy.......................................113 Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office.....116 TVA Rural Economic Development Cabinet.........94 Tyndall Air Force Base.....................................113 Tyson Foods Inc.......................................... 88, 90 U.S. Air Force.............................................. 45, 94 U.S. Army.........................................................94 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers..............................6 U.S. Bureau of Labor.........................................58 U.S. Census Bureau.............................................5 U.S. Chamber of Commerce...........................5, 58 U.S. Department of War..................................114 U.S. Economic Development Administration......35 U.S. Forest Service..............................................6 U.S. Navy...........................................................8 U.S. Small Business Administration.................116 UAB Huntsville Family Medicine Residency Program......................................................94 Unclaimed Baggage.......................................107 United Methodist Church..................................94 United Way of Cullman County.........................45 United Way of Marshall County.........................94 University of Alabama................. 5, 18, 45, 94, 99 University of Alabama at Birmingham...........7, 45 University of Alabama in Huntsville..............................6, 11, 94, 113 University of Arizona........................................45 University of Louisville.....................................11 University of Montevallo..................................45 University of New Mexico.................................94 University of North Alabama.............................45 University of South Alabama..................... 18, 113 University of Southern Mississippi....................94 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga............94 University of Texas..................................... 45, 94 USA Health.....................................................113 USA Health Children's and Women's Hospital......5 USA Health Providence Hospital..........................8 Vaisala Weather...............................................11 Valley Hotel, Homewood....................................9 Vanderbilt University.......................................94 Veterans Memorial Park of Jackson County.....107 Veterans of Foreign Wars..................................94 Vulcan Materials inc...........................................5 Vulcraft Alabama..............................................88 WakeMed..........................................................8 Wall Street Journal...........................................24 Wallace Community College....................... 40, 45 Wallace State Community College............... 35, 45 Walls of Jericho, The.......................................107 Ward, Jordan................................................................63 Watts, Evan...................................................................53 Waverly Advisors...............................................8 Wayland Baptist University..............................45 Wayne Farms............................................. 88, 90 Weathington Park..........................................107 Weiss Lake.....................................................107 Welding Technology and Innovation Center......35 Wenzel Metal Spinning....................................88 West Alabama Chamber of Commerce...............58 West AlabamaWorks.........................................58 WestRock Co............................................... 88, 90 Whataburger Restaurants LLC.........................103 White, Darin.................................................................24 White, Stacey................................................................94 Whitney, Patrick......................................................... 113 Wigley, Cindy...................................................... 94, 103 Williams Blackstock Architects............................6 Williams, Blake.......................................................... 113 Williams, Kayle.......................................................... 113 Wilson Lumber Co..........................................113 Wiz Group, The.................................................63 WizWorld Marketplace.....................................63 Wofford College...............................................94 Women's Foundation of Alabama......................40 Workforce Skills Center....................................99 World Atlas........................................................5 World Population Review.................................58 Wright, Orville........................................................... 114 Wright, Randi Gaskin....................................................94 Wright, Wilbur........................................................... 114 Yarbrough, Tyler......................................................... 113 Yellow Creek Falls..........................................107 Young, Virginia "Suzy"............................................... 113 Zellner, Autumn............................................................58

Historic Alabama

BANKING ON IT Nearly 50 years ago, in 1974, this photo was taken of construction at the First National Bank of Montgomery building. Nearly a decade ago, in 2014, the then-vacant building at 44 First Alabama Plaza was turned into retail, commercial and apartment space.

Photo from the Alabama Department of Archives & History.

Do you have a photo you’d like us to consider for Historic Alabama? Send it to Erica West at ewest@pmtpublishing.com.

Alabiz Quiz

Challenge yourself with these puzzlers from past issues of Business Alabama magazine. If you feel pretty confident, send your answers via email to ewest@pmtpublishing.com or, beginning Nov. 20, work the quiz online and check your answers at businessalabama.com..

November 2023:

November 2022 (one year ago):

November 2013 (10 years ago):

Q: A national magazine has announced plans for a resort in Tuscaloosa. What magazine?

A) Better Homes & Gardens B) New Yorker C) Reader’s Digest D) Sports Illustrated

Q: Business Alabama reported on the groundbreaking for the $2.5 billion Novelis plant in Bay Minette in Baldwin County. What will the plant make?

A) Aluminum sheet B) Artificial oyster reefs C) Electric vehicle batteries D) Personal protective gear

Q: Our October innovation issue introduced a dozen current and former Alabama inventors. Among them was Mary Anderson, who patented a product in 1903 that’s still in use today, though she never earned a penny from it. What did she invent?

A) Doorbell for homes B) Electric iron for clothing care C) Toggle switch for electrical appliances D) Windshield wiper for cars

October 2023 (one month ago): Q: An Alabama bank is celebrating 175 years of continuous service — though it has had several names over the years. What bank?

A) Fairhope Financial B) First Bank of Alabama C) Florence Fiduciary D) Regions Bank

November 2018 (five years ago): Q: St. Louis-based Peabody Energy picked up an Alabama asset. What was it?

A) Blast furnace from U.S. Steel B) Dothan area quarry from Vulcan C) Liquified natural gas terminal on Mobile Bay D) Shoal Creek Mine from Drummond

November 1998: (25 years ago): Q: Business Alabama listed the top 100 private companies in the state. Ranking first was Affiliated Paper Cos., in Tuscaloosa. Number 2 was a major engineering firm, based in Birmingham, with nearly 2,400 of its 7,999 employees in Alabama and more than $1 billion in sales. What firm?

A) BE&K B) Brasfield & Gorrie C) Hargrove D) Volkert Answers from October: B, C, A, A, A, A November 2023 BusinessAlabama.com | 119