Sandy Naramore
Naramore graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in Behavior Disorders. She earned a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education of the Handicapped and Certification of Administration from UAB. She worked as a special education teacher in a variety of settings, including the E.P.I.C. School, the Allan Cott School, and Crestline Elementary School. She also served as Assistant Principal for Greystone Elementary. As Executive Director of Mitchell’s Place, Naramore oversees all programs at Mitchell’s Place.
Melody Crane
Crane is the founder and Executive Director of The Riley Behavioral and Educational Center, a non-profit comprehensive treatment and training center serving children and their families faced with autism. Crane has a master’s degree in special education, undergraduate degrees in special education and finance administration. She has worked with children with special needs for over 20 years serving as a teacher, administrator and educational consultant. Her oldest son was diagnosed with autism in 2001. This is where her personal journey with autism began and continues today through the lives of many others.
Heather French
French has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Birmingham Southern College; Master’s degree in English Education, Florida State University; Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership, The College of William & Mary. She received her Board Certified Behavior Analyst certification from the Florida Institute of Technology. French has experience as an ABA therapist and classroom teacher. She spent four years as a part of a research team for a multi-state, 5 year, $5 million grant awarded through the U.S. Department of Education.
Dee Haslam
Haslam is CEO and Co-Owner of Rivr Media, a television production company based in Knoxville, TN. She has headed the Rivr Media team in the production of eighty series and twelve documentaries. In addition Dee, along with Rob Lundgren, founded Rivr Media Interactive which in 2010 launched Moving Picture Books, an award winning line of animated children’s books. Haslam spearheaded the creation of TLC’s Trading Spaces, one of the first reality-based television programs of the now-familiar phenomenon in which homeowners participate in renovations. Haslam serves on the boards for many associations such as East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, YMCA and chaired the United Way Campaign. Among the many awards and honors, Haslam has received an Emmy Nomination for “Whale Wars”, The New York Festivals World Medal and Parents Choice Award for Moving Picture Books. Professional Associations include International Women’s Forum, National Association of Broadcaster’s, just to name a few. Haslam has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Lynn Andrick
Andrick has a BS degree in Deaf Education from the University of Tennessee and an MA degree in Educational Leadership from Tennessee Tech University. She is currently the Principal of the Elementary School at the Tennessee School for the Deaf (since 2000); previously taught a preschool class (3 to 5 years old) at TSD. Andrick served on the Autism Committee for the Breakthrough Run in Knoxville. She also trained with The Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) for programming and working with children with autism.
Gary E Mariani
Mr. Mariani has been President of a Division of Weyerhaeuser, Company, and CEO of the Devon Publishing group. He received his undergraduate degree at Fresno State, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He received his MBA from The University of California, Berkeley. He is currently Chairman of The Board for Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, and serves on the boards of Northwest Cascade, Color Spot Nurseries and Northwest Acceleration. He is also a member of the advisory board for New York Graphic Society. He resides in Vancouver Washington, where he is an avid golfer and volunteers for numerous organizations.
T. Jeff Stein
Stein has been a licensed and practicing lawyer in Mobile for 35 years. He is a member of the Mobile and State of Alabama Bar Associations. Stein was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the Volunteer Lawyer Program and has been Chairman of the Lawyer Referral Program. He is on the Board of Directors of Saving Grace Home for Women, is a member of the Fort Conde Kiwanis Club, and has worked with the Boys and Girls Club for many years. Stein is a member of Christ the King Church in Daphne, AL.
Terri Miles
Miles is the mother of a young son with high-functioning autism. She is a Hepatology Clinical Specialist with Genentech, where she has been employed for the last 15 years. Miles is a graduate of Louisiana State University where she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and earned a B.A. in English. She previously worked for United Way in Baton Rouge and for ExecuTrain as a computer software instructor. Her husband, Ted, is an architect and stay-at-home dad to their son.
Gregory S. Curran
Gregory S. Curran is a shareholder in the Birmingham office of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. and is the chairman of the firm’s Corporate and Securities practice group. Mr. Curran is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Mr. Curran provides general legal and strategic business advice to companies and their boards and management, including matters of corporate governance, crisis response, dispute resolution, strategic planning and communications. Mr. Curran also regularly represents clients in a variety of business acquisitions, venture capital and private equity transactions and corporate finance transactions. Mr. Curran represents public companies in connection with public offerings of debt and equity securities and complying with federal and state securities laws and regularly represents private and start-up companies in raising capital for growth and operating needs.
Mr. Curran was admitted to the bar in 1989, and he received his B.A. in 1985 from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. in 1989 from the University of Alabama School of Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Alabama, the American Bar Association (Business Law Section) and the Birmingham Bar Association. Mr. Curran is listed in Best Lawyers in America (Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Securities Law and Venture Capital Law) and Chambers USA “America’s Leading Business Lawyers” (Corporate/Commercial). Mr. Curran is active in civic and community activities. Among other activities, he currently serves on the Vestry at the Church of the Advent and was in the 2011-12 class of Leadership Birmingham.
Abigail Baxter- Ph.D.
Dr. Baxter is a Professor of Special Education in the Department of Leadership and Teacher Education and Director of Graduate Studies and Research for the College of Education at the University of South Alabama. Baxter has an A.B. in Psychology/Sociology, an M.A. in Clinical and Community Psychology and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology/Developmental Assessment. Her areas of interest are developing family centered early intervention models, language development in children with developmental delays, adequately training individuals to work with young children with special needs, and parents’ relationships with children with disabilities. Dr. Baxter has been published so many times they are too numerous to name. She has been a part of many grants both funded and unfunded and her conference presentations are quite impressive. Her teaching experience is both in the Undergraduate and Graduate level. She has served on multiple doctoral dissertations, educational specialist, master’s thesis, and undergraduate honors program research committees. Her professional service spans twenty years and her personal affiliations are at the national, state and local levels.
Honors and awards list her as the Mobile ARC Distinguished Community Service Award: Project CHOICES in 2012 and as the 2000 Mentor of the Year Alabama Early Intervention and Preschool Conference.
Norman H. McCrummen III
Norman is a graduate of Samford University, the University of Alabama (M.A. and Ph.D.) and holds a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary. For three years Norman was a Fellow of the American University in Cairo and served as a Research Fellow at UNESCO in Paris.
Following a 17 year career as both a teacher and administrator in universities he entered seminary in 1989. After moving to Mobile he served as Senior Minister at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church until his retirement in 2011.
In 2012 he co-founded NEST with Judge Edmund Naman. NEST is an initiative focusing on at-risk youth who have appeared before Juvenile Court.
Norman’s wife Nancy is retired from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and presently lives at Brennity Memory Care in Daphne. They have one daughter, Meg, who is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at Tulane.
Kerrie Denise Benson
Benson has a proven record of fund and volunteer development, marketing programs and public relations with diverse populations. She is Development Associate – Gulf Coast for Children’s Hospital of Alabama; Birmingham. Benson is a graduate of Jacksonville State University; Jacksonville, AL with a BS in Psychology. She is a member of the Junior League of Mobile, National Autism Society and the Autism Society of Alabama. She is the mother of 7 year old son with autism. Kerrie has given us great insight to the world of autism.
