Category: Past Speakers

John is a native of this city and a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He has been licensed and active in area real estate markets since 1975 and served for over 23 years as member, and later chairman, of the Mobile Zoning Board of Adjustment. He and Allan Cameron founded Peebles & Cameron in 2001, taking up a national relationship with Grubb & Ellis in 2003. When the NAI flag was offered to them in 2010 they became NAI Peebles & Cameron, and in 2013 they merged with the firm of Gleason and Roberds, becoming NAI-Mobile. John is the only dual accredited commercial real estate broker (SIOR and CCIM) in south Alabama. Peebles has redeveloped over 25 historic buildings since returning to Mobile, and is presently engaged in converting a 19th century Masonic lodge on St. Francis Street into 21st century creative space and 16 high end loft apartments. He was an organizer and founding member of the Board of the Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation (the “BID”) and remains actively engaged with the Downtown Alliance and it’s varied enterprises. He was also instrumental in the founding of the Hearin Chandler Mobile Carnival Museum and maintains an active interest in Mardi Gras as a cultural icon in this City. He currently serves on the board of the Alabama School of Math and Science, the Alabama Archives Foundation in Montgomery, the Mobile Arts and Sports Association, and the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery. His past service includes the boards of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the Mobile History Museum. Peebles is also a serving brother of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He is married to the former Allison Hand and has two sons aged 27 and 24. He is a communicant of Christ Episcopal Church, where he has served on the vestry and as Warden.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Mobile Area Association of Realtors Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Mobile Commercial Investment Real Estate Exchange Club Alabama Association of Realtors Mobile Chamber of Commerce Mobile Carnival Museum Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation Downtown Mobile Alliance

Chris Barraza is the Director of Programs for Mobile United, working to create a continuum of development programs for emerging leaders of all ages and backgrounds. She oversees the curriculum, logistics, execution and evaluation of Mobile United’s three programs, Youth Leadership, Connect & Leadership Mobile.
Philadelphia born and bred, Chris graduated from St. Basil’s Academy and then Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania with a major in art history and a minor in psychology. She is currently enrolled in Spring Hill College’s MLA program, concentrating on Leadership & Ethics. Before joining Mobile United as the Administrator of Leadership Mobile, she was a public relations manager at Red Square, the director of marketing and communications for the Centre for the Living Arts and a special events and public relations manager for the City of Mobile for eight years where she instituted the first-ever Mayor’s Citizens Academy.
Chris has had the honor of being recognized by Mobile Bay Magazine’s inaugural 40 Under 40, Main Street Mobile, the History Museum of Mobile, the City of Mobile and was a Leadership Mobile Graduate in 2009 as well as the Dean of the Class of 2014, the two best classes EVER!

John Kilpatrick is the founder of Veterans Recovery Resources which fulfills his calling to help military service members and veterans struggling with substance abuse and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is an accomplished Entrepreneur and Litigation Support Consultant at his company Legal Imaging for over nineteen years. He has over 30 years reserve military service including 12 years as an intelligence analyst in the US Marine Corps Reserve and over 18 years as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the US Army Reserve. His active duty overseas tours include Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991), Panama (1999), Kosovo (2005-06) and Kuwait (2015).He also served an eighteen month tour at the Office of the Surgeon General at Headquarters, Department of the Army (2009-2010). John is currently a Lieutenant Colonel assigned as Commander of the 7223rd Medical Support Unit in Mobile, AL. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spring Hill College and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. John and his wife Laurie (Collins) have been married for over 21 years and have three children, Owen (14), Henry (13) and Kate (9). They are active members of St. Mary Catholic Church.

Russell Ladd
Mobile Tensaw River Delta
Russell will give us a nostalgic look back at the yachts, houseboats, and camps in the Delta; then, bass fishing and how he entertained his crew when the fish were not biting. Your enjoyment of the presentation will be enhanced by viewing www.deltaawareness.com, and APT.org At www.aptv.org; click on WATCH on the right hand side of the black bar; enter America’s Amazon in the search box to the left.

Roy Hoffman, a novelist and journalist, is the author of three novels: Come Landfall a novel of hurricanes and war, involving three women and the men they love, impacted by World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq; Chicken Dreaming Corn, endorsed by Harper Lee, inspired by his grandparents’ sojourn from Eastern Europe to Mobile; and Almost Family, winner of the Lillian Smith Award, about a black family and a Jewish family in civil-rights-era Alabama. He is also author of two nonfiction collections: Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile, with a focus on the diverse cultures of the Gulf Coast; and Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations. A native of Mobile, Roy worked as a writer in New York City for 20 years before returning South in 1996 with his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Meredith, to reside in Fairhope. A former staff writer for the Mobile Press-Register, he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and has received numerous honors, among them the 2009 Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Alabama, and was inducted in 2015 into the UMS-Wright Alumni Arts Hall of Fame. A graduate of Tulane, Roy has been writer in residence at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, and is on the graduate faculty of the low-residency MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. On the web: www.royhoffmanwriter.com

Elyse Goonan is the Executive Director at One Mobile (www.onemobile.org), a local nonprofit that facilitates collaboration among Mobilians and helps bring their new ideas to life. Since taking the helm just under a year ago, she has helped launch a variety of exciting new projects, including Startup Weekend Mobile, TEDxMobile, the Danielle Juzan Dog Park and, most recently, a youth mural initiative that has become one of the Jake Peavy Foundation’s signature programs. Elyse is currently expanding the One Mobile umbrella to include a revenue-generating national brand that will become a sustainable source of funding for local community projects.

Dr. Tony G. Waldrop, President, University of South Alabama
Dr. Tony G. Waldrop was named the third president in the history of the University of South Alabama following a vote on February 6, 2014, by the University’s Board of Trustees.
Under Dr. Waldrop’s leadership, the University has achieved a record enrollment of more than 16,000 students, along with significant increases in student diversity, academic standards, and successful retention of first-year students. Dr. Waldrop’s tenure has included new partnerships with community colleges and enhanced advising for freshman and transfer students.
In his inauguration address, Dr. Waldrop outlined five priorities that now form the foundation for the University’s strategic plan: Student Access and Success, Enhancement of Research and Graduate Education, Global Engagement, Excellence in Health Care and University-Community Engagement. These priorities also are the framework of Upward & Onward, a $150 million fundraising campaign that was publicly launched in 2015.
An accomplished researcher, teacher and administrator in higher education for more than 30 years, Dr. Waldrop came to USA after serving four years as provost and executive vice president at the University of Central Florida, with previous stints as vice chancellor for research and economic development at the University of North Carolina and vice chancellor for research at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Waldrop has a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s in physical education and a Ph.D. in physiology, all from the University of North Carolina. Waldrop also attained athletic success at North Carolina, winning two NCAA championships as a mile runner on the track and field team and, in 1974, setting a world record for the indoor mile.
After earning his doctorate, he continued his training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1982 as a Research Fellow in the Cardiopulmonary Division, receiving a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Moss Heart Center.
In 1986, he joined the faculty in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois, advancing to professor, earning the school’s Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, and recognition as a University Scholar and an American Heart Association Established Investigator.
Waldrop is a native of Columbus, N.C., and is married to Dr. Julee Briscoe Waldrop, who holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Duke University. She has been a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of North Carolina and the University of Central Florida. She is a published clinician and researcher and is also an accomplished athlete. They have two adult sons, Cabe and Dallas.

Biography of Dr. Timothy L. Smith
Dr. Timothy L. Smith serves as the 4th President of University of Mobile. He has an earned diploma in nursing from Baptist Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Memphis State University, Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Philosophy from University of Tennessee Health Science Center, diploma in nurse anesthesia from University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, and Master of Arts in Theology and Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to Penney Manae Smith for 29 years and has two children, Ashley Manae Wainscott, who resides in Jackson, Tennessee with her husband Alex, and Blake, who is a mechanical engineering student at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.
Dr. Smith comes most recently from Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina where he served as Provost with prior service at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee and University of Tennessee system. Over the last 19 years, he has been engaged in leading the development of health care programs with a focus in Christian higher education for the last 11 years. In this time, Dr. Smith has published articles related to the practice of anesthesia and Christian higher education, led several medical mission trips and performed many community services through the church. Dr. Smith enjoys the opportunity to mentor students through the acquisition of academic preparation in fulfilling their professional calling and grateful to become part of the Mobile community.

James H. Barber
Chief of Police
Mobile Police Department
Chief James Barber has served with the Mobile Police Department for 27 years. During his career he has been assigned to various specialized units within the department, including Narcotics and Vice, Intelligence, Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement, and Internal Affairs. He has commanded the Field Operations Bureau, Support Services Bureau, and the Administrative Services Bureau. He attended the University of South Alabama where he received his undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice in 1996, and Troy State University where he received his graduate degree in Public Administration in 1997. He graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2004 and the National Executive Institute in 2014. Chief Barber served on the adjunct faculty with the University of South Alabama from 2002 through 2013.