Category: Past Speakers

Mark Sealy
Fire Chief
Chief Mark Sealy has served with the Mobile Fire Department for over 26 years. He began his career as a Firemedic and has progressed steadily through the ranks of the fire department. He has experience in all aspects of fire service including Driver on both suppression and medic units, Captain on both engine and ladder companies, and as a District Chief in both operations and in training. He was promoted to the position of Fire Chief for the City of Mobile on May 14, 2017.
Sealy’s specialty training includes hazmat, urban search and rescue (USAR), as well as being a SCBA specialist (smoke diver), nationally registered paramedic, and fire instructor. He is well respected among firefighters for his professionalism and his ability to motivate others.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Chief Sealy began his professional career as a United States Marine, where he served as Sergeant of a Reconnaissance Unit, earning consistent commendations for devotion to duty. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Fire Science from Columbia Southern University. He is presently enrolled in the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy.

WILLLIAM E. BARRICK, PhD.
Dr. Barrick began his formal career in Horticulture by serving as an Assistant Professor in Ornamental Horticulture at the University of Florida. He later became the Executive Vice-President and Director of Gardens at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain Georgia serving in that capacity for almost twenty years before becoming Executive Director of Bellingrath Gardens and Home in November 1999.
Dr. Barrick is a Past President of the American Public Garden Association, Past Chairman of the American Horticultural Society, 1994 recipient of the Arthur Hoyt Scott Horticulture Medal and the 2012 Governor’s Tourism Award from the Alabama Tourism Department, Recently he has been awarded the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Agriculture at Auburn University.
Bill has been a member of the Rotary Club of Mobile since 2000 and is a Paul Harris Fellow.

Paula Lenor Webb, Government Documents Reference and Outreach Librarian at University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, obtained her MLIS from the University of Alabama. Paula is a member of the Southeastern Library Association and Alabama Library Association. She has appeared in many academic publications, including two published this year. Paula also received 2011 Mover and Shaker Award and the 2012 ALLA CUS Research Award. In 2016, she decided to try something new. She broke away from working only on academic publications and tried to learn and write more about the city she was born in: Mobile, Alabama. She has since edited the Mobile Genealogical Society publication, Mobile Mayor’s Court Reports: 1865 and authored the History Press publication, Mobile Under Siege: Surviving the Union Blockade. In 2017, she co-edited the Mobile Genealogical Society Publication, Mobile Mayor’s Court Reports:1864. This month, she has an article about Octavia Walton LeVert published in the Mobile Bay Magazine.

Mobile Bay National Estuary Program- Community Relations & Business Resource Manager
Rick Frederick is the Community Relations and Business Resource Manager for the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. Having spent over 20 years as a Business Development Professional with diversified experience in sales and marketing for the healthcare, education, hospitality, and utility industries, Rick joined the NEP in March 2014. Rick combines his business background with his love of coastal Alabama to meet environmental challenges that lie ahead.
Rick first came to Mobile in the late 1960s when his dad, Rex, was hired as the first head basketball coach at the University of South Alabama. He is a graduate of St. Paul’s Episcopal School and Auburn University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. After graduation Rick spent several years in Birmingham, New Orleans, Colorado, and Nashville, Tn., before moving back to South Alabama in 2002 and currently resides in Fairhope, Al.
Rick works with private industry, community leaders and local citizens of Mobile and Baldwin counties to ensure they understand the purpose, goals, and objectives of the Mobile Bay NEP. He looks to involve numerous stakeholders from all facets of the community to help ensure a healthy estuary and bay and takes a community based approach to advance local environmental projects on both sides of the bay.

Gulf Coast native Dale Speetjens co-founded Shipshape Urban Farms with his wife Angela in the spring of 2017. After high school he joined the US military and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following his serve he earned a BS in Environmental Design, a Masters of Landscape Architecture, and a Masters of Community Planning for Auburn University. In 2015 the couple moved back to Mobile for Dale to take a Project Manager position with the Mayor’s Innovation Team. During his time with the Innovation Team he conducted geospatial analysis and helped develop the blight index. A year later he began teaching in Auburn University’s Masters of Landscape Architecture program. Additionally, Dale was a visiting professor at the 2016 Galapagos International Architecture Studio. There he worked with a diverse team of students, practitioners, and professors from around the world to explore the current and future development of the islands. His research interest include; blue urbanism, geospatial design, environmental and social justice, food systems, resilience design, and national park design.

Thursday, September 21, 2017
Our program today: Greg Cochran – Alabama League of Municipalities
Greg Cochran attended the university of North Alabama in Florence where he majored in Political Science and Psychology. During the mid-1980’s he began working on political campaigns as a volunteer before joining the staff of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama where he represented the interest of Alabama physicians.
Since 1996 Greg has served as the Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the Alabama League of Municipalities. In that position he is responsible for both federal and state legislation. The league was established in 1935 as a voluntary association of Alabama’s cities and towns and is the primary lobbying advocate for Alabama municipalities.
He is also president of the Alabama Municipal Funding Corporation which was developed by the league to assist municipal members with the refinancing of debt and funding local projects through low interest loans.
Greg lives in Montgomery with his wife Kelly and their two children, William and Sanders.

Rotary Program for Thursday September 14, 2017
Aaron Sharockman: Politifact
Aaron Sharockman has served as executive director of Politfact since 2010. Politfact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims made by elected officials and others. Aaron oversees PolitiFact’s operations, development and revenue while assisting in its journalistic mission.
Aaron is a 2016-17 Reynolds Fellow at the University of Missouri and co-teaches a class on political fact checking at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism. He is a graduate of Indiana University.