Category: Past Speakers

After almost two decades of on-the-ground work in nonprofit organizations, building capacity through communications and leadership development, Todd Greer, PhD. (Organizational Leadership, Regent University) recognized a need for a 3rd space (not the traditional image of home or corporate environment) that could facilitate the movement of people, ideas, services, products, and organization. His mission in life is to grow others through the engagement of their “sweet spot” where they can thrive in teams, organizations and, especially, as people.
As the Chief Catalyst for the Exchange, Todd focuses on: Business Development, Community Relations, Operations (the “BIG” picture), Community Culture, & Innovation

M aster Chief Port was born in West Chester, Penn. He enlisted in the Navy in May 1986 and completed Basic Training in Orlando, Fla. He spent 18 months as a non-rated Seaman prior to reporting to the Defense Language Institute (DLI), Monterey, Calif. for Russian language training, and was selected to remain for six months of extended intermediate Russian language training. He completed technical training at Naval Aircrew Candidate School and Morse code training prior to reporting to Naval Security Group Detachment, Brunswick, Maine. He accumulated more than 1,000 flight hours, 600 of which were combat flight hours in support of Operation Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Provide Hope, and Continue Hope. He was awarded an Individual Action Air Medal for a mission flown over Mogadishu, Somalia. In 1994 he returned to DLI for the Advanced Russian Interpreter course prior to duty with the On-Site Inspection Agency, now the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, in Washington, DC. He logged an additional 1,500 flight hours onboard the OC-135B Open Skies aircraft, the Navy Research Lab P-3C, ES-3 as well as 110 flight hours flown onboard a Russian IL-38 ASW aircraft, the first US-Navy Air Crewman to do so.
Selected for Chief Petty Officer in 1997, he served at Navy Recruiting Command Headquarters. He was selected to Senior Chief Petty Officer in 2000 and attended the Senior Enlisted Academy before reporting to the Naval Security Group Activity Kunia, Hawaii as Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA) and Leading Chief Petty Officer. He was selected to Master Chief in 2003, and joined the Navy’s Command Master Chief ranks in 2004. As a CMC he served with Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15 (HM-15) in Corpus Christi, Texas, and led the squadron through multiple Middle East deployments as well as four major natural disaster recovery operations. Master Chief Port reported to PCU George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) as the CMC, commissioning the ship January 10, 2009 and becoming a Plank Owner. He served as the SEA to the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) Chief Operating Officer, and CMC to NETC’s Learning & Development Division (N7) in Norfolk, Va., and in May 2010 reported as Force Master Chief, Navy Personnel Command/Bureau of Naval Personnel, Millington, Tenn.
Master Chief Port holds a Masters in Business Administration, a B.S. in Political Science, is a designated Master Linguist, attended the Navy Senior Leader Seminar and is a KEYSTONE graduate. His personal awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (2 awards), Meritorious Service Medal (3 awards), Air Medal (Individual Action), Navy Commendation Medal (3 awards), and the Navy Achievement Medal (4 awards).
Master Chief Port reported for his current assignment as the Naval Education and Training Command Force Master Chief in Feb 2013.

Sister Marie Cecilia…
Sister Marie Cecilia was born in the Philippines. She earned her Bachelor of Commercial Science in Economics at Jose Rizal University in the Philippines, then her post-graduate degree in Management. She went to work for the American and China Trading Company in Hong Kong. It was in Hong Kong that she first encountered the Little Sisters of the Poor. God called her to His service and she entered the Novitiate in 1992. Throughout her formation period, she professed herself as a temporary Little Sister of the Poor. In 2000, Sister Marie Cecilia made her Perpetual Profession, and in 2002 declared her Religious Obedience as a fully consecrated Little Sister. Since then, she spent 4 years in France, 2 more years in Hong Kong, and since 2000, has served in Illinois, Maryland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and now in Mobile. She is the collecting Sister, more commonly known as the “Begging Sister.” She will be describing her vocation and the commitment to serving the elderly poor through the Little Sisters.

Rev. W. Bry Shields is President of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, a position he has occupied since 1989. The school is currently engaged in a major building project, which will include a new Student Center on Lafayette Street. This project is the culmination of a Master Plan which has resulted in substantial additions and improvements to the campus over the last decade.
Fr. Shields is also Pastor of St. Ignatius Parish, and a Past President of the downtown Mobile Rotary Club. After graduating from Murphy High School in 1969, he completed his undergraduate education at Vanderbilt University, before going to Yale University for a degree in Theology. He also holds a Masters in Secondary Education and Administration from the University of South Alabama. He is married to Dr. Ruth Shields, and they have five grown children, and two grandsons.
———————————————————————————–
Nick Holmes III (Nick 3) was born in Mobile, Alabama and has lived here since birth. He graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science, Forestry in 1976 and then in 1978 with two additional degrees; a Bachelor of Science of Environment Design and a Bachelor of Architecture.
He has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father. “The family Holmes has achieved a unique distinction. They are the only set of grandfather-father-son architects to have delineated drawings for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS)” (Labine, C., Traditional Buildings, 1990 Traditional Buildings July/August 1990 – Architecture In Their Genes). He has continued his grandfather and father’s interest in Historic Preservation, having served as Chairman, Historic Resources Committee, Alabama Council AIA, and as a member of the National AIA’s Committee on Historic Resources. He currently serves on the Architectural Review Board of the City of Mobile. In 2015 he received an Institutional Preservation Award from the Mobile Historic Development Commission for his work on Barton Academy.
He began working for his father in late 1978. In 1982 they formed the present partnership of Holmes & Holmes Architects. He obtained registration by National Council Registration Board examination in 1981 and is registered in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
He has two daughters, Kate Garrett and Clara Little. He is married to Virginia Howell Holmes, and actively participates in the lives of six grandchildren.
He is a member of the Rotary Club of Mobile.

Michael A. Finan, M.D.
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Finan is the Cancer Center Director of the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute. He served as the Residency Program Director for the Ochsner Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in New Orleans, until 2005 when he was recruited to Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Finan has been named one of the top Gynecologic Oncologists in the United States by U.S. News and World Report for several years. He is a co-investigator on a 1.3 million dollar NCI funded grant to study a new screening test for ovarian cancer, he is a co-inventor on 6 patents related to this ovarian cancer screening technology.

John S. Sledge is senior architectural historian for the Mobile Historic Development Commission and a member of the National Book Critics Circle. He holds a bachelor’s in history and Spanish from Auburn University and a master’s in historic preservation from Middle Tennessee State University. Sledge is the author of three books on Mobile’s historic architecture, as well as a collection of literary criticism, Southern Bound: A Gulf Coast Journalist on Books, Writers, and Literary Pilgrimages of the Heart, published by the University of South Carolina Press. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Fairhope, Alabama, half a mile from Mobile Bay.

Michael Chambers currently serves as District Governor. He has previously served as president of the Rotary Club of Mobile, Assistant Governor and District Chair of Global Grants. He has been awarded the Certificate of Meritorious Service by the Rotary Foundation, the Service Above Self Award by Rotary International and is a Paul Harris Fellow and Major Donor.
In 2000 he co-founded and served as CEO of InnoRx, an ocular drug delivery company that he sold in 2005 to SurModics (NASDAQ:SRDX). He previously served as chairman of the board of ProUroCare, a public company based in Minneapolis. In 2010 he founded Swift Biotech, a company developing screens for ovarian cancer.
In 2012 he founded the Gulf Coast Angel Network and co-founded in 2014 the entrepreneurship program known as 1702. He served in 2014 as the Chairman of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and was named that year as Alabama’s Start-Up Executive of the Year by Alabama LaunchPad. He serves on various corporate boards, as well as the EDPA and BioAlabama.
He received a B.A. and law degree from the University of Alabama, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship for studies in France and a Swiss Confederation Scholarship that led to a Ph.D. at the University of Geneva. He has been recognized as one of the Best Attorneys in the United States in Commercial Law, Arbitration and Mediation and as a Top Lawyer in health care.
He is married to Circuit Judge Rosemary Chambers. They have two daughters, Carmen and Camille, who both attended Yale University and are now in law school at Georgetown.
He was recently named to a newly created position at the University of South Alabama: Assistant Vice President for Research Innovation.