Stanley Allred
Allred is mayor of Millport in Lamar County. Earlier he served on the city council. He served in the U.S. Navy for seven years and is a Vietnam War veteran. He retired from BF Goodrich after serving 27 years in management at the Tuscaloosa plant. He has earned emeritus designation for the Alabama League of Municipalities. Former president of the West Alabama Mayors Association, he currently serves on the board of the West Alabama Regional Commission, where he was elected vice chairman for 2022. He is a member of the C3 of Northwest Alabama Economic Alliance.
Tracy Estes
Estes represents District 17 in the Alabama House of Representatives, where he is deputy whip and active on committees for education policy, public safety, homeland security and children/senior advocacy. A graduate of the University of Alabama, he lives in Winfield and has served 15 years as a member of the Winfield Board of Education. He was a 30-year career journalist in Marion County, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. He is founder of the Winfield Main Street program, lead singer in a gospel quartet and a member of the Alabama State Republican Party executive committee.
Kelli Colbaugh Foster
Foster is branch manager for the Fayette, Vernon and Kennedy branches of Alabama Credit Union. She is a graduate of Lamar County High School, Bevill State Community College and the University of North Alabama. She is a Kennedy volunteer firefighter, a girls basketball coach for South Lamar Park and Recreation, president of the Fayette Area Chamber of Commerce board, a board member of the Hubert Ashcraft Leadership Program at South Lamar and a member of the Northwest Alabama Economic Development Alliance.
Will Gilmer
Gilmer co-owns and operates Gilmer Dairy Farm, along with his father, and is the fifth generation of his family to farm in Lamar County. He earned a BS in agriculture from Mississippi State University in 2001 before returning to the farm. Gilmer has served as chairman of state, regional and national Young Farmers organizations, as a spokesman for the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and has helped coach local youth soccer and baseball. He is currently president of the Lamar County Farmers Federation and a member of the C3 of Northwest Alabama EDA board.
Andrea Clement Harbison
Harbison is the principal architect of Andrea Clement Harbison – Architect in Hamilton. Among her firm’s projects are renovation of the historic Hamilton City Hall and the Nature Trail Splash Park. An Auburn University graduate, she is a member of the American Institute of Architects and holds NCARB certification. She has coordinated building safety assessments following catastrophic events and worked to list properties with the Alabama Historical Commission and Alabama Places in Peril. She volunteers with the Alabama Plein Air Artists and has served as one of Alabama’s 48 location coordinators for Wreaths Across America that honors veterans each December.
Britton Lightsey
Lightsey is a community relations manager for Alabama Power in the I-22 corridor of Jefferson and Marion counties and all of Walker and Fayette counties. He is active on many boards throughout his service territory and is involved with multiple economic development and chamber of commerce organizations in the region including Central Six of Alabama Workforce Development Council, Walker County Economic and Industrial Development Authority, Jasper Industrial Development Board, Northwest Alabama Economic Development Alliance, Walker County Chamber of Commerce, Winfield Chamber of Commerce and the Fayette Area Chamber of Commerce. He is a graduate of the University of Montevallo.
Missy Miles
Miles is a gourd artist and muralist in northwest Alabama. She became interested in gourd art after receiving a gourd as a gift and discovering the Alabama Gourd Society. Since painting the Arches mural in Guin in 2008, she has completed more than 100 murals in northwest Alabama. She is a graduate of NEC-Bauder College in Fort Lauderdale and has worked with Alene Workman ASID in Hollywood, Florida, and with Kathleen Evers in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was assistant designer at the Opryland Hotel. She has worked as a trainer for Lowe’s Home Center and helped open 70 stores in the Midwest.
Al Moore
Moore serves as dean of workforce solutions and economic development at Bevill State Community College. Earlier he worked with Alabama Power in training and employee development. Past president of the Instructional Officers Association of the Alabama Community College System, he now serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society of Central Alabama and Central Alabama Partnership for Training and Employment. A University of Alabama at Birmingham graduate, he holds a master’s from Troy University, plus credentials in public policy in education from the University of Alabama and from the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.
Rod Northam
Northam is mayor of Fayette. A University of Alabama graduate, he is retired from 3M Co. in Guin after 34 years of service, with the final 16 years as plant manager. He is vice president of the West Alabama Mayors Association. He also is a member of the board of the Community Services Programs of West Alabama, Northwest Alabama Mental Health Center and West Alabama Regional Commission. For the past 25 years, he has volunteered as the Fayette County High School football statistician.
Melinda Weaver
Weaver is a community relations manager for Alabama Power’s Northwest Alabama region, working in north Marion, Lamar, Winston and south Franklin counties. She is vice chair of the Winston County Industrial Development Board and a board member for North Alabama Workforce Council – Region 1, Alabama Workforce Innovation & Opportunity, North Alabama Council of Local Governments and Northwest-Shoals Community College Foundation. She also works closely with the C3 Northwest Alabama Economic Development Alliance and Franklin County Development Authority. Weaver is a local coordinator with Alabama Community of Excellence, where she focuses on working with youth and adult leadership programs.
Tom Wisemiller
Wisemiller was appointed president and CEO of C3 of Northwest Alabama Economic Development Alliance in March 2021. He has 15 years of experience with economic development programs and projects. An Ohio State University graduate, he holds a master’s from Cornell University. Before coming to Alabama, he was development project coordinator with the Marysville, Ohio, Union County Economic Development office. He also worked in economic development and downtown revitalization for the city of Greenville, North Carolina.
This appeared in the February 2022 issue of Business Alabama.
