Donna Dearman Smith ’70

Donna Smith lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Julian.  Donna retired from Alabama Power Company in February 2014, after working in various jobs with The Southern Company for 37.5 years.  Donna is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham, where she serves on the Members Council.  She served as Board Chairman for the Women’s Fund, the first Chairman of the Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama and is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham where she was the President.  She is on the Samford University Brock School of Business Advisory Board has also served on the Teach for America Regional Advisory Board; she has been asked to join the Community Council by the Community Foundation of Birmingham. She was also in Class XXVIII of Leadership Alabama and serves on the Leadership Alabama Regional Council.  She is President of the Civic Center Foundation Board and is Vice President of MINTMAKERS II, a women’s investment club.  She has been elected to the Board of Mary Baldwin University.  At Independent Presbyterian Church she serves on the HR Ministry team, the IPC a foundation Board, where she is past Board Chairman and on the Board of Kirkwood by the River.

Experience

Vice President, Human Resources and Ethics, Alabama Power Company, Birmingham, Alabama 2010-2014 where she was responsible for the delivery of Human Resources products and services to the 6700 employees of Alabama Power Company.  She served on the Alabama Power Company, Management Council, the Southern Company Human Resource Leadership Team, and the Alabama Power Company Foundation Board.  In 2010 she led a Southern Company project to review the total compensation and benefits program for The Southern Company.

During her career at Southern Company, Donna held positions as Director, Human Resources, Southern Company Generation; Talent Management, Southern Company College; Assistant to the Vice President, Southern Company Services and Client Manager, PeopleSoft installation for Southern Company; Manager, Residential Marketing, Alabama Power; Division Marketing Manager, Alabama Power, and Assistant District Manager, Montgomery District.

Donna currently serves on Board of McKinney Communications Corporation where she serves on the Audit/Compensation Committee.   In addition, she is a Director of First U S Bank where she serves on the Executive, Nominating and Governance Committee, the Compensation Committee, and Chairs the Directors Loan Committee.

Education

Donna, a native of Akron, Alabama, attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia and graduated from The University of Alabama.  She continued her education there and obtained a master’s degree in education with a concentration in communication.  While working for Alabama Power Company, she obtained an MBA from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  She is also a graduate of the Finance for Nonfinancial Managers program at Wharton University and the Harvard Business School’s Nonprofit Governance Program.