Category: Past Speakers

Matt Armbruster is a native of Kansas. Matt Came to Mobile Alabama to take a job in 1992 with a national Company and fell in love with the south and over the last 15 years has been employed in many different careers from a manager of Hooters Restaurants, Owning a  BBQ Restaurant, and an Electrical Quality Control Manager.
 
Matt began seeking God on how to use the gifts He had given him to bring glory to Him and not himself. So after much seeking God and prayer Matt received a vision of a Restaurant that was Donation only. This Restaurant would be a ministry that reaches out to those in need and wanting a hand up not a hand out.
 
This vision has become reality under the name Ransom Ministries Inc.  and has been in operation for the last 4 1/2 Years and in that time they have served over 100,000 individuals with either food or any number of other needs. Ransom Ministries served over 1200 people this past thanksgiving and provided Christmas presents for 229 local families or a total of over 500 individuals. Matt is married to Tara Skipper Armbruster and has five Girls Teagan, Shelby, Micaela, Abbi and Mary Paige.    To learn more about Ransom Ministries Inc. Go to www.ransomcafe.com

Executive Director / Distinguished Young Women Program
Pam, originally from Birmingham, graduated from Briarwood Christian School and the University of Alabama Birmingham. She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Alabama with Master’s Degrees in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. Currently, she serves as the Assistant Director of Field Services for the K-6 Education Program at the University of South Alabama where she recently was honored with the Excellence in Clinical Supervision Award by the College of Education. In addition, Pam is an educational consultant specializing in Six Traits of Writing and Talents Unlimited, a national model for developing and enriching creative and critical thinking. For twenty-three years, prior to accepting the position of Executive Director for Distinguished Young Women, Pam and her husband, Eric, volunteered in various capacities for Distinguished Young Women. Since retiring eleven years ago from the Mobile County Public School System, she has served as a judge for state programs, a member of the Travel Support Team, and for eight years, as the Chairman of National Finals. In January of 2014, she was named the Interim Executive Director for Distinguished Young Women and then in October she was selected to serve in that position permanently. Pam also volunteers in the Music Ministry at Spring Hill Baptist Church, working with various choral groups and playing handbells and serves on various leadership committees there. She is involved with the Light of the Village, an organization governed by Volunteers of America and has worked to assist in coordinating their annual fundraiser, “A Night in the Light”. As Executive Director of Distinguished Young Women, she has worked with the University of South Alabama to establish a relationship with the Mobile Public School System in which the National Field Director for Distinguished Young Women and she work with students in the high school signature academies and the elementary schools to promote positive life-skills acquisition through a variety of workshops and activities aimed at encouraging students to “Be Your Best Self”, broadening the scope of the national outreach of Distinguished Young Women. She and Eric are the proud parents of two sons, Benjamin, manager of a local finance company and Jonathan, a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, who with his wife, Leah, have blessed them with three grandchildren, Jonathan Jr., Samuel and Reagan.

President & CEO
The Community Foundation of South Alabama
Moving Forward Together
 
Rebecca has devoted her career to serving others whether it is to her family, her community or her work. She now serves as President/CEO of The Community Foundation of South Alabama after serving as Executive Director of United Way of Baldwin County. She is a cum laude graduate of Auburn University.
Rebecca has served in leadership roles for numerous civic, cultural and church organizations including serving as Chair of the Mobile Public Library, Beckwith Camp and Conference Center, and Baldwin County Trailblazers. In addition she has been a member of the Thomas Hospital Foundation, Alabama Archives and History Foundation, Mobile Historic Development Commission and other area arts and education organizations. In 2005, Thomas Hospital honored Rebecca with one of their Women’s Best Awards, the Motivator Award, for her contribution to arts education. She is a graduate of Leadership Alabama. Rebecca is a member of Mobile Rotary Club and a Paul Harris Fellow.
 
Rebecca is married to Bradley Byrne, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (AL-01). This year the Byrnes will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary with their four children and grandchild. They are members of St. James Episcopal church in Fairhope.

Director & CEO / Alabama State Port Authority
James K. Lyons has served as Director/CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority since July 1, 1999. Mr. Lyons’ over 40 year professional maritime industry career has encompassed marketing, financial management, transportation, stevedoring and terminal operations.
Since joining the Authority, Mr. Lyons has overseen construction of new facilities and upgrades to railroad, pier infrastructure, and equipment. Mr. Lyons manages an organization of 587 employees, with fiscal year 2014 revenues of over $160 million and handling more than 29 million tons of cargo. Mr. Lyons oversees the Authority’s capital programs to expand or enhance the public terminals to serve shippers. The current campaign includes equipment upgrades at McDuffie Terminal to handle an expanding export coal market, the construction and development of an Intermodal Container Handling Facility and Logistics Park, and a new state of the art steel handling facility. These and other port-wide improvements total nearly $100 million in new investment.
Mr. Lyons is actively involved with many professional and maritime organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and serves on the Boards of Directors for the United Way of South Alabama and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. Mr. Lyons is also the Vice Chair of the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council. Mr. Lyons holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Alabama and completed the Executive Management Program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
 
He is married to Beth Marietta Lyons, a local attorney, and they have one son, Patrick.

Architectural Historian
“Of Color & Light: An Examination of Life & Career
of Artist/Designer Clara Weaver Parrish”