Birmingham Mayor-elect Randall Woodfin announced the creation of two committees that will focus on the priorities of his incoming administration during a Monday morning press conference at the Alabama Workforce Training Center.
Perry Ward, President of Lawson State Community College, and Fred McCallum, former AT&T president will lead the Education and Workforce Committee. This committee will develop plans to align and expand education and workforce programs to ensure the Magic City is preparing its young people with the skills and education they need for the high-wage, high-demand jobs of the future.
Woodfin reiterated one of his campaign themes that the city needs to make “sure we give our children options. And there’s only three options. Our children should either enter the military, enter college or a university, or go straight into the workforce. These other two options, of not doing anything when you finish high school or getting into any form of illegal activity, are no longer options for our children,” he said at the press conference.
Tracey Morant Adams, Executive Vice President and Chief Community Development & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for Renasant Bank, and Josh Carpenter, Director of External Affairs at UAB, will serve as co-chairs to the Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Committee. This committee will work with economic development and business leaders in Birmingham and Montgomery to understand all efforts to recruit and expand industry and jobs.
Under their leadership, economic development will become a department under the new administration, which endeavors to keep the engaged in the creation of new jobs. The committee will also partner with Innovation Depot and other leading groups to support opportunity for budding innovators by making Birmingham an “entrepreneurial hub” for the Southeast.
Woodfin takes office on Nov. 28.
