Category: Past Speakers

Ryan C. Hankins

Executive Director, Ph.D.

Ryan Hankins is the Executive Director of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA). PARCA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-ideological research organization providing policy research, data analysis, and program evaluation to educate the public and equip the leaders of governments, schools, and nonprofits to improve the lives of all Alabamians.

In addition to providing overall leadership to PARCA, Hankins has conducted or led numerous research projects, including analyses of regional demographics, school finances, gambling revenue, and Medicaid expansion.

He is active in local and statewide nonprofit work and serves on numerous boards and committees, including the advisory boards for the Masters of Public Administration at Auburn University and both the Masters of Social Work and Department of Human Development and Family Science at Samford University. He has previously served on the board of the Alabama Association of Nonprofits, the Birmingham—Jefferson Food Policy Council, the Medicaid Citizens’ Advisory Board, the Bold Goals Workforce Development Council, the Executive Team of the Alabama Committee for Grade-Level Reading, the Alabama Counts! 2020 Census Committee, the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, and is past president of the Alabama Association of Free Clinics.

He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Executive Education program, the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute, Leadership Birmingham, Leadership Alabama, and a Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 Honoree.

Hankins holds a BA in religion and English literature, a Master of Divinity, and a Ph.D. in political science. He has completed additional studies at the University of Alabama Birmingham and Oxford University.

He and his wife, Meredith, a speech-language pathologist at United Ability, are the parents of three children.

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Updated August 2024

Sherry Sullivan
Mayor of Fairhope| Biography
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Sherry Sullivan, mayor of Fairhope, is serving her first term. Prior to running for Mayor,
Sullivan worked for the City of Fairhope for almost 17 years and worked for Riviera
Utilities as Director of Governmental Affairs and Economic Development.
Mayor Sullivan was awarded the designation as a Certified Municipal Official by the
Alabama League of Municipalities, is a member of the American Public Power Association
Policy Makers Council, a member of the Policy Board for the Eastern Shore Metropolitan
Planning Organization, Electric Cities of Alabama Executive Committee, Vice President of
the Alabama League of Municipalities, past member of the Alabama League of
Municipalities Committee on State & Federal Legislation, a committee member of the
Alabama Municipal Funding Corporation (AMFund), a member of the Eastern Shore
Chamber of Commerce Leaders Council, a member of the Baldwin County Mayor’s
Association and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Fairhope, and a member of Fairhope
Christian Church.
Since taking office Mayor Sullivan, along with the City Council and City Staff, has
completed or are currently managing approximately $60 million in utility upgrades and
quality of life projects.
Mayor Sullivan has one daughter, Abby, who is married and lives in Fairhope with her
husband, Steve May. Steve and Abby have three children and one grandchild.

 

Deann Servos is the Executive Director of Prodisee Pantry, Baldwin County’s largest emergency food pantry that provides thousands of families with groceries and hope! She is one of three women who founded this community ministry in 2003.  She is a graduate of Emerging Leaders – Small Business Administration’s Streetwise MBA program, a graduate of Penn State and was an accomplished broadcast journalist before answering the call to start Prodisee Pantry.  The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce presented her with the 2016 Community Leader Award.  She is a member of North Baldwin, Central Baldwin and the Eastern Shore Chambers of Commerce and serves on the Local Emergency Planning Committee of Baldwin County’s Emergency Management Agency, is Past-Chair of Baldwin County Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, on the North Baldwin Infirmary Foundation Board, on the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and with twenty years of nonprofit experience she is a mentor and active in several other nonprofits.  She is the proud mom of three children and is married to Mark, her husband of 31years.  They all live on the family farm in Stapleton.

 

A graduate of Auburn University and the Cumberland School of Law, Keith Blackwood has been with the Mobile County District Attorney’s office since 2008. Prior to becoming District Attorney, Keith served as Chief Assistant District Attorney, supervising virtually every division of the office.  Throughout his career, he has prosecuted thousands of cases and was nationally recognized for excellence in complex and capital litigation.

Keith Blackwood is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, Mobile Bar Association, Paul W. Brock Inns of Court and sits on the Penelope House Advisory Board, a local organization that provides support to victims of domestic violence. He’s an Eagle Scout, actively involved with the local Boy Scouts and has been a Big Brother with Big Brothers and Big Sisters for several years. Keith and his wife Tandice have three children.

Stephen McNair is Director of External Affairs for the City of Mobile with a focus on legislative and governmental affairs and policy initiatives. McNair is the former owner of McNair Historic Preservation, Inc., a national consulting firm with a focus on economic development, government relations, and historic incentives. Prior to establishing the firm in 2015, Stephen served in various government and non-profit roles in Montgomery, New Orleans, and the United Kingdom with a focus on policy and advocacy. McNair received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama, a master’s degree from Tulane University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. McNair serves on the Board of Wilmer Hall, the History Museum of Mobile, and the Mobile Area Boy Scouts of America. McNair is also a member of the Alabama World Affairs Council, the Small Business Commission of Alabama, and a former member of the Southern Rail Commission.

 

Bryan Crabb, Project Development Manager, Tenaska Inc.

With over 20 years of project development and government affairs experience, Bryan is Tenaska’s lead developer on the Longleaf CCS Hub in north Mobile County, which will utilize state-of-the-art technology to safely store carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes to prevent them from entering the atmosphere. Bryan also serves as Tenaska’s point person on the U.S. Department of Energy’s carbon storage efforts. Prior to joining Tenaska, he served as a Director at First Solar, Inc., and as legislative and regulatory staff where he wrote, staffed, and helped to enact significant pieces of legislation and regulation.

Consistently ranked among Forbes’ List of America’s Largest Private Companies, Tenaska is a leading energy company with business operations that span the energy value chain.

Tenaska Marketing Ventures (TMV) and Tenaska Power Services Co. (TPS) are among the largest natural gas and electric power marketing companies in North America. The company has an operating fleet of 7,700 megawatts (MW) of natural gas and renewable generating facilities and throughout its history has developed, managed and/or operated approximately 22,128 MW of natural gas-fueled and renewable generation. Tenaska’s development services portfolio includes more than 28,887 MW of solar, wind and energy storage projects and 10 carbon sequestration projects capable of storing 50 million metric tons of CO₂ per year.

 

Philip Burton is the CEO of Burton Property Group (BPG), a private regional commercial real estate investment, development, and management firm.  A leader in real estate development in the southeast, BPG is focused on value creation through both ground-up projects and value-add opportunities. With established institutional and client relationships, BPG has the capacity to tackle large-scale projects in a broad spectrum of real estate classes.

Since 2012, Burton Property Group has executed nearly $1 billion in real estate projects around the southeast and has established a $1+ billion pipeline of future projects. BPG’s track record over the last decade has cemented the firm’s reputation as a market expert and industry leader.

In 2021, Burton Property Group announced its largest project to date, the South Alabama Logistics Park (SALP). A 1,300 acre master-planned industrial park that can contain as much as 12 million square feet of industrial space, SALP is the largest warehousing and distribution facility between Texas and Georgia.

Burton Property Group is also developing River Walk Plaza in downtown Mobile. River Walk Plaza will be Mobile’s only riverfront mixed-use hospitality, hotel, office, and residential development.

A Mobile native, Philip attended the University of South Alabama. He is a founding board member of the Beverly Burton Scholarship Trust, board member of the University of South Alabama’s Foundation for Research and Commercialization, and board member of YPO Southern Sands Chapter.

He lives in Mobile with his wife, Rachel, and their two sons.

 

U.S. Senator Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.)

In 2023, Senator Katie Boyd Britt was sworn in as Alabama’s first elected female Senator, the
youngest Republican woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, and the only current Republican
mom of school-aged kids serving in the Senate. She is proud to champion hardworking families
as she fights to grow opportunity and preserve the American Dream for generations to come.
In the 118th Congress, Senator Britt serves on the Committee on Appropriations, where she is
ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee; the Committee on Banking, Housing,
and Urban Affairs; and the Committee on Rules and Administration. Her committee portfolio
strongly positions her to fight effectively for Alabama’s people, interests, and values as she
continues to identify and achieve tangible, meaningful solutions to the pressing challenges
facing Alabama and America.
The proud daughter of two small business owners in Enterprise, Alabama, the foundational
values of faith, family, and freedom were instilled in Senator Britt from an early age. Most
recently, Senator Britt worked to grow good-paying jobs and opportunity for all Alabamians as
President and CEO of Alabama’s business council. A practicing attorney by trade, Senator Britt is
a graduate of the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama School of Law. She
previously served as the chief of staff to Alabama’s then-senior U.S. Senator and has served on
numerous boards and committees. She now resides in Montgomery with her husband, Wesley,
and their two children.

Bradley Byrne has been named the next president and chief executive
officer of the Mobile Chamber. He has more than 30 years of experience
as an attorney in private practice and more than two decades of public
service. He is widely regarded as a thought and action leader who gets
things done.
Bradley spent four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives serving on
the Armed Services Committee and the Education and Labor Committee,
where he chaired the Workforce Protections Subcommittee. He was
appointed by two Speakers to the prestigious Rules Committee.
In Congress, Bradley was known as a fierce supporter of business and
industry, often leading on important issues where his experience in labor
law, workforce training, and education policy gave him a unique
perspective. Bradley has led initiatives that have increased access to
education and job training, benefiting Alabama’s workforce and
businesses alike.
Prior to serving in Congress, Bradley was an elected member of the Alabama State Board of Education and the
Alabama State Senate and was appointed as the Chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system. He also chaired
Alabama’s Workforce Planning Council.
As a lawyer, Bradley has represented numerous clients before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As a
member of Congress, he frequently dealt with these agencies and with the Department of Labor, including its Wage
and Hour Division.
Bradley is married to Rebecca Byrne, who is the president and CEO of the Community Foundation of South Alabama,
and together they have four adult children.