Category: Past Speakers

President Jo Bonner

Jo Bonner is the fourth president of the University of South Alabama.

Previously, he served as chief of staff to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. He joined the Ivey Administration in December 2018, as the governor’s senior advisor. Before joining the governor’s office, he served as Vice Chancellor for Economic Development at The University of Alabama System from 2013 to 2018. During his final year at UAS, he was an executive on loan, serving as Interim Executive Director of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority.

For more than a decade, he represented Alabama’s First District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was first elected to the 108th Congress in November 2002 and was reelected to five additional terms. As a student at The University of Alabama, he worked on Capitol Hill as an intern for Congressman Jack Edwards. After graduation, he returned to Washington as press secretary and later chief of staff to Congressman Sonny Callahan.

In Congress, he earned a reputation as a respected and influential voice of reason in both Alabama and Washington. He was a member of the House Appropriations Committee, where he served on three key subcommittees, as well as the House Ethics Committee. Widely respected on both sides of the aisle, he was selected by House Speaker John Boehner to serve as chairman of Ethics during the 112th Congress. His crowning Congressional accomplishment came in 2012 when Airbus announced plans to build their first U.S. Final Assembly Line in Mobile. Over the years, Congressman Bonner developed friendships and strategic partnerships with the top corporate leaders at Airbus, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies. The Airbus project has resulted in more than $1 billion being invested in Alabama, creating thousands of new jobs in the aerospace industry and putting Mobile on track to become the fourth largest commercial aviation city in the world.

President Bonner has received numerous awards and honors, including a 2020 induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor; the Academy is the state’s premiere recognition of 100 living Alabamians for their outstanding accomplishments and service. In 2016, the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) created the inaugural “Congressman Jo Bonner Spirit of Leadership Award” and honored Bonner as its first recipient. In 2013, he received the Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor the U.S. Navy bestows on a civilian. He also received the 2012 “Governor Bob Riley Building a Better Alabama Award” by the BCA.

Bonner earned a B.A. degree in Journalism from The University of Alabama in 1982. He is married to the former Janée Lambert, of Mobile, and they are the parents of a daughter, Lee, and a son, Robins.

Born in Mobile, Garrett is a graduate of UMS Preparatory School where he was a 2014 athletic hall of fame inductee. Garrett earned a bachelors degree from the University of Georgia where he was a pole-vaulter on the varsity track team. Upon graduation Garrett went on to complete his Master’s Degree in Fitness Management (M.S.S) at United States Sports Academy. During his studies at the Academy, Garrett interned at the Siegfried health center at St. Johns Medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Cooper Institute in Dallas Texas.

 

After personal training for eight years in different facilities in Georgia, Oklahoma and Alabama, Garrett opened Personal Edge Fitness, Inc. in 2000. With the most qualified staff in the southeast, Personal Edge offers s personal training in all facets of fitness and sport including weight loss, rehabilitation, senior training, balance, and athletic development.  Garrett can be heard weekly as the Host of the “Personal Edge Fitness” podcast, dispelling myths about health, fitness and wellness.

 

In 2010 Garrett re-entered the competitive athletic field in Sprint Triathlon. In August of that year Garrett, qualified for TEAM USA and his first World Championships in Beijing, China. In Beijing Garrett finished 15th in the world and was the top American finisher in his division. Since 2011 he has competed for Team USA in 8 world championships in Sprint Triathlon, Aquabike and Aquathlon. Garrett has just qualified for his ninth time to represent TEAM USA, in November, at the Aquabike world championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE .

 

He is married to Stephanie Jane Eads from Jasper, Alabama. They are both very active with Save-a-Stray and their K-9 foster and adoption programs. They are the proud parents of five dogs and provide a temporary home to many fosters.

 

I listen to people, especially strangers, and tell their stories to give them a voice. Stories are the human connections that help us find common ground. They break down the invisible walls that keep us from knowing each other and help us see life from a different point of view. I grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi and am in love with Mobile, Alabama. The Delta and the Birthplace of Mardi Gras are my favorite places for pictures and stories, but I do this everywhere I go for my blog Our Southern Souls (that also became a book). The dream of writing began with The Southern Rambler and now I write investigative stories for Lagniappe and report for Alabama Public Radio. My series about domestic violence, “From Hell to Hope” won first place in feature writing in 2019 from the Alabama Press Association and my series about sex trafficking, “Sexual Slavery in South Alabama” won the 2020 William H. Johnson Print Journalism Award given by the Medical Association for the State of Alabama and the second place in feature writing for the Green Eyeshade Awards that recognizes excellence in journalism in the southeast. I started the Facebook groups “Faces of Mobile” and “A Day in the Life of Mobile” to show the beauty in the daily life and small moments of a city that is finally reaching it’s potential. People and their stories are where I find inspiration and hope that makes sense in a crazy world.

Born and raised in Mobile, Dr. Zarzour is a fellowship-trained hip and knee replacement surgeon and president of Gulf Orthopaedics.

He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia, so he’s a Dawg, but also a double Jaguar with his medical school and residency training being completed here in Mobile at USA. He did his fellowship in joint replacement at Mississippi Sports Medicine in Jackson, MS. 

His goals are to increase his patient’s activity level while reducing hip & knee pain. He applies the latest literature-based techniques with respect to minimally invasive surgical approaches, peri-operative anesthesia, outpatient joint replacement and partial knee replacement while continuing to live by the lessons learned from his father- who many of you knew- Dr. Robert Zarzour, who taught him to focus on treating each patient like family.

Outside of orthopaedics, his involvement in the community is unparalleled. Dr. Z is co-founder of the Fuse Project, a local non-profit, dedicated to increasing opportunities for children across the Alabama Gulf Coast. It is not surprising that Becker’s Healthcare Ambulatory Surgery Center Review, listed Dr. Zarzour as one of 10 total joint physicians to know.

Dr. Robert Lightfoot serves as Executive/Medical Director. Dr. Lightfoot graduated summa cum laude from Auburn University. He graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Medicine with honors. After completing his internship and residency at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in 1986, Dr. Lightfoot joined his brother in Mobile, Alabama where he practiced as a general surgeon for 17 years at Providence Hospital. Victory Health Partners is entering into its 20^th year and has provided compassionate and comprehensive healthcare to over 30,000 adults who do not have health insurance throughout the Gulf Coast. Dr. Lightfoot has been married to his wife and the co-founder of Victory, Tami, for over 30 years. They are blessed to be the parents of six children and 14 grandchildren. They are active within their church, Church of His Presence.

 

Dr. Jeremiah Newell is the Chief Operating Officer of the Mobile Area Education Foundation (MAEF) and Founder/Superintendent of MAEF Public Charter Schools, a 5-year old charter management organization, which includes two public, tuition-free schools. Accel Day and Evening Academy, Alabama’s first public charter school, serves grades 9-12, and ACCEL Preparatory Academy currently serves grades 6 & 7 and will expand to 8th grade in the 2022-23 school year. ACCEL’s schools offer a next generation learning space, which includes innovative, personalized learning environments that meet students where they are and put them on a path to achieve their dreams after high school. These tuition-free, public schools currently serve 450 students and will grow to serve 850 students over the next three years.

 

Most recently, Jeremiah served as a Harvard Fellow at the Rhode Island Department of Education. In this capacity, he worked as chief of staff for the Division of Accelerating School Performance, which directed charter schools, low-performing schools, and federal programs.  In his previous experience, Jeremiah taught at the middle and high school levels, launched and led innovative secondary school models, and directed secondary school turnaround efforts in Mobile, Alabama.

 

Jeremiah received his B.S. in Secondary Education/Language Arts from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, received graduate level training in Instructional Design and Development from the University of South Alabama, and earned a Doctorate of Education Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.