Category: Past Speakers

Jon-Richard Little’s father Richard is from Foley Alabama. A man who’s lived many lives, Jon-Richard has been a bicycle punk, a puppeteer, a contraptor, a welder, a reality show star, a roustabout, a toilet technician, a goat farmer, a survivalist, a chauffeur, a gasoline hauler, and is currently the Ambassador of Mirth at Decatur Illinois’ Thinkwell Maker Space.
His book, “The Diary Of Fletcher Ames Hatch”, is a transcription of a family heirloom. Fletcher was the father of Dolly Little (wife of Franklin Eugene Little, of Little’s Repair Shop), the grandmother of both Jon-Richard and his first cousin, Frankie Little of Roosters Tacos & Tequila. In 1906 Fletcher was hired by the Philippine Railway to survey the construction of railroads on the island of Negros Occidental. He kept a daily diary which is a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a colonial surveyor at the dawn of the last century.

Cartledge Weeden Blackwell, III

Cartledge Weeden Blackwell, III, “Cart,” is an architectural historian and the curator of the Mobile Carnival Museum. Blackwell was born in Selma, Alabama. He obtained undergraduate degrees in art history and historic preservation from the College of Charleston in 2005. In 2008, Blackwell received his MA in Architectural History from the University of Virginia. His scholarly focus is American art and architecture, particularly that of the Southeast. Cart authored Of People and Of Place: Portraiture in Alabama (1870-1945) for National Society of Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA). His second book, Of Color and Light: The Life and Art of Artist-Designer Clara Weaver Parrish, will be published and printed by the University of Alabama Press in 2025. Blackwell’s articles have appeared in Access, Alabama Heritage, Alabama Magazine, Arris, and Mobile Bay. He is a board and/or trustee of the following institutions: Architectural Review Board (ARB) of the City of Mobile, the Cahaba Foundation, National Register (NR) Review Board of the State of Alabama, and other historic preservation-allied entities.

 

Michael Burt has been a Special Agent for the DEA for over 20 years and is currently the Resident Agent in Charge for the DEA Mobile Resident Office.

While stationed in Miami, he was the lead DEA case agent on Operation Oxy-Alley which resulted in the first RICO prosecution of pain clinic owners, doctors, employees and a pharmaceutical distributor as well as the first T-III intercept of a pain clinic owner’s mobile device.  This investigation resulted in 32 person RICO indictment which included the arrest of 13 doctors, 18 pain clinic employees and one pharmaceutical distributor, the seizure of approximately 11 million dollars in real property, vehicles, cash and bank accounts and the surrender of 8 DEA registrations.

In 2013, SA Burt transferred to the Mobile Alabama Resident Office and became one of case agents on Operation Excessive Pain.  The investigative efforts of the DEA, FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office resulted in the first successful RICO prosecution of two physicians, two nurse practitioners and two pharmaceutical sales representatives at Physicians Pain Specialist of Alabama.  The investigation lead to the execution of 5 Federal search warrants, the seizure of 14 million dollars in vehicles, cash, bank accounts and real property and the surrender of nine DEA registrations.

In September 2015, John Temple published American Pain: How a young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic.   This book chronicles Operation Oxy-Alley and details pain clinic owner, Christopher GEORGE, the doctors he hired and the agents and prosecutors who dismantled his criminal organization.

In January 2022, Evan Hughes published The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup. The book details the rise and fall of a multi-million pharmaceutical company that aggressively marketed a potent opioid used for end of life cancer pain to treat moderate pain symptoms which caused patient addiction and overdose deaths in the Mobile area.  Special Agent Burt was interviewed by Mr. Hughes during the making of this book for the work he did in Operation Excessive Pain.

Hosea London, leader and manager of the Excelsior Band, is a graduate of Mississippi Valley State University with a B. S. in Music Education. He pursued additional studies at Delta State University. Mr. London retired from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and the Moss Point (MS) School System as a band teacher. He has taught private music lessons in Mobile and Huntsville, AL, grant programs in Pensacola, FL and the Memphis (TN) City School System. He is currently the music director for The Jazz Studio, a bi-weekly program teaching and exposing youth to jazz from the Greater Mobile area. Hosea’s total existence is related to his love for music. He has played along the Gulf Coast and Southeast United States.  He has been a member consistently since 1975.

Judy Haner has been the Coastal Program Director for The Nature Conservancy in Alabama for the last 15 years, where she oversees marine restoration, coastal ecology, regional conservation efforts, and linking communities with resources.

Judy completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Lynchburg College in VA with a biology/chemistry dual major. Her master’s degree in Marine Science was completed at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She serves on the Advisory Committees for the MS-AL Sea Grant Consortium, East Gulf Coast Plan Joint Venture, and the Peninsula of Mobile, as well as being appointed as Affiliated Research Faculty with the University of South Alabama.

Judy has worked for more than 30 years to link watershed activities with estuarine health to promote long-term and targeted coastal restoration. From coordinating Everglades Restoration to managing the largest National Estuarine Research Reserve in the system at Kachemak Bay in Alaska, Judy has strived to connect partners with common goals.  Judy has secured more than $92M in competitive grants to implement coastal planning and restoration projects that link science and management with on-the-ground actions and communities. Her strong focus on partnerships has engaged agencies, organizations, local governments, and citizens in collaborative restoration, most notably the Lightning Point Restoration Project in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

When not at work, Judy can be found in her garden or on her boat with her husband and 2 dogs, fishing and enjoying the Gulf coast.

Jo Bonner
President of the University of South Alabama
Jo Bonner has been a fixture in Alabama civic and political circles for more than two
decades, and today leads the University of South Alabama as the Flagship of the Gulf
Coast.
Previously, Bonner served as chief of staff to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. But it was in
Washington, representing Alabama’s First District in the United States Congress, where
he began to earn a reputation as a respected and influential voice of reason.
He was a member of the House Appropriations Committee and chaired the House
Ethics Committee. His crowning Congressional accomplishment came in 2012 when
Airbus announced plans to build its first U.S. Final Assembly Line in Mobile.
At the University of South Alabama, President Bonner launched Jag Days to bring high
school students to campus for spirited VIP tours. His upbeat message builds on South’s
journey of progress and renews its promise to students and their families: A degree from
the University of South Alabama is a first-class ticket to a brighter future.

David Clark joined Visit Mobile as President & CEO in 2017.  He has over 37 years of hospitality, lodging, and tourism leadership in Coastal Alabama.

He leads the tourism destination’s development through innovative collaborations with the City, the County, Mobile Chamber, Carnival Cruise, Mobile Airport Authority, Amtrak, Cultural Heritage tourism, and engagement with domestic and international leisure and convention promotions.  David serves as an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors for the state’s first Tourism Improvement District (TID) since its establishment in 2020.  The Mobile TID has provided innovative marketing and capital improvement resources to tell Mobile’s story in ways that were never possible before.

**Mobile Tourism experiences 3.4 million visitors annually.

**Visitor spending is $1.8 billion annually.

**Tourism spend has increased $400 million during the last 4 years.

**Tourism supports 22 thousand jobs in Mobile.

Prior to joining the Visit Mobile team, David worked for 4 years at Spectrum Resorts (Beach Club & Turquoise Place) and at the Grand Hotel Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Point Clear, Alabama for 23 years.  During that time David was the recipient of Marriott International’s Top Hotel Operations for North America Lodging Operations.

Davis serves in leadership roles on numerous industry, civic, and cultural boards.  He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a lifetime member of the Professional Golfers Association of America.  He is married to Melinda Murphy Clark and has a daughter, Savannah.

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