May 2020

COMMUNITY

Montgomery Recognizes Educators of the Year
National nonprofit “out-of-school-time” leader BellXcel recently recognized Darryl Woods and Connell Vandiver with its Educator of the Year award. The Montgomery educators are essential to delivering dynamic, evidence-based summer learning with measurable outcomes at the YMCA of Greater Montgomery’s Power Scholar Academy (PSA). The annual award recognizes educators who best exemplify BellXcel’s core values of excellence, learning, respect, courage and collaboration.

PSA mitigates summer learning loss by increasing literacy and math skills. Scholars acquire key skills in problem solving, critical thinking and social-emotional learning. At PSA, Woods serves as Association Program Lead and serves as VP of Community Development at the YMCA of Greater Montgomery. VanDiver serves as a Parent Liaison in Montgomery County Public Schools during the school year and has served as PSA’s Program Manager for the past six years.
 
Huntingdon Receives Tree Campus USA Recognition
Huntingdon College was selected by the Arbor Day Foundation as a 2019 Tree Campus USA®. The recognition honors the College's commitment to effective urban forest management. This is the sixth consecutive year Huntingdon has earned the distinction. "Tree campuses and their students set examples for not only their student bodies but also for the surrounding communities showcasing how trees create a healthier environment,” said Dan Lambe, President of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Because of Huntingdon College's participation, air will be purer, water cleaner, and your students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty the trees provide.” There are 385 campuses across the United States with Tree Campus USA recognition.
 
SACSCOC Reaffirms Faulkner University’s Accreditation
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) recently reaffirmed Faulkner University’s accreditation for the next 10 years. SACSCOC made the official announcement during its annual meeting in December 2019. Faulkner received the best possible review, being found in full compliance and with the committee offering no recommendations or requests for continued monitoring. Dr. Dave Rampersad, Vice President of Academic Affairs and the University’s SACSCOC Liaison, indicated that “SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation is a comprehensive process achieved by meeting the 70-plus standards established by the commission’s higher education community. It affirms that the University has resources, programs, and services sufficient to support and accomplish its mission. In short, it is an affirmation of the quality educational experience Faulkner provides to its students.”
 
Alabama Power Leaders Named to National Innovation Commission
Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite has been appointed as an executive committee member of the Council on Competitiveness and commissioner on the National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers. The commission is a multi-year flagship effort developing the innovation ecosystem of the United States through research ventures, partnerships, public policy and advocacy to address the country’s global economic competitiveness. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Council on Competitiveness addresses the rising challenge of international competition. The Council works to bring together diverse groups from the public and private sectors to address broad economic issues like globalization, technology, manufacturing and energy. Crosswhite joins more than 35 leaders including CEOs of major corporations, university presidents, national labor organization leaders and national laboratory directors to develop policy recommendations and private sector actions to bolster America's investments in talent, technology, innovation and infrastructure.

In addition, Alabama Power Senior Vice President of Employee Services & Labor Relations Jeff Peoples has been named to the commission’s advisory committee. Peoples will partner with other national leaders to provide strategic oversight of recommendations to the commission, prioritizing the delivery of measurable and actionable outcomes.
 
EPA Awards ENERGY STAR Certification to City of Montgomery Facilities
Four Montgomery municipal facilities earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star certification for superior energy performance and efficiency. Marking the City’s third consecutive year to receive this distinction, the four buildings to receive the ENERGY STAR certification are Montgomery Fire/ Rescue Headquarters, City Hall, City Hall Annex at 25 Washington Avenue and the Montgomery Municipal Justice Center. ENERGY STAR certified buildings are verified to perform in the top 35 percent of buildings nationwide, based on weather-normalized source energy use that takes into account occupancy, hours of operation and other metrics. ENERGY STAR is the only energy efficiency certification in the United States that is based on actual, verified energy performance.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Four Star Freightliner Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary
Four Star Freightliner, Inc., headquartered in Montgomery, officially marked its 20th anniversary on February 20, 2020. The company, led by Jerry Kocan, originally started out with two stores in Dothan and Montgomery, Alabama. Over the past 20 years, it has grown from 50 to nearly 250 employees who work at seven locations in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Four Star Freightliner has become the Southeast’s leading medium and heavy-duty truck dealer, having invested millions of dollars in facilities to provide better access and amenities for its customers. The trucking industry has also recognized Kocan and its company through numerous awards including Successful Dealer of the Year and a finalist for the American Truck Dealers (ATD) Truck Dealer of Year award.
 
Jere Beasley Honored With MCBA 2020 Service & Achievement Award
The Montgomery County Bar Association (MCBA) recently honored Beasley Allen Law Firm founder Jere L. Beasley with its 2020 Service & Achievement Award during its annual meeting. The award was created to recognize Montgomery lawyers who have distinguished themselves through their exemplary service to the local community and bar. The honor is presented to a lawyer who demonstrates the highest standard of professionalism and is respected for outstanding legal ability.

Alabama Dumpster Service Celebrates 20 Years
This year, Alabama Dumpster Service celebrates 20 years of service to customers in the River Region. Since its beginning at the turn of the millennium, the company has provided commercial waste disposal for thousands of businesses and individuals, offering a wide variety of sizes of dumpsters and roll-off containers in a now-familiar, bright shade of red. What began as a two-truck operation has become central Alabama’s leading waste removal company.
 
Caddell President & CEO Inducted into Alabama Construction Hall of Fame
Caddell Construction’s President and CEO Eddie Stewart has been inducted into the Alabama Construction Hall of Fame. The honor was bestowed by Alabama Associated General Contractors (Alabama AGC) at a ceremony on January 16. Stewart’s 41-year career in construction has spanned a wide range of projects and markets. His diverse domestic and international project background includes U.S embassies, correctional facilities, courthouses, barracks, airports, power plants, research and development complexes, hospitals, and other commercial and industrial initiatives. Stewart has been very active in the Associated General Contractors of America throughout his career and has served in leadership positions on the national and state level. In 2018, he became the first national president from Alabama in the Association’s 100-year history.
 
Bradley Celebrates 150 Years
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP announced it is celebrating the firm’s 150th anniversary this year. Founded in 1870 in Elyton, Alabama, before moving to Birmingham the following year, Bradley has grown to 10 offices with nearly 550 lawyers in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and the District of Columbia. As one of only a handful of U.S. law firms to reach this milestone, Bradley is proud to have developed a national reputation for serving businesses around the world in the banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and life sciences, real estate, and technology industries.

AWARDS & HONORS

Former Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange Awarded the Golden Egg Award
The Montgomery Area Zoological Society (MAZS), a support organization of the Montgomery Zoo, presented the Golden Egg Award to former Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange for his support and desire to ensure the Montgomery Zoo is ranked among the premier zoological facilities in the Southeast. The Golden Egg is the highest honor given by Montgomery Area Zoological Society. It is awarded to individuals or organizations for long-standing dedication to the Zoo and work to ensure the Zoo continues its mission to improve the future of wildlife through conservation efforts, education/outreach programs and to ensure that each Zoo guest gains a greater understanding of our place in the world and our responsibility to protect its resources.
 
Bradley Partners Selected for Honors
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP announced that Chuck Stewart, a Partner in the firm’s Montgomery office and co-chair of the firm’s Product Liability team, accepted an invitation to join the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). The ABOTA is a national organization of trial lawyers with 97 chapters in all 50 U.S. states. Selection for membership into ABOTA carries with it considerable prestige among attorneys, judges and legislators. A member of Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group, Stewart has been a trial lawyer for more than 30 years.

Additionally, George R. Parker, a partner in the firm’s Montgomery office, has been selected for membership as a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation. The Alabama Law Foundation Fellows Program honors lawyers who have been members of the state bar for at least 10 years and who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to their profession and to the community. No more than 1 percent of Alabama Bar members are invited into fellowship. As a member of Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group, Parker focuses his practice on pharmaceutical and medical devices, product liability, mass tort and class action matters.
 
Jackson Thornton Named to Forbes’ Top Accounting Firms List
Jackson Thornton, a certified public accounting and consulting firm headquartered in Montgomery, announced it was recently named as one of America’s Top Recommended Tax & Accounting Firms by Forbes magazine. Only 227 firms nationwide were selected and only seven in Alabama. Jackson Thornton was selected as being a top recommendation in both the tax and accounting areas. Forbes and market research company Statista partnered to create the list, which considered 1,800 survey responses from CPAs, enrolled agents, tax lawyers, accountants and CFOs. The firms that received the most recommendations were included on the list.
 
Beasley Allen Lawyer Inducted Into American College of Trial Lawyers
Beasley Allen lawyer Kendall Dunson has been inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, a premier professional trial organization in North America comprising preeminent trial lawyers from the United States and Canada. Fellowship with the college is invitation-only, and the College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality. As a member of Beasley Allen Law Firm’s Personal Injury and Products Liability Section, Dunson handles product liability, general personal injury and workers’ compensation cases involving defective industrial machinery.