Red Mountain Park Commission

Steve Jones, Chair

Steve is the Chair of the Red Mountain Park Commission. Professionally, he is Director of Corporate Relations for Alabama Power Company, and previously worked in the company’s Environmental Affairs department.

Steve has served, and continues to serve, several organizations with missions related to protecting and preserving Alabama’s natural resources. These include the Nature Conservancy, the Freshwater Land Trust—of which he was board chair during the time that the Trust had the lead role in establishing the framework for Red Mountain Park—the Renew Our Rivers program and Keep Birmingham Beautiful; he is involved in environmental education through his membership on the Urban Environmental Studies Advisory Committee at Birmingham-Southern College. Steve also serves on the board of directors of Birmingham’s Vulcan Park and Museum.

Renee Carter

Renee’s interest in Red Mountain Park stems in part from her experience living in New York City and Washington, D.C.—cities that boast extensive and dynamic urban park systems.
Renee is owner of The Carter Group, LLC, which provides consulting services for various clients in the areas of executive administration, issue advocacy, governmental affairs, public relations, program management, education programs, and other services as defined by the needs and goals of the program or project.

An Alabama native, Renee returned to her home state from Washington, D.C., in 2006 to serve as chief of staff for Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Carns. Prior to joining Commissioner Carns, Renee was executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s national advocacy program dedicated to building grassroots support for pro-business trade policies in the U.S. Congress. In that position, she educated business leaders across the U.S. about the benefits and opportunities of international business, developed strategic partnerships, built a national coalition, and spoke on pro-business trade policy to hundreds of groups in the U.S. and abroad.  Prior to joining the Chamber, Renee worked in marketing and business development for NBC, ABC, and Univision in New York City.

Renee is originally from Troy, Alabama. She earned her bachelor’s degree with a major in finance at Auburn University and attended Troy University for a master’s degree in international relations.

Temple Tutwiler

President of Tutwiler Investment Company, Temple’s knowledge and background, along with his long-standing commitment to community, have made him a valued member of the Park Commission. In addition to his work on behalf of Red Mountain Park, Temple has contributed his time, energy and resources to various park and environmental causes over the year. These include the Freshwater Land Trust, which he serves as a board member; the Friends of Linn Park, of which he has been president since its inception in 1986; the Mountain Brook Park and Recreation Board, which he chaired for four years; the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which he has served as fundraising chair; and the Nature Conservancy, of which he is a longtime supporter.

Temple’s civic work also extends to other areas of community life. He has been a member of the Cancer Center board at Children’s Hospital of Alabama and the Presidential Advisory Council of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, treasurer of the Alabama Department of Archives and History Foundation, and a supporter of the YMCA of Birmingham.

Ervin Battain

Ervin is a true pioneer of both the effort to document the history of mining on Red Mountain and the concept of an interactive educational opportunity utilizing former mining sites. Most specifically, Ervin’s vision for Red Mountain Park and his contributions to the Park Commission are informed by many years of extensive research on one particular Red Mountain site, Mine Number 11, which is near his home in the Goldwire area of western Birmingham.

In addition to gathering oral histories from numerous people who worked on Red Mountain or have some other connection to or memory of the mining industry there, Ervin has been responsible for the creation of the 3D/Number 11 Mining Camp Nature Trail. In its first-hand presentation of the camp and its history, Ervin’s work provided a significant “jumping off” point for Red Mountain Park and its efforts to educate the public about the significance of mining to the founding and development of Birmingham.

Jim Bennett

Jim has served the Birmingham region and the state of Alabama in a multitude of ways. Currently, he is the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Labor, and chairs the Governor’s Commission on Constitutional Reform. Prior to joining Governor Bob Riley’s administration, he was a two-term Alabama Secretary of State (appointed to fill an unexpired term in 1993, he won election to the position in 1994 and 1998); he also has served in both the Alabama Senate (1983-93) and the Alabama House of Representatives (1978-1983). Jim began his professional career in the 1960s with the Birmingham Post-Herald, where he was an award-winning political reporter, covering the state capital; after leaving the newspaper business, he worked for five years as public affairs director of the Alabama Labor Council.  

Jim also is a published author, an avocation that grew from his longstanding advocacy of historic preservation and restoration. His work includes two books, Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabama Iron Industry (1999) and Historic Birmingham and Jefferson County (2008).

Dr. Perry Ward

Perry has been President of Birmingham’s Lawson State Community College for the past 22 years. The high regard in which he is held by his peers in the academic community is evident in his serving as the current board chairman of the American Association of Community Colleges, and his past presidency of the Alabama College Association.

Perry also has served on the boards of numerous civic and charitable organizations in the Birmingham region. These include the Boy Scouts of America and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, as well as the Birmingham Urban League, which has recognized him for outstanding leadership and dedicated service to the community. Perry is vice-chair of the Park Commission.

Cameron Vowell

Cameron has been one of Alabama’s leading voices on environmental issues for many years. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences, was a charter member of the Alabama chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and now has served for nearly a decade as a member of the Nature Conservancy’s national board of directors.

In addition to her environmental advocacy, Cameron’s civic leadership in Birmingham and Alabama extends in several other directions. She recently completed five years as a member of the Alabama Ethics Commission, and continues to be closely involved with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and the Women’s Fund. She also takes an active interest in geriatrics, serving on the Board of Advocacy at UAB’s Center for Aging.

Charles “Scotty” McCallum

Scotty has provided tireless leadership and direction for the Birmingham region in the academic, civic and governmental arenas. He was President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1987-93; following his retirement as president, he was named Distinguished Professor by the university, and continues to instruct students in dentistry and oral surgery. Prior to becoming president of UAB, Scotty was dean of its school of dentistry, and is a past president of the American Association of Dental Schools and the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. On the civic front, he has been president and CEO of the Alabama Symphony Association, chair of the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board, and general campaign chair for the United Way of Central Alabama.

Scotty also served two terms (2000-08) as mayor of the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills. In that position, he won acclaim for expanding the city’s boundaries through annexation, attracting new business and development and ensuring that the Vestavia Hills school system remained among the top-rated systems in Alabama. He also has been a leader in promoting communication and cooperation between the 35-plus units of government in Jefferson County.

Mark Waggoner

An attorney with the Birmingham law firm of Hand Arendall, LLC, Mark has focused much of his practice on environmental protection and employment issues. He chaired the Alabama State Bar Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section from 2007-08, and was a member of the Birmingham Bar Association’s Grievance Committee from 2001-04. He also has been a member of the Employment Law Committee of the Defense Research Institute.

Mark’s civic involvements have including serving on the Environmental Committee of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, and on the board of the Alabama Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Rob Fowler

Rob has been involved with Red Mountain Park since the earliest stages of its development, serving on the original steering committee for the park. A lawyer with the Birmingham firm of Balch & Bingham, Rob drafted the legislation that authorized the creation of Red Mountain Park, and he also has worked on subsequent legislation related to the park.

Rob’s work as an attorney has been focused primarily on issues related to brownfield redevelopment, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. His interest in environmental issues also has been evident in his involvement with the Upper Cahaba Watershed Study and the Freshwater Land Trust.

Tom Howard

Tom has been closely involved in the concept, formation and development of Red Mountain Park through his position as President of US Realty, a subsidiary of US Steel. US Realty is the entity through which US Steel conveyed much of the Red Mountain Park site to the Park Commission. Tom also serves on the Village Creek Greenway Advisory Committee, which is creating a 17-mile greenway encompassing Birmingham’s Village Creek, which runs through a former industrial site.

Fred Keith

Fred has 27 years of experience in the field of architecture, including the past 15 years as President of HKW Associates in Birmingham. He has been responsible for design, management and construction administration for a broad variety of project types, including civic buildings, corporate offices, health and fitness facilities, large shopping centers, mall renovations, libraries, parking decks and schools. Among his most noteworthy local projects are work on the redevelopment of Vulcan Park and design and construction of the park’s new Visitor Center; the adaptive reuse of the Martin Biscuit Building in Birmingham’s Lakeview District; and the Emmett O’Neal Public Library in Mountain Brook. Currently in progress are the Railroad Park Amphitheater, the visitor center at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, and the new Vestavia Hills Public Library, which will be LEED-certified.

Fred’s civic work also reflects a wide range of interests. The organizations with which he is or has recently been most involved include the Birmingham Botanical Gardens; the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America; the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce; and the Shades Mountain Sunrise Rotary Club, of which he is a past president.

Dalton Smith

Dalton's first involvement with the park was through his previous position as President and CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance, an organization created in 2009 through the merger of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board. The BBA is charged with promoting economic growth in the seven-county Birmingham region. Prior to that, Dalton was executive director of Region 2020, where he helped spearhead the Three Parks Initiative, promoting development of a network of parks—Red Mountain Park, the downtown Railroad Reservation Park, and Ruffner Mountain Nature Center in eastern Birmingham—that, when completed, will give Birmingham more green space per capita than any other city in the United States.

After receiving his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1990, Dalton worked in a variety of roles in the public sector. He was law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert Varner, staff counsel for U.S. Senator Howell Heflin, and policy analyst and head of congressional relations for Empower America, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. He returned to Alabama as policy director for Governor Bob Riley’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign, and then was named to Senior Advisor to the Governor.

Robert Green

Bob first became interested in the park when it was in its very earliest development. As a member of Faith Apostolic Church, he became very involved in environmental efforts to save the watercress darter, a fish that is only found in Alabama and existed on the church's campus. His involvement with creating a safe habitat to preserve the fish resulted in success. The habitat was preserved, and has been recognized with a Birmingham Beautification Award. Bob was then invited to attend a meeting to discuss a potential park. After attending, he was certain that he had to help make the park a reality.

He first began helping with the Red Mountain Park steering committee, where his background in banking proved very useful. He was employed with Regions Bank for 24 years until he finally retired as the Vice President of mortgage banking. He now dedicates his free time to serving on the Red Mountain Park Commission so that he will be integral in contributing to the park's future. Bob knows firsthand about the type of hard work that took place on Red Mountain; his father was a coal miner for Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company.

Gary Richardson

Gary has been the mayor of the Birmingham suburb of Midfield since 2004, but his involvement in the Birmingham community dates back many years. He has been the owner of radio station WJLD since 1987, serving also as a popular on-air personality who helped pioneer talk radio in Birmingham with a morning show that continues to spotlight politics and community affairs. He has been recognized with numerous local, state and regional awards as a broadcaster, communicator and entrepreneur.

Among numerous civic and charitable activities, Gary has been president of the Midfield Neighborhood Association and the Midfield Voters League, chaired the advisory board for the Broadcasting program at Jefferson State Community College, served as vice chair of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, and is a commissioner of both Red Mountain Park and the Railroad Reservation Park. He also has been vice president of the Jefferson County Mayors Association.