Joy Logan, Executive Director of Crittenton Youth Services

 

Mrs. Logan has dedicated fifty-five years to education through teaching, counseling, training youth and teachers to instruct in the classroom, writing curriculum, and serving as a United Way Agency Director. Her mission is to promote and provide intervention for youth issues that have a negative effect on learning and future success for youth ages 10-13 or grades 5-8. She graduated from Mississippi College for Women and The University of South Alabama.

She is very passionate about our youth and loves to research topics affecting them, talk with teachers, counselors, business leaders, police administrators, and others who can offer their opinions about issues negatively affecting the performance of youth in schools, colleges, and the work force. Classroom teaching and observations offer a reality check to how youth handle life skill problems. Along with Judge Naman, Chief Battiste, and Children’s Policy Council’s commitment to prevent bullying, she was one of the first trained to implement Olweus Bullying in schools.

Feeling the need to offer students in the classroom a new way of learning prevention information, she and her staff created a program that trains High School Juniors and Seniors as Ambassadors, accompanied by an adult instructor, how to present curriculum teaching social and emotional skills to youth in 5^th thru 8^th grade.  Fourteen high schools (Public, Private, Parochial, and City Schools) participate and nominate teens who have strong character skills and enjoy working with their peers. The program began in 2010 and celebrates with an Ambassador Awards Banquet in April of every year.

Civic Leadership participation includes Assistant Coordinator of the Bullying Coalition of Mobile, Assistant Chair of the Alabama Abstinence Coalition, Member of the Children’s Policy Council, Board Member of Evidence to Success, Member of Envision Mobile and /Baldwin County, Member of Community Board for Mobile Area Education Foundation. She has been recognized as Teacher of the Year for Hamilton Elementary, and Nominee for Jacksonville State Elementary.  Other Awards include James Strickland Community Award and the Bay Bears Charities Community Hero Award.

 

President Jo Bonner

Arizona’s Katelyn Cai was named the Distinguished Young
Woman of America for 2022, during the 65th Annual
National Finals.
Katelyn is a graduate of BASIS Scottsdale. Her academic
honors include being named a 2022 U.S. Presidential
Scholar, National AP Scholar, Robertson Scholar, Bank of
America Student Leader, and one of Arizona’s 18 under 18.
Outside of the classroom, Katelyn is passionate about
education and equality. The project she devotes most of her
time to is a nonprofit she founded, “Invest in Her.” The idea
was sparked from watching her mother fight for her own
right to an education, inspiring Katelyn to provide equitable
opportunities for women to be successful.
Katelyn enjoys pouring her whole heart into everything she
does. Aside from her nonprofit, Katelyn is also extremely
passionate about speech and debate. She was ranked
Number 2 in the country for extemporaneous speaking.
In the fall, Katelyn will attend Duke University on a full-ride
scholarship as a Robertson Scholar. She will be majoring
in Public Policy and Economics with goals to attend law
school in the future and pursue a career in legislature. After
completing high school with a graduating class of only 77
students, Katelyn says she’s excited to meet lots of new
people and experience life in a new environment!
Winning $46,000 in cash scholarships and a gold medallion
at the national program, Katelyn will represent the Class of
2022 as the Distinguished Young Woman of America during
this year

Rachel Webb is the founder and Executive Director of Fostering Together Gulf Coast. Originally a Texas native, Rachel graduated with a business degree from Texas A&M University in 2005 and moved to Birmingham to begin a job as an Event Coordinator with Student Life Camps. Alabama quickly became home as she found the love of her life and began a family. After having two children of their own, Rachel and her husband Stephen became foster parents in 2013 with the hope of providing a safe, loving home to children in need within their community.

 

While their intentions were noble, it only took a few months of fostering to realize this calling required much more than good intentions. Foster care was a whole new world of parenting traumatized children while also having to navigate the child welfare system, the juvenile court system, and families in crisis. It would have been easy to become discouraged by the overwhelming needs of the kids and the dismal lack of resources available. But rather than give up, Rachel sought out ways to make things better. Fostering Together Gulf Coast was born out of this desire to help children in foster care and to provide support to the families who have taken up the charge to care for them.

 

Begun in 2019, Fostering Together Gulf Coast now has foster care resource centers located in Mobile and Spanish Fort that help to meet the needs of children as they come into foster care and also provides ongoing parent trainings, support groups, and fun family events to foster families. Each month over over 3,000 pieces of clothing, toiletries, school uniforms, birthday presents, toys, and more are passed along to these kids and families. The organization is also a bridge for the community to get involved in helping with foster care by donating clothing, sponsoring Easter baskets and Christmas gifts, volunteering at the centers, and providing financial support. It really does take a village to raise a child, and together we’re making a big impact in the foster care community where we live.

Mark Berte’s Biographical Information
In October of 2011, Mark Berte was asked to serve as the Executive Director of the
Alabama Coastal Foundation (ACF). Prior to serving at the ACF, Mark was Director of
Community Engagement for the Mobile Area Education Foundation and the Executive
Director of the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation.
Mark received his bachelor’s degree at Birmingham Southern College and his master’s
degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas. He is a graduate of both
Leadership Mobile and of Leadership Alabama.
Mark serves on the boards of several organizations including Dauphin Way United
Methodist Church, the Islands of Perdido Foundation, the South Alabama Coalition of
Nonprofits, the League of Women Voters of Mobile, and the Friends of the Bon Secour
National Wildlife Refuge.
Mark and his wife, Leigh Ann, who is a professor at Spring Hill College, have a twenty
one year-old daughter named Julianne and a sixteen year-old daughter named Linden
Elizabeth.

Marty Heslin, MD, MSHA is the Executive Director of the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute at the University of South Alabama. Prior to this position, Dr. Heslin was the Associate Director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Executive vice chair of the Department of Surgery, the Chief of the Medical staff and was the James P. Hayes Jr. Endowed Professor in Gastrointestinal Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His clinical interests include hepatobiliary, pancreatic, colorectal and endocrine surgery and his research has focused on a variety of topics from surgical outcomes to physician management. Heslin graduated from Cornell University in microbiology and obtained his medical degree from SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse. He completed a general surgery residency at New York University Medical Center. Following the completion of a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, including two years as a research fellow, he joined the UAB faculty in 1996. Heslin holds a master’s degree in health administration from UAB. He is author or co-author on more than 120 publications and 10 book chapters. As the leading cancer research facility on the upper Gulf Coast, the Mitchell Cancer Institute serves as a center for advanced services in the treatment of cancer with radiation, surgical and medical oncology. The MCI operates in three locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Michael E. Pierce is a 1991 graduate of Tulane University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management.  While at Tulane, he excelled as a student athlete becoming Tulane’s All Purpose Yardage Leader and Pre-Season Street & Smith All-American candidate in 1989 after having graduated from Murphy High School in Mobile Alabama as the All-Time Leading Rusher three years earlier.  Pierce was invited to join the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles as a free agent in 1990.  Unfortunately, a lingering knee injury caused his retirement before his NFL career could begin.

 

Michael is Chief Executive Officer of the Mobile Housing Authority (MHA).  He has total responsibility for administering, managing, maintaining, planning, and directing the Agency’s programs.  Pierce is the Agency’s primary liaison with the Board of Commissioners (BOC), HUD, and state and local entities.  He has contact with a broad range of individuals including: the news media; BOC; federal, state, and local government personnel; social service personnel; housing residents; the general public; various special interest groups; and all levels of Agency personnel.  MHA currently oversee 4,506 HCV (Section 8) vouchers and 3,278 Public Housing Units.

 

Pierce served as Executive Director of the MLK Avenue Redevelopment Corporation (MLK) for 25 years before taking over MHB.  His primary responsibility was to develop and implement a comprehensive community and economic redevelopment program in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue community.  Since 1993 MLK invested HUD HOME Funds in excess of $15 million to construct 137 new affordable homes benefiting several hundred Low to Moderate-Income Mobilians.  MLKARC has also invested $3.4 million to develop commercial retail space on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Broad Street.  The retail centers were developed to provide area residents convenient access to goods, services and employment opportunities.  Renaissance Plaza on Broad Street was a catalyst for the development of a Dollar Tree Store on an adjacent parcel and a Family Dollar Store across the street.

 

Pierce is also active in civic and community affairs.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Infirmary Health System, Member of the Whitney New Markets Advisory Board, Former Co-Chair of Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s Transition Team, Past-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Commonwealth National Bank and the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and Past-President of the Rotary Club of Mobile.  He serves on the Board of the Mobile Arts & Sports Association, was named Senior Bowl Game Captain for 2018-19 and is chairman of the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame Committee. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Mobile Airport Authority and the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce.

 

Pierce is married to wife, Daphne; they have two sons, Michael, Jr. and Myles, and two pets Simone and Aspen and one grand pup Princeton.