Southern-Spring 2015

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CLASSNOTES
AlumNews ’96 MPPM
Using the tools of his liberal arts graduate
education, Herschell Hamilton has
established himself as a strategic business
leader.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
recently appointed Hamilton to a three-year
term on its Birmingham branch’s board of
directors, where his insight and business
relationships will contribute to the Federal
Reserve System’s understanding of the economic conditions in the
Birmingham region, and to the understanding of the effects of these
conditions on the economy as a whole.
Hamilton is also managing partner and principal of BLOC Global
Group, a commercial real estate development and investment firm.
For the past three and a half years, the firm partnered with Brasfield
& Gorrie as construction managers for the terminal modernization
project at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Among
its current projects, BLOC is working with the Birmingham Board
of Education on its asset disposition program, helping the board to
monetize the value of surplus real estate assets.
He believes the mayor and city council have guided Birmingham
well out of the recession and that the Magic City is definitely bucking
a nationwide slow-growth trend in the building and construction
industry.
“Key developments like the Westin Hotel and Marketplace and
Regions Field have spurred construction activity and jobs, helping
to drive the city in a positive direction,” Hamilton said. “There’s also
growth in skilled manufacturing jobs and in the life sciences fields
that’s helping to stabilize and support commercial real estate activity.”
Prior to starting BLOC in 2003, he was vice president of New
Market Ventures for Masada Resource Group LLC. His career also
includes a two-year stint in the late 1990s as chief administrative
assistant to then-Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington and another
high-level public financial administration post with then-Alabama Gov.
Jim Folsom.
A native of Birmingham’s Woodland Park community, Hamilton
went to Howard University and majored in zoology, intending to follow
in the footsteps of his sisters, who studied as pre-meds at Howard
as well, and his late father, Herschell L. Hamilton, M.D., a popular
surgeon who treated injured civil rights workers in the 1960s. Prior to
graduation, Hamilton’s interest turned to business, which ultimately
led him to BSC’s MPPM Program, where he mastered the disciplines
of strategic management and consulting.
“I had a desire to work in both the public and private sectors
and saw value in the program,” Hamilton said. “There was a host
of esteemed professors—Natalie Davis, Byron Chew, and Cecilia
McGinnis Bowers—guiding the program’s direction, and I developed
strong business and personal relationships with my classmates,
many of whom are now senior managers and CEOs of organizations
throughout the state and region.”
In addition to his daily work managing complex real estate,
building, and public/private partnership projects, Hamilton has served
in leadership roles in a number of professional and community
organizations, including Leadership Birmingham and BSC’s Norton
Board. He and his wife, Majella, along with a group of dedicated
community members, recently founded the Ballard House Project,
Inc., a nonprofit aimed at renovating the historic Ballard House located
in the Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District to serve as a hub for
knowledge and a celebration of the rich history of the city’s African-
American community.
48 / ’southern
’98
Writer and
artist Murray
Dunlap’s
poem
“Defiance”
was recently
accepted
by the Cahaba River Literary
Journal. Dunlap, who resides
in Mobile, is returning to live in
Birmingham later this year. You can
keep up with his work at www.
Dr. ChristopherWootten
is director of the Pediatric
Otolaryngology Service at
Vanderbilt University Medical
Center, where he supervises
the treatment of ear, nose and
throat-related
disorders in
children. He
first came to
Vanderbilt as
a resident in
2002 before
rejoining the
center in
2009 as an assistant professor
and member of the Pediatric
Otolaryngology clinic. Wootten
graduated from the Baylor College
of Medicine in Houston.
’00
Stephanie Campbell Baker,
director of market development for
KW Plastics Recycling Division in
Troy, was named a Young Mover
& Shaper by Business Alabama
magazine in 2014. She is active
in her
church and
community,
including
assisting
with the
TroyFest
community
art festival.
’02
William “Will” Moore, an
attorney whose practice focuses
on complex commercial litigation,
has been elected partner at
Andrews Kurth LLP, a Houston-
based transactional and litigation
firm with more than 400 lawyers
in 10 offices worldwide. Moore
graduated with honors from the
University of Texas School of Law
in 2005. He lives in Dallas with his
wife, Mandy, a criminal defense
attorney and entrepreneur, and
his two sons: Fin, who is four, and
Fisher, who is two.
’03
Wesley
Medical
Center in
Hattiesburg,
Miss., has
named
Barry Moss
as its new
COO. Moss
had served as assistant CEO
at Flowers Hospital in Dothan
since 2011; he also worked for
five years as vice president of
professional services. In 2013,
Moss was recognized as one of
Dothan Magazine’s Top 40 Under
40 and was named a Young Mover
& Shaper by Business Alabama
magazine in 2013. He received
both his MBA and master’s in
health administration from UAB.
’04
Stephanie Houston Mays has
been promoted to shareholder
at the Birmingham law firm of
Maynard Cooper & Gale PC. Mays
is a member of the firm’s Labor
& Employment practice, where
she has significant experience
defending public and private
employers. She has been listed
in the publication Alabama Super
Lawyers since 2013 and was a
selected participant in the Alabama
State Bar Leadership Forum for
2013-14. Mays is scheduled to
deliver the keynote address at
BSC’s Honors Day Convocation in
April.
Chesapeake Urology in Silver
Spring, Md., recently welcomed
urologic oncologist Dr. AnupVora
to the practice. His expertise
includes the treatment of bladder,
kidney, and prostate cancers. Vora