0114 groundbreakers spreads

70 | Birmingham | jan 14 jan 14 | Birmingham | 71

GROUND BREAKERS

PhiliP Morris’ figurative fingerPrints

cover Birmingham. As executive editor of Southern Living from 1976 to 1991 and an editor-at-large with Southern Progress Corporation until 2000, Morris was able to research and report on design issues throughout the south. In his retirement, he’s volunteered on the design committees of such projects as Vulcan Park and Museum’s renovation, Railroad Park, Red Mountain Park, Operation New Birmingham, Mountain Brook villages and more.

“Design needs to be part of the culture of the city,” he says, citing such urban revitalization projects as Greenville, S.C. “It was very clear that cities that didn’t just let things happen, but helped shape them through good planning, good design, civic action and public landscaping, those are the places that became very much better places to be.”

Now, Morris’ attention is devoted to the Birmingham Architecture & Design Collection of the Birmingham Public Library’s archives, which he is personally funding for its first three years. The archives include wonderful items documenting the city’s architectural past, Morris says, but they’ve never been compiled into a collection. His challenge is to fill in gaps from the past four decades while organizing the material in a way that makes it easy to access and use.

“It gives them (the Birmingham Public Library) a new way to serve the public,” Morris says. “Design just affects the city in so many ways.”

Meet the people and organizations creating change in our coMMunity.

By KATHERINE OWEN, RACHEL STANBACK ANd CARLA JEAN WHITLEy

PHOTOS By CALEB CHANCEy

philip morris [ education ]


Born and raised in BirMinghaM, Randall Woodfin now serves as the new president of the Birmingham Board of Education. He en-ters the position as the board faces the rebuild-ing of a school system that was micromanaged into state takeover and a possible accreditation evaluation in February.

Woodfin has left Alabama twice — once for undergraduate studies at Morehouse College and again for D.C., after graduating Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. He came back ready to work.

“You go to these other cities and see what they’re doing for their community, it only makes sense to me to bring it back home. All the skills I’ve learned, people I’ve worked with, benchmarking opportunities I’ve had — I bring it back here,” he says.

Woodfin says he’s committed to improving the quality of life in Birmingham, and to do so, Birmingham schools have to be enhanced for the younger generation. He says the city has to find a way to fight the brain drain and keep its

talent here. After all, Woodfin himself left for a time. He says growing up in Birmingham, it was his mother who influenced him to better the lives of others.

“Watching her deal with her work full time and her community and my family members, I saw somebody that was always helping peo-ple,” he says. “I got a lot of that just watching how my house was taken care of. This whole idea that taking care of others was impor-tant — that was a major influence.”

Now, he plans to help Birmingham, and its students, by shifting conversation away from adults and back to students, by aiming to meet accreditation benchmarks and focusing policy on K-12 students.

“Birmingham schools need a laser focus on academics, period,” Woodfin says. “The last two or three years, the conversation has only been about adults. As a board president, as a citizen, I want us talking about here is where we are, here is where we need to be in the city. And we move toward that.”

birmingham board of education president randall woodfin

[ education ]

as a woMan working in construction, L’Tryce Slade is accustomed to standing out in the crowd. She established Slade, LLC, a building construction general contractor, in 2006, and has since developed her reputation in the business community one project at a time. Slade specializes in environmental consulting and public involvement and serves clients as diverse as local and state government, engineering firms, schools, law firms, nonprofits and transportation consulting firms.

Slade is vice president of the local chapter of National Association of Women, and she serves on the board of directors for the Birmingham chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction Forum. “I’d like to see more women in the room,” Slade says.

Her educational background is in regional planning and law, so Slade has built her construction knowledge, like her business, from the ground up. “I’ve had to learn this through apprenticeship and field experience,” she says.

Slade sees her place in the business community as a chance to mentor others as she has been mentored. “I love being able to hire people and empower them,” she says. “That’s been the most rewarding part.” She has been involved in a variety of apprenticeship groups focused on teaching job training skills to college-age young adults.

“I feel like Birmingham has been a great place to grow my skill set,” Slade says. “I’ve been mentored by other firms in Birmingham, which has grown me personally and professionally, and I want to do the same for others.”

l’tryce slade[ business ]

72 | Birmingham | jan 14


when rachel lindley joined the wBhM staff as the news director in September, she says she could immediately sense the energy and potential in Birmingham. After working in west Texas for almost eight years, Lindley decided to come down to Birmingham and see what all the enthusiasm was about.

“I could feel the momentum in the air, all this stuff that had been happening in Birmingham,” she says. “It just seemed like a really great thing to be a part of and a really great time to be a part of it.”

Lindley says public radio holds immense potential for a growing Birmingham community. She says radio is a very personal medium, which tells a story the way no other platform can. In her mind, that’s what Birmingham needs — a way to talk about complex issues in a simple way.

Issues and Ales, a recurring event, brings the community together to discuss those issues. The station, which won seven Alabama Associated Press awards in 2013, also dives in deep as part of the Southern Education Desk, a group of public media stations in five states. Lindley says, “It’s nice to work in a field of journalism where you can really break down issues in a way that lets people know, not only the big picture and why it matters, but the impact and the way it affects people’s lives.”

She says the station has plans to expand its reach and impact in the future, such as increasing its staff and beginning a series that looks at the impact of government policy on listeners’ lives. The station also has plans to continue its “Issues and Ales” series, a quarterly panel discussion with the community, which in the future will be paired with a quarterly week-long series on the radio, all focused on a particular topic.

“I really believe strongly in public radio,” Lindley says. “With WBHM, I want to make it something that people view as an intentional community service. Something that really helps them learn about what’s going on in their community, the type of things that help them become more informed citizens. It’s important to me.”

wbhm’s rachel lindley [ communication ]

when arc realty oPened its doors in Janu-ary 2013, it was home to four partners but no oth-er agents. But as the first year ended, it counted 86 agents among its numbers and is scheduled this month to complete an office expansion.

Chairman Tommy Brigham credits its growth to the partners’ history in the business as well as the company’s focus on building relationships. That starts with their agents. The office is de-signed to give them a sense of place, with art from Mountain Brook’s gallery 1930 hung throughout. ARC offers agents training and technological

support, including social media training from Marketing Manager Megan Sims.

After Brigham sold his interest in Realty-South, he worked with banks in asset manage-ment and strategic planning. That time outside of the real-estate business offered him fresh perspective on the business. Along with friends Mechelle Wilder, Beau Bevis and Dale Mc-Intyre, Brigham set out to create new approach to residential real estate.

The group brought together more seasoned agents and millennials who are new to the business,

believing that they can learn from one another. The partners also have an eye on diversity and say that’s appealing to the corporate clients to whom they provide relocation services. “They’re looking for an organization that really, truly is a representative of the whole of society,” Brigham says.

As ARC enters its second year, Bevis says they aim to grow to 125 agents and focus on technology training. The group also supports the community through charity work, aiming to “let the com-munity know it’s not about real estate, it’s about reaching out and helping others,” Wilder says.

arc realtytommy brigham [ real estate ]

74 | Birmingham | jan 14


audiostate 55 recording studios and entertainMent Company, nestled on 55th Place South Woodlawn, has a lot go-ing for it. It is home to two recording studios, a lab and a record label distributed around the world by Warner Music Group. But Audiostate 55 is doing something else groundbreak-ing — teaching kids.

Henry Panion, who founded Audiostate 55 seven years ago, says the goal of the Woodlawn partnership is to provide the op-portunity for local students to see the technical as well as per-formance side of the music industry. Audiostate 55 works with the Woodlawn Foundation, allowing students to come during the summer as well as during the school year. He says between last summer and fall, the program has worked with more than 450 students.

“Our goal is to just try to give them the things in front of the mic, let them understand the myriad of careers behind the

mike, and all the kinds of things that they would do to be able to make it in the business side of things: contracts and agents and touring,” Panion says. “It really is a full exposure to every aspect of it.”

Panion has worked with artists such as Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, but says those were merely opportunities that came along. His goal has always been to be an educator. From 1994 to 2000, Panion served as chair of the department of music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he remains a professor. Part of his decision to stay in Birming-ham despite his international recognition was the opportunity to educate young minds and give them a platform.

“The only thing I’ve really sought to do was to be a college professor. The opportunities that I’ve had to work in the in-dustry with the artists I’ve gotten to work with really has been because, in many ways, they found me.”

froM hiP-hoP to southern gothic to indie rock, Jeffrey Cain brings new sounds to Birming-ham through his record label, Communicating Vessels. The label, which calls Woodlawn’s 55th Place home, now has 12 artists on its roster and three years under its belt. In August, Cain opened The Shop at Comm_Vess, which features releases by the labels’ musicians in various formats.

"This is a creative home. It's a great canvas with lots of potential,” Cain said in an inter-view with Birmingham Box Set, Birmingham magazine’s music blog. “Being in Woodlawn has allowed us to grow, and I have no intention of ever going anywhere else.”

Cain has worked as a solo artist and guitarist for band Remy Zero, and so he wanted to create a place for artists’ work to grow. He says the la-bel was something he always wanted to do — but

he waited for the right time. “I knew that unless I had some help with the business side of it, be-cause I’m an artist myself, I wasn’t going to do it because I wanted to do it right,” he explained to Birmingham magazine in February 2012.

The label now works with artists such as The Great Book of John, Shaheed and DJ Supreme, The Green Seed and Preston Lovinggood. The label’s name represents the relationship the bands share. Scientifically speaking, communi-cating vessels refers to a set of connected con-tainers all holding the same liquid.

“Nothing can change in one without affecting the other, so they all kind of even out,” Cain said. “I knew that the attention that one artist would bring in, or their music, would shine light on (oth-er) artists. They would inspire each other, and it would also be healthy competition.”

henry panion [ arts ]

jeffrey cain [ arts ]

jan 14 | Birmingham | 77


did you know that 63 Percent of the metropolitan-area households in poverty are headed by women? The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham did, and through their newly launched Collaboration Institute, the organization is working with other area agencies to move these families out of poverty.

Thirty percent of women who do not have a high school degree are in poverty, and that number drops to 14.78 percent for those with a high-school degree. As education level increases, poverty level continues to decrease: 11 percent of women with associate’s degrees live in poverty, but only 3.8 percent of those who hold a bachelor’s degree are in poverty. The numbers aren’t as high for men, in part because they are more likely to be suited for manual labor jobs.

“The other thing that we’ve noticed

is that there are a lot of organizations that do really good work with women in our community, so we wanted to know how we could support them in a holistic approach, rather than us raising money and giving it to an organization,” CEO Jeanne Jackson explains.

Eight teams applied to the inaugural year of the Collaboration Institute, and the program accepted five in August. Those groups include nonprofits, churches and educational institutions working together to create specific educational opportunities for single mothers while working to eliminate barriers to quality childcare. The five teams are now meeting with local strategic planning experts to develop their proposals, which they will present to the Women’s Fund board on Feb. 28. The board and corporate supporters

will award two teams with $25,000 seed money to launch their programs, and Jackson says she hopes the other teams will be able to use their proposals to find other grant opportunities.

The Collaboration Institute brings together teams of agencies who work to address issues that affect these women, but Jackson notes that education isn’t the only issue: Families also need a stable home — “If you’re couch surfing, it’s really difficult to finish a degree if you don’t know where you’re going to be that night,” she says. The children’s opportunities increase and mom’s worries decrease with quality, steady daycare.

Jackson says, “It’s a big shift for us but I think it’s where we need to be, and what we’re hearing from the community we need to be supporting.”

dr. david sMolin feels strongly

about his academic interests, but the outpouring of those passions is more than professional — it’s personal. The Cumberland School of Law pro-fessor has long been interested in bioethics and biotechnology, inter-national human rights, children’s issues, and family and juvenile law. His work on the theology of adop-tion, which is motivated in part by his own love of family and his faith, is nationally renowned.

And since its December 2012 found-

ing, Smolin has applied his interests in new ways as director of Cumberland’s Center for Children, Law and Ethics. The center works in child advocacy, policy propositions, and consultation for the media and law professionals on a variety of issues. Smolin directs a staff of 10 to 30 law students, and also works alongside local, national and international advisors.

The center’s work has received na-tional attention, with reporters from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and The

Tennessean turning to Smolin as an expert in his field. He also spoke at the Hague Conference on Private In-ternational Law, where 88 countries and 15 non-governmental organiza-tions were represented.

This is more than a research facil-ity, Smolin says. “The center is de-signed to give students the opportuni-ty to understand that children’s issues are difficult and divisive, and not just sentimental,” he says. “Things like adoption and child abuse are much more complicated than expected.”

david smolin [ education ]

collaboration institute , women’s fund of birmingham

[ philanthropy ]

Program director Mary Page wilson-lyons, new rising star Missionary Baptist church community support corporation executive director cheryl lee, nursery teacher ranada heidelberg with camille guyton, ceo jeanne jackson and development associate wright rouse

80 | Birmingham | jan 1480 | Birmingham | jan 14

dr. edward e. Partridge has led uaB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center to national prominence as a research institution. The cen-ter is the only facility in a six-state area to meet the stringent criteria for the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive designation, which provides funding to conduct research, clinical trials and innovative treatments.

The Wallace Tumor Institute, a 155,500 square foot facility, recently underwent a $30-million renovation. The building, which held its grand opening in August, is an environment where more than 330 multidisciplinary professionals can work together. The facility's centerpiece is a 61,000-lb. cyclotron, a particle accelerator that assists in medical imaging. The cyclotron is the most pow-

erful machine of its kind in any academic research center in the United States.

Beena Thannickal, a UAB media specialist, notes that Partridge’s initiative to build the new facility is pioneering. “To have the fore-thought to create a building like this is incred-ible,” says Thannickal.

Partridge is also passionate about elimi-nating disparities in prevention and survival rates between ethnic groups. He has led the Alabama Black Belt Cancer Linkage Initia-tive and is principal investigator for the Deep South Network for Cancer Control.

He initiated an effort to hire and train non-professionals, who are much more accessible to patients than doctors or nurses, as “navi-

gators” in communities. These navigators are able to make frequent contact with patients after acute events. Partridge says this has al-ready had a significant impact and anticipates this will cause fewer emergency room visits, unnecessary hospitalizations and, ultimately, healthier patients and millions of dollars of savings in Medicare costs.

In 2013, he was recognized by the Ameri-can Cancer Society for his work to reduce ethnic and racial health disparities. “My work with minority populations has been espe-cially fulfilling — to begin to get everyone en-gaged and in better health, so we can eventu-ally eliminate these differences in outcomes,” Partridge says. “That’s going to be huge.”

dr.edward partridge[ education ]

first concePtualized at a design suMMit in 2011, the Cahaba Blueway has been growing since. A result of the collaboration of The University of Alabama and Auburn University, Alabama Innovation Engine has partnered with the Cahaba River Society and the Nature Conservancy to create the Blueway, which links communities, economic development and the environment through Alabama’s Cahaba River.

Matt Leavell, project director for Alabama Innovation Engine, explains that when the Engine first started to look at the watershed, they wanted to address the how to think about rivers as a resource to Alabama. “What’s a different way to think about those rivers as an asset? Not just as a blue line, but something that can be incorporated into a community, be incorporated into economic development,” he says.

The project started with the branding of the watershed through a partnership with the UAB graphic design department, Cayenne Creative and the Cahaba River Society. Through that process, Leavell says, the partners learned of the rich stories behind the river. After that, the Nature Conservancy was pulled in as a collaborator and the canoe trail idea was born.

“There’s a story of the river that really needs to be told, and there’s a couple of different ways of doing that. The easiest way to do that is you just introduce people to the river. Get them on the river and let them experience it. Just trust that when they get on that river, they’re going to fall in love with it. They’re going to want to preserve and protect this thing and take ownership of it, so creating an access trail, a blueway, that’s where that came from,” he says.

The Blueway is being developed in multiple ways at once, Leavell says. On the storytelling front, the project has already produced a book and film. Economically, Leavell says the project is about providing opportunity for business and people along the river to help themselves.

“The Blueway is about developing the tools that help the local organizations up and down the river, to be part of this river by developing their own access points,” Leavell says. “We don’t expect we are going to build these access points. We hope that what were doing is creating tools that will help communities build their own, but we’re providing the framework so they can plug in and realize long-term benefits.”

cahaba bluewaymatt leavel [ environment ]

0114 groundbreakers spreads

Documents