Apr. 4, 2019

4/4/19 Minutes
Submitted by Tommy Fulton, Contributing Editor
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Ernest Ladd.
Jay Turner gave the invocation, followed by Tommy Blankenship with a song and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introduction of Guests & Visitors: Jeff Zoghby introduced our guests along with visiting Rotarians.
Student Guest: Jeff Luther introduced Dylan Stallworth, from Vigor High School as our Student of the Week.
Announcements: Mobile West – Mobile Bay Charity Golf Classic – April 24.
Rotary Club of Mobile donated $500.00 to the Lee County Tornado Relief Effort.
Program: Suntrease Williams-Maynard introduced Richard Moore – U. S. Attorney. His topic was “The Hardest Question You Never Ask – How Am I Doing?”
Richard Moore was part of the first wave of President Trump’s nominees for U. S. Attorney. He had previously been hired by Jeff Sessions.
Mr. Moore’s primary duties include prosecuting federal crimes/offenses in our district. He has been especially effective in bringing more cases of firearm violations than any other district in the U. S., per capita. He laments the fact that so many of those convicted offenders return to the streets to quickly.
His office also handles bankruptcy, drug cases and money laundering. One of his most infamous cases was the “Couch/Ruan pill mill” prosecution. Dr. Couch and Dr. Ruan were sentenced to 240 months and 252 months for mis-prescribing opioids.
Mr. Moore described the conditions in Alabama’s prisons as “barbaric” and in violation of the 8th Amendment. The prisons are understaffed and gang-ridden. This has led to the outcome that our inmates are much more likely to commit more crimes after being released.
Mr. Moore’s said that his office presented an honorary “Chair” to Jeff Sessions. He has great admiration for Jeff and says he is one of the most respected men by his peers in the country. “Jeff had done more to promote President Trump’s agenda than any other Cabinet member”, said Moore. Major crime came down under Sessions because of the idea that, “If you take the worst of the worst off of the streets, crime will go down.”
Mr. Moore then discussed his awakening after taking his 360° review. He brought his staff of 105 into a meeting, read his report to them, and then asked for the painful truth. Those painful lessons led him to three goals.
1) Mutual Respect for each other.
2) Trust in competency and character
3) Accountablility
This is when he learned to ask the question, “How Am I Doing?”
After a question and answer session, Ernest Ladd thanked U. S. Attorney Moore for his presentation and presented a certificate to him, noting that a donation in his honor had been made to the Rotary International Foundation.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.

June 13, 2019–Edward A. Panacek, MD, MPH,Professor of Emergency Medicine at Univ. of South Alabama

Biosketch
Edward A. Panacek, MD, MPH, Professor of Emergency Medicine and of Medicine
Dr. Panacek received his undergraduate education (BA) at UCLA, and his MD degree from the University of South Alabama. His postgraduate training was in Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine, all performed at UC Davis Medical Center and completed in 1986. From 1986, through 1992, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine (critical care and emergency medicine) at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland. During that time, he served as Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Training Program, and of the Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program as well as the Associate Medical Director of the AirCare Helicopter Transport Service. He served as the Associate Director, and subsequently as the Acting Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland.
In 1992, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis, as an Associate Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He was promoted to a full professor in 1997. He also served as the Emergency Medicine Residency Program Director, from 1992 until 2000. He obtained an MPH in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health, University of California – Berkeley in 2000. From 2000-2014, he served as the Director of the Office of Clinical Trials. In 2015 he moved to the University of South Alabama, in Mobile, as new Professor and Chair of Emergency Medicine. He is the medical director of the Emergency Departments in the USA Health System.
Dr. Panacek has over 300 scientific publications (over 150 original journal articles, over 50 Book Chapters and Invited Manuscripts and over 130 original research abstracts). He has served as an associate editor for two of the major journals in emergency medicine and is on the editorial board of multiple other journals. He has chaired over 12 Committees, Sections or Task forces for national professional societies and was on the Board of Directors of the Council of EM Residency Directors (CORD.) He has also chaired the Executive Committees and served as the overall Academic Principal Investigator for multiple large multi-center national and international clinical trials. He is in frequent demand as a speaker and averages over 75 lecture presentations per year. He won numerous national awards, including the prestigious 2002 “Outstanding contributions in research award” from the American College of Emergency Medicine, the “Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Award” from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in 2012, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2007, from the University of Maryland, for contributions in EM research.
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June 6, 2019–Jonathan Porter / World Games

Jonathan Porter serves as Vice President of Birmingham Division for Alabama Power Company.
Porter is responsible for the company’s operations, sales, customer service, economic and community development and external affairs activities for more than 430,000 customers across six counties in north central Alabama.
Porter joined Alabama Power in 1991 as a Customer Accounting intern through the INROADS program where he interned four summers with Alabama Power until graduation. He rejoined Alabama Power in 2000 and has held various positions of increasing responsibility to include Sr. Corporate Recruiter, Sr. HR Business Representative, Customer Service Supervisor, Assistant Business Office Manager, Lead HR Business Consultant, Assistant to the Executive Vice President of External Affairs, Birmingham Division Area Manager, Director Customer Service, and Vice President of Human Resources & Ethics.
Prior to joining Alabama Power, Porter worked as an Underwriting Analyst at Protective Life Corporation and as a Manager at INROADS, Inc.
Porter serves as a member of the board of directors for the Jefferson County Education Foundation, Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority, Birmingham Jefferson Inland Port Authority, United Way of Central Alabama, REV Birmingham Inc., Birmingham Business Alliance, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Alabama Power Foundation, Alabama Business Charitable Trust Fund, and A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club. Porter is an advisory board member of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham’s LGBTQ Fund. Porter is Chairman of the 2021 Birmingham World Games Foundation, serves as a Board Trustee of Tuskegee University and a member of the Newcomen Society of Alabama. Porter is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham, has been featured in Who’s Who in Black Alabama, was recognized as a “Top 40 under 40” by the Birmingham Business Journal, and was recognized as one of “20 leaders for the next 20 years” by Bhm Biz magazine.
Porter graduated cum laude from Tuskegee University with a B.S. degree in Business Administration. While at Tuskegee, Porter was a 4 year letterman in football and was an All-Conference Scholar-Athlete. Porter later received his MBA from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
A native of Bessemer, Ala., Porter and his wife Kima are the proud parents of daughters Laila and Kailyn.