We are excited to announce J.W. Carpenter and Staci Brown Brooks as this year's speakers.
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Staci Brown Brooks is vice president of Charitable Giving for Alabama Power Company and president of the Alabama Power Foundation, leading the company’s philanthropic, volunteerism and community support initiatives.
She is also executive director of the Alabama Business Charitable (ABC) Trust Fund established by Alabama Power to help meet the energy needs of low-income Alabamians.
Prior to joining Alabama Power, Brooks held senior leadership roles at Alabama Media Group where she developed strategies that grew digital audiences. She also worked at The Birmingham News, The Tuscaloosa News and the Detroit Free Press.
Brooks is a member of the Vulcan Park and Museum Board of Directors, the Lawson State Community College Foundation Board of Directors, the Four Little Girls Memorial Fund Board of Trustees, the YWCA Central Alabama Board of Directors and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She supports the work of Bronze Valley, an organization focused on growing the technology-based startups of diverse founders, and was a Junior League of Birmingham Community of Lights Torchbearer, joining other community leaders in completing a special centennial fundraising campaign for One Place.
Brooks is a two-time graduate of The University of Alabama, with a B.A. in communication and an MBA. She completed a Strategic Leadership course at Columbia Business School with senior leaders from across the globe.
The Selma native’s honors include being selected for Leadership Birmingham and the Alabama Leadership Initiative, as well as the Maynard Media Academy and the Young American Leaders Program, both at Harvard University. A member of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, she, her husband and daughter live in metropolitan Birmingham.
J.W. Carpenter began his tenure as the inaugural president of Prosper in February 2021. Previously, he led the Birmingham Education Foundation for eight years and prior to that was the inaugural executive director of Teach For America-Alabama, the same organization where he began his career as a classroom teacher in Helena, Arkansas. J.W. also practiced law for nearly four years in Birmingham. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, where he serves as President.
He is an alumnus of Leadership Birmingham, Leadership Alabama, Leadership UAB, the Alabama Leadership Initiative, and the Young Alumni Leadership Program and Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management at Harvard’s Continuing Education Program. He has been awarded Top 40 under 40, a Vulcan Leadership Award and was recognized as one of Birmingham’s top CEOs in 2022 by the Birmingham Business Journal.
J.W. has two children named Jack and Kate. He earned a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College and J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.