Category: Past Speakers

Cathy moved from Georgia 9 months ago to take the position of President & CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast, formerly Bay Area Food Bank.
She has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Georgia Southwestern University, an MBA in Finance from Texas Christian University, and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Georgia State University.
Prior to this position, Cathy was the Executive Director for Meals on Wheels of Middle Georgia in Macon, Georgia where she had lived for 27 years and raised 4 children. She has 3 boys, ages 28, 25 and 22, and a girl 20 who is a Junior at the University of Georgia.
Prior to her position at Meals on Wheels, Cathy was the Community Health Director and Grant Administrator with Susan G. Komen Foundation.
She has been a Middle and High School Math Teacher and flipped houses way back when the economy was good.
Cathy serves as: Feeding Florida, Board Member
Association of Alabama Food Banks, Board Member
Policy, Engagement, Advocacy Committee, Feeding America, Member
She enjoys traveling, reading, playing golf and spending time with family and friends.
Cathy is passionate about helping those struggling with hunger, specifically children and seniors, and is thrilled to call the Gulf Coast her new home.

Travis Randall Short, Founder, Owner, and President of Horizon shipbuilding, Inc., Bayou La Batre, Alabama graduated with a Business Management Degree from the University of South Alabama, Mobile in 1988. His entire career history, before and after graduation, was accrued in the marine industry.
Mr. Short, the son of a career U.S. Navy officer, grew up, learning of ships, boats, and marine equipment. He began an apprenticeship, working in his father’s shipyard at age fourteen and advanced through various shipyard trades. After graduating from the University of South Alabama, he managed the family small-boat manufacturing facility, responsible for manufacturing methods and production control of products in steel, aluminum and fiberglass. Contracts with the U.S. Government and various commercial entities included an aluminum submarine tender for a Cayman Islands company and several high-speed fiberglass river patrol boats for the U.S. Navy. The construction of several 65-Ft. steel Coast Guard Buoy Tenders followed.
In 1997, Mr. Short and his father founded Horizon Shipbuilding Inc., located on the extant Steiner Marine site. As President of the company, Travis was responsible for day-to-day operations. He introduced the company into international markets and constructed the largest steel vessel ever launched in Bayou La Batre at the time. He designed and adapted a vessel haul-out system utilizing an existing marine launch-way and constructed a side-launch capable of handling vessels to 250-Ft. in length and 1200 tons displacement. In 2002, he assumed complete ownership of the company and began expanding manufacturing capabilities, including the acquisition of additional adjacent facilities, which eventually quadrupled the shipyard land holdings, equipment, annual sales, and employment.
During the past ten years, Mr. Short has continued to expand domestic and international markets and the grade of manufacturing methods of Horizon. He redesigned the launching systems and acquired a TravelLift™ for launching vessels up to 700 Tons displacement. In 2007, he constructed and launched a 100 by 200 Ft. crane barge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Launching of this barge required consultation and cooperation with a renowned salvage and floating crane company. The week-long operation was featured on the History Channel.
For the past three years, Mr. Short, redesigned the buildings and manufacturing facility and made major changes to the shipyard waterfront. Horizon recently purchased the 22-Acre Graham shipyard directly across the Bayou, from Horizon and established a modern fiberglass and aluminum construction facility with upgraded and enclosed manufacturing buildings. These upgrades and those made at its main facility have made Horizon the most versatile and modern shipyard in Bayou La Batre.
Mr. Short and Horizon have received local and state-wide recognition for its contributions to the city of Bayou La Batre and the Mobile County area. In 2010, Horizon received the Governor’s Trade Excellence award for Exporter of the Year as well as recognition from the Alabama International Trade Center for Exporter of the Year as well as numerous Certificates of recognition for supporting community/city/civic organizations.
Travis has lent is expertise and support to numerous activities whose purposes are to improve educational and economic opportunities in Mobile County and the cities of Mobile and Bayou La Batre. He currently serves as President Bayou La Batre Port Authority, Advisory Council Chairman of the Maritime Training Center and Advisory Board Member of Booth Elementary Advisory Board. His participation in other boards and organizations are as follows:
• Board member Mobile Works, Inc. since 2012
• Council Member of Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (SAWDC) since 2013
• Bayou La Batre Area Chamber of Commerce Member since 2002 and member of the Board of Directors since 2005
• Member Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce since 2009 and member of the Board of Directors and Partners for Growth since 2012. He has served as Vice Chair Workforce Development since 2013 and Vice Chair Small Business Development since 2014
• Member of Oil and Gas Task Force
• Member Gulf Coast Shipbuilders Consortium
• Board Member of South Mobile County Community Development Corporation
Phone: 251 824 1660 Ext. 222
Email: trshort@horizonshipbuilding.com

Introduction for Charles Hyland, MAWSS Director
Charles Hyland took over as Director of the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System, better known as MAWSS, in March 2013. He was no stranger to the organization having worked at MAWSS since 1988 in a variety of management positions overseeing Warehouse Operations, Customer Service, Meter Reading and Fleet and Facilities Management. Prior to working at MAWSS, he was an Administrator for the Mobile County Health Department.
A long time resident of Mobile, he attended McGill Institute and earned both his undergraduate degree and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of South Alabama. He has served in leadership roles at St. Mary’s School as well as other diverse community organizations including the Lebanese American Club. He is a graduate of the American Water Works Association Utility Management Institute and the Leadership Mobile Class of 1997. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and Chairs the Board of United Way of Southwest Alabama.
He has been married to his wife Patricia for 38 years. They have two sons and two grandchildren.

Aaron Beam
Bio
Aaron Beam was a founder and the first Chief Financial Officer of Healthsouth from 1984 until 1997. Today he lives in Loxley, Alabama with his wife of 45 years, Phyllis. In 1996 he took part in the accounting fraud at Healthsouth. In 2003 he pled guilty to the fraud and spent time in a federal prison for his crime.
He began his public speaking career in 2009 and as of January 2017 has spoken to over 325 different groups. These include universities, associations, companies and civic groups. His primary message is about corporate fraud: Who is actually responsible for these frauds, how they take place, and what can be done to prevent frauds such as Enron and Healthsouth.
Mr. Beam is also an author. His first book “Healthsoth:The Wagon to Disaster” was published in 2009. His second book was published in January 2015 and is titled “Ethics Playbook:Winning Ethically in Business”

Biography
Dr. Ruth H. Carmichael is a Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and an Associate Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama. She came to Alabama from Maine, where she was Assistant Professor of Marine Science at the University of Maine-Machias. Carmichael holds an MA (1998) and PhD (2004) from Boston University at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. She is Director of DISL’s Manatee Sighting Network and operates the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network. She is an Editor for two scientific journals, Past President of the Gulf Estuarine Research Society, Co-chair of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program’s Science Advisory Committee, and Member-At-Large for the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation.
DISL’s Manatee Sighting Network
Founded in 2007, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Manatee Sighting Network is the only formal manatee sighting network in the U.S. The Network receives and maps sightings from all along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The program is committed to sharing data with other researchers, managers, and the public. The Network provides valuable information regarding where manatees live and what they do while in Alabama and Mississippi waters. The Network is housed at DISL on Dauphin Island, AL.
DISL’s Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network
Founded in 2011, the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network is a cooperative regional stranding network partner, which works with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service to respond to dolphin and whale strandings and with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to respond to manatee strandings in Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida panhandle.
For more information, to make a donation, or to report a sighting or stranding visit us at:
DISL’s Manatee Sighting Network
Phone: 1-866-493-5803
Web: http://manatee.disl.org
Email: manatee@disl.org
Facebook: Mobile Manatees Sighting Network
DISL’s Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network
Phone: 1-877-WHALE-HELP
Web: http://almmsn.disl.org
Email: ALMMSN@disl.org

Elizabeth P. Stevens
President and Chief Executive Officer
Downtown Mobile Alliance
Elizabeth P. Stevens has served as the President and CEO of the Downtown Mobile Alliance since its formation in 2005. The Downtown Mobile Alliance is a consortium of three not-for-profits working to support the development of Downtown Mobile. The Business Improvement District, or “BID,” is a property owner-funded special assessment district that provides enhanced services to the property owners within the district’s 75 block area. The BID provides intensive cleaning, hospitality, and beautification services along the property owners’ sidewalks and economic development and promotion activities for the district’s property owners. The Alliance also operates a business membership organization charged with promoting downtown business expansion through marketing and policy work, and the philanthropic Main Street Mobile to raise grants and donations for special projects including a newly launched land bank and revolving fund for affordable housing.
Ms. Stevens has worked in downtown development since 1985 in her native South Carolina as well as Alabama. She started the Main Street Program in Conway, SC and then in 1990 at the City of Mobile.
She currently serves as one of Governor Bentley’s appointees to the Alabama Historic Commission. Ms. Stevens was recently appointed as a Trustee to the Alabama Department of Archives and History. She serves on the board of directors of the Barton Academy Foundation, Springboard to Success, Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau, Mobile Rotary, and Innovation PortAL. Ms. Stevens is a graduate of the 2014-15 class of Leadership Alabama.
Ms. Stevens is a native of Charleston, SC, a graduate of the College of Charleston.