AAMU 96' Alum, Dr. Nichoas D. Carlisle Was Selected As A Worldwide Leader in Healthcare Representing Chiroptrators For The International Association of Healthcare Professionals

The International Association of Healthcare Professionals has carefully selected Nicholas D. Carlisle, DC, to represent chiropractors in their publication, Worldwide Leaders in Healthcare.  Dr. Carlisle’s selection is a significant representation of his passion and dedication for the field of chiropractic medicine.  He is considered to be among the best with nearly 10 years of practice.

Dr. Carlisle maintains his own practice in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from Alabama A&M University he delved into chiropractic medicine, and now enjoys helping patients use safe and natural chiropractic treatments. Dr. Carlisle has extensive training and experience in the treatment of neck and back pain, providing services to eliminate suffering from acute low back pain, chronic low back pain, neck and shoulder pain, wrist pain, tennis elbow, or knee pain. To sustain a current practice, Dr. Carlisle is a member of the Georgia Chiropractic Association; and to keep his community educated he speaks at community related events, health fairs, and career days.

After a football injury in high school, Dr. Carlisle was introduced to the chiropractic field. He then earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Alabama A&M University. Upon completion, Dr. Carlisle attended Life University, in Marietta, Georgia, to obtain his Doctor of Chiropractic degree.

To find out more about Dr. Carlisle, please visit www.drcarlisledc.com.  Also be sure to look out for his upcoming publication in The Leading Physicians of the World.

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Source: International Association of Healthcare Professionals wire

Regions Bank Launching Partnership with AAMU & other HBCUs On A wide Range Of Programs

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) 

Regions Financial Corp. will partner with Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University and four other historically black colleges and universities on a wide-ranging program beginning this fall.

The program will support financial education, academics, athletics and alumni engagement at six schools, with plans to expand the program to additional HBCUs in the future.

In addition to the Alabama schools, the program also includes Florida A&M University, Jackson State University, Spellman College and Tennessee State University.

Regions' HBCU partnership will include a financial education curriculum for students; mentoring and recruiting on campus; alumni engagement through homecoming and athletic sponsorships; establishment of a financial education student chapter; and an executive lecture series in collaboration with HBCU business schools.

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Source: The Birmingham Business Journal  by Antrenise Cole

Alabama A&M University Recieves $3.2M From U.S. Department of Education Title III Part B for HBCUs

Alabama A&M University is one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in 19 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands who will be able to strengthen their academic resources, financial management systems, endowment-building capacity, and physical plants as a result of a $227.9 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education today. Of which Alabama A&M University received exactly $3,236,524. 

The five-year grants—Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities—will include activities such as curriculum reform; counseling and student service programs; establishing teacher education programs designed to qualify students to teach; acquiring real-estate property in connection with construction, renovations, or additions that may improve campus facilities; and funding faculty and staff development. In addition, funds may be used for the purchase, rental, or lease of scientific or laboratory equipment and the development of academic instruction in disciplines in which African Americans are underrepresented.

"HBCUs have made enduring, even staggering contributions to American life despite the steep financial challenges many have faced," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. "The grants will help these important institutions continue to provide their students with the quality education they need to compete in the global economy."

The Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities grant is administered by the Office of Postsecondary Education. For additional information on the grant program, visithttp://www2.ed.gov/programs/iduestitle3b/index.html.

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Source: US Department of Education HBCUs  

 Contact: USDE Press Office:(202)401-1676 press@ed.gov 

Alum, Julian Green, is the New Chicago Cubs Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs

Alabama A&M Alum, Julian Green c/o '94 has been appointed Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Press Release

09/12/2011 11:07 AM ET
Cubs Welcome Julian Green, New VP, Communications and Community Affairs

CHICAGO - The Chicago Cubs today announced the appointment of Julian Green to the newly-created position of vice president, communications and community affairs. Green has more than 15 years of experience in communications and most recently served as director of media relations for MillerCoors, where he was chief spokesperson for the company's operations in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Peter Chase will continue to direct media relations for baseball operations, while Green will direct non-baseball communications. Green served as Illinois press secretary to then-United States Senator Barack Obama from 2005 to 2007 and as campaign press secretary from May to November 2004. He served as director of communications and marketing for the Chicago Park District from July 2003 to May 2004.

Prior to joining the Park District staff, Green was an assistant press secretary to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. Green also served as deputy campaign manager and communications director for Mayor Daley's re-election effort in 2003. Green is an interim board member of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which oversees Navy Pier and McCormick Place.

Green received his bachelor's degree from Alabama A&M University's School of Mass Communication with a specialization in Radio and Television Broadcast. He and his wife Antris reside in Chicago with their three children.

Alabama A&M Alum, Dr. Marquita Furness Davis makes history as Alabama's First Female State Finance Director

MONTGOMERY -- Gov. Robert Bentley said he was looking for three things when it came time to pick a new Finance Director: Intelligence, character and tenaciousness.

Alabama A&M University Alum, Dr.Marquita Furness Davis, 44, fit the bill, he said.

"She'll make tough decisions, and that is what you need," Bentley said.

Dr. Davis takes the reins as state finance director next month, making history along the way as the first woman to serve in the position. Dr. Davis has served as commissioner of the Department of Children's Affairs since 2008.

And despite her rise in state government, she is a self-professed independent voter and political outsider who said she initially found the political waters of Montgomery tough to navigate.

"I found my fit in Birmingham, but I'm very much an outsider in Montgomery," Davis said.

Dr. Davis grew up in Peoria, Ill. Her mother was a teacher. Her father, a former paratrooper and semiprofessional football player, worked for Caterpillar Inc. and died at the age of 37.

Dr. Davis, who is fourth-generation college educated on her mother's side, said she was raised to focus on academics. When Davis headed to college, she assumed like many 18-year-olds in the 1980s that a career in business and a fancy BMW would be in her future. But plans changed when the Generation Xer was drawn to a future in public service.

"I always knew I was interested in public service, helping children and families," Davis said.

She earned a bachelor's degree in family social services from Northern Illinois University. She wanted to attended a historically black college for graduate school and picked Alabama A&M to complete her Masters degree. She then earned a Ph.D. in early childhood education and child development from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Davis was the Head Start director at the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity in Birmingham when she was tapped by then-Gov. Bob Riley to be the director of the Office of School Readiness and Alabama's voluntary pre-kindergarten program. Riley, and later Bentley, appointed her commissioner of the Department of Children's Affairs, a cabinet level position.

'I believe in outcomes'

Efficient government has to be a priority, she said.

"I believe in data. I believe in outcomes," Dr. Davis said. "How do we make sure that the citizens of the state are getting what they need -- and need and want are two different things," Davis said.

A colleague praised Davis' managerial style, saying she is a collaborator who tries to keep people focused on the broad picture. "She's such a team player. She doesn't just make snap decisions. She gets everybody's opinion," said Susan McKim, deputy commissioner of Children's Affairs. McKim said Davis has been innovative at Children's Affairs. When the department's proposed budget was slashed, Davis spearheaded a federal grant writing effort to make up the difference.

Davis' degrees are not in finance. Her professional background is in academics and in the administration of children's programs. But Gov Robert Bentley said a major job of the finance director is to be a manager overseeing multiple state divisions. Currently, Dr. Davis manages more than 350 emplyees with a $20 million budget. Davis points out that recent finance directors have been lawyers.

Dr. Davis is the first female and the second African-American to hold the position of state finance director. This is Dr. Davis's second cabinet position appointed by the second Alabama Republican governor. Davis acknowledges she is an independent and doesn't vote any party line.

Dr. Davis is married to Michael A. Davis, the principal of W.J. Christian School in Birmingham. When she is not in her Montgomery office or driving back and forth to her home in Hoover, Davis said she simply likes spending time with her husband and friends.

Dr. Davis said she didn't intend to stay in the South when she came to Alabama for graduate school decades ago. But she is glad she did. "I'm a believer. I think you will be where God intends you to be," Davis said.

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Source: Edited from bhamnews.com via. al.com kchandler@bhamnews.com.

Washington Business Journal's Executive Profile on AAMU Alum, Henry Gilford, CEO of Gilford Corp.

The basics

Background: Gilford, 66, capped a childhood in civil rights-era Alabama with a 2007 contract to help construct D.C.’s first tribute to that era’s most famous face, Martin Luther King Jr. With that memorial to be unveiled in August, the Beltsville civil engineer is now vying for his fourth project on the National Mall. Gilford has faced plenty of life’s darkest moments — he lost daughter, Kesi, to fatal lupus complications — and yet says he still wakes up each day “tickled” to be alive.

Education: Bachelor’s in civil engineering, Alabama A&M University

First job: I worked all my life on my dad’s farm, starting from 6 years old.

Family: Wife Ollie, son Louis, in Silver Spring

Business strategy

Biggest current challenge: The same one I’ve had all along: access to working capital and surety bonding.

On client care: I’m a believer in customer satisfaction as the first step to customer loyalty. Do whatever it takes to keep them coming back. Satisfaction does not always equate to customer loyalty. There are certain clients, no matter how hard you work for them, they’ll turn around and make you bid the next job against the world. So there are certain clients we don’t do business with because of that. We look for clients that realize a good quality firm and take that into consideration when they have their next project.

How do you keep a competitive edge? Once you get the job, give it everything you’ve got. As contractors, we allowed ourselves to become a commodity, and we’re not. We’re a service provider. Everyone’s not going to give you the same type of service. Oftentimes, we have clients who look for the lowest bidder, and you usually get what you pay for. We have a saying in the construction industry: You pay with peanuts, you get monkeys.

Judgment calls

Best business decision: Trying to accumulate as much working capital as I possibly could from the very beginning. The key was to accumulate it faster than our growth.

Hardest lesson learned: Putting people in responsible positions who were not 100 percent trustworthy. Sometimes you know in the back of your mind, but you’ve got so many things going on and you’ve gone through so many people that you finally say everybody has some flaws and you try to trust them. And I don’t know how you guard against that.

How do you recover from failure? A lot of prayer. If you focus on not turning bitter towards people and towards society, you come through it. By far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to contend with was the loss of my daughter. Anything else shy of that, I almost grin at it. Other things come and go.

True confessions

Most people don’t know about engineers: We are very precise people. We rarely see gray areas. Everything’s black and white.
Guilty pleasure: I’m really into photography lately, the restoration of older images.
Personality in high school: Very into sports. Basketball, baseball, football. I could play ball all day, every day.

Car: Ford Fusion hybrid. I am totally green. We recycle everything. I’ve even had energy audits and LEED improvements to my house.
Where were you when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot? I had just left work. I was working for IBM and hadn’t even graduated from college. That day, I had just bought a used MG from one of my co-workers. That night, we had a rally that led from the campus to downtown Huntsville, and a reporter was trying to get through the crowd to the person speaking. He sat on the front fender of my brand-new car, and I worked him all the way through to the front of the crowd.

Favorite book: John Henry Johnson, “Against All Odds”

Favorite restaurant: TJ’s in Beltsville

Favorite place outside of the office: Taking pictures in Ocean City. We have a place there that we go to at least once a month.
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Source: Washington Business Journal, Friday, July 8, 2011, Commercial Real Estate Section

Alabama A&M Alum, Michelle Gilliam Jordan is Huntsville's New Director of Economic Development

Mayor Tommy Battle announced Friday the appointment of Michelle Gilliam Jordan as the City's new Director of Economic Development and Legislative Affairs. Jordan has served as Huntsville's Director of Community Development since February 2009, and previously served for ten years as the Director of Planning and Development in Decatur.



Jordan will be responsible for promoting the City's economic development plan and will become Huntsville's chief federal strategist in Montgomery and Washington, D.C.
A native of Detroit, Mich., Jordan earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree at Alabama A & M in 1992. She began her career in Washington, D.C., working for the Forest Service in environmental compliance, and later returned to Huntsville to serve as an environmental specialist for Earth Tech. The City of Madison hired Jordan away in 1995 to work as a planner and capital improvements program manager for their burgeoning community. She managed Madison's $30 million capital improvement program and implemented the city's award winning Comprehension Plan. From Madison, Jordan moved to Decatur where she assumed the role as Director of Planning and Development. In Decatur, Jordan coordinated city-wide development, managed block grants, code enforcement programs, Planning Commission, and the Decatur Business Incubator.

When Jordan assumed the role of Community Development Director in Huntsville, she managed multi-million dollar grants and urban development projects. Her negotiating, leadership and teambuilding skills quickly earned her recognition as a rising star. Jordan succeeds Joe Vallely, who joined UAHuntsville earlier this month.