Alabama Women's Commission

Coronavirus Information and Resources

Up-to-Date Characteristics of Laboratory Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 for the State of Alabama Including Women For general COVID-19 questions, call 1-800-270-7268 or email covid19info@adph.state.al.us. Telephone calls are answered from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Interpreters are available.For frequently asked questions and to check your symptoms, visit the Alabama.gov COVID-19 Information Hub at covid19.alabama.gov.Also see the Alabama […]

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Anita Archie

Emeritus Board Member

Anita Archie has more than 25 years of public service spanning municipal government, state government, and higher education. She formerly served as interim President of Trenholm State Community College, a comprehensive two-year community college located in Montgomery, Alabama, before being hired as Manager of, Workforce Development Program, Alabama Power.

Archie began her career as a prosecutor in the Office of the Alabama Attorney General in 1992. She quickly became Division Chief, the Environmental Division representing the interests of ratepayers before the Alabama Public Service Commission. She later joined the Legislative Reference Service as a legislative attorney specializing in writing economic and community development incentive legislation.

Archie served as the first black senior attorney for the Alabama Development Office (currently the Alabama Department of Commerce). She served as an associate or lead counsel on behalf of the State of Alabama in many economic development projects in the 2000s, including the successful recruitment of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing of Alabama (HMMA). Later, Governor Don Siegelman and Governor Bob Riley appointed her Supplier Development Coordinator on behalf of the state for Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects of HMMA.

Archie briefly left state government in 2005 to serve as Executive Director of the Montgomery Riverfront Development Foundation and the Montgomery Public Housing Authority. Archie later joined in 2007 the Alabama Community College System and served as the Director of Government Relations, where she successfully advocated for Alabama’s community colleges. Later, she served as Senior Vice President, Intergovernmental Affairs, Advocacy and Communications, and Legal Counsel for the Business Council of Alabama. From 2013 to 2017, Archie served as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Montgomery and was responsible for oversight of community development, personnel, and city council relations. Archie left the city in July 2017 to become the Deputy Director and Executive Counsel for the Alabama Department of Economic Affairs before later being appointed interim president.

Archie served on numerous boards and commissions, including a member of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission (chair for two years); the Alabama Women’s Commission (chair, two years), the Southern Rail Commission, Board of Directors, and Executive Committee member of the Business Council of Alabama (BCA), treasurer, BCA. Currently, she serves as an emeritus member and advisor, Alabama Women’s Commission, Board of Directors, Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Alabama Constitution Recompilation Committee (appointed by the Speaker of the House, Mac McCutcheon).

She is married to Eric Archie, and they have two children Erica and Amari.

Julia Harwell Segars

Emeritus Board Member

Author, artist and retired corporate executive Julia Harwell Segars is a 1984 magna-cum-laude graduate of the University of Alabama, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a minor in graphic design.

Julia’s early career included two years as a news reporter before joining Alabama Power as a writer in 1986. She later served as manager of Employee Communication and went on to leadership positions in other departments before her election by the company’s board of directors in 2002 as vice president and regional chief information officer. She spent the last 11 years of her corporate career as Eastern Division vice president, over customer service operations in 12 counties in East Alabama.

Julia has served as chairman of the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce; vice-chairman of the Calhoun County Economic Development Council; and co-founding chairman of Core 4, a regional organization created to support development of the I-20 corridor in East Alabama.

A 2016 graduate of Leadership Alabama, Julia is past president of UA’s Capstone Communication Society and has served on the boards of the Jacksonville State University Foundation and the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind Foundation. She is a member of Calhoun County’s Women’s Executive Network and Etowah County’s First Friday Forum for executive women.

She is a graduate of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation Fellows program and Momentum, a statewide program for women leaders. She has served on the Alabama Women’s Commission and as a director of the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama. She received the Girl Scouts’ Frances E. Couch Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and the Boy Scouts of America Greater Alabama Council’s Heart of an Eagle Award in 2016 in recognition of her community service.

After 31 years in corporate life, Julia retired in July 2017 to return her focus to writing and other creative pursuits as owner of Segars Creative, LLC. She continues to serve as a director of Cahaba Safeguard Administrators, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, and on the board of the Alabama Trails Foundation, a non-profit established to support the Alabama Trails Commission.

In 2020, she authored an Alabama Public Television documentary, “A Selfless Heart: The Susie Parker Stringfellow Story©,” which tells the remarkable story of one of Alabama’s earliest women of tremendous impact in our state. In 2017, she released the book Aunt Sister ©, a collection of her best humor columns carried in area newspapers under that pen name. One of the columns, printed in the Talladega Daily Home, received first place for humor in the Alabama Press Association’s 2017 Better Newspapers Contest.

A native of Hoover, Julia and her husband, Frank, now reside in Anniston. They have four children, four grandchildren and four dogs.

Cathy McGowin

District 1

Cathy Waller McGowin grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and attended Huffman High School. In 1984 she moved to Mobile, Alabama with her husband, Jeff, who was starting his career in orthopaedic surgery. Mrs. McGowin graduated from the Capstone College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in 1980. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing. She has worked in many different areas of medical care in both Jefferson and Mobile Counties. Her experience includes Emergency, Critical Care, Post-Surgical, and Cardiac Rehabilitation. Mrs. McGowin has been actively involved in service and charitable organizations in Mobile including the Board of Directors for the Junior League of Mobile. She also has served on the board of the Medical Alliance for Mobile County. She has volunteered with Camp Rap-A-Hope, an organization that provides year-round programming as well as a summer camp for children between the ages of 7 and 17 who have or have ever had cancer. Mrs. McGowin has volunteered with Partners in Education tutoring 4th grade students in mathematics, and she served as the president of the PTA at her children’s school. As an active community volunteer, she has chaired fundraisers for numerous non-profits in Mobile County. Together with her husband, Jeff, she served as Club Leader for the University of Virginia Club of Mobile where she instituted an annual service project for local club members to aid local charities. She was appointed by Governor Ivey to serve as a Commissioner for the Alabama Women’s Commission in 2017 and served as Chair for the Commission from October 2020 until October 2022. Mrs. McGowin has worked on projects with the Alabama Women’s Commission including the 211KNOW text messaging program, a study with the University of Alabama to determine the effects of parental cell phone usage and the development of preschool children, and the Lunch and Learn program for agency leaders in the state. Mrs. McGowin was also appointed to the Board of the Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention by Governor Ivey in January 2023. Mrs. McGowin is a member of St. Ignatius Catholic Church where she has taught religious education classes for elementary age children. Cathy is married to Dr. Jeff McGowin, a Mobile native. They have two wonderful sons and daughters-in-law, and four precious granddaughters.

Alabama Women's Commission

Coronavirus Information and Resources

Emily Marsh

Junior Board Member

Dr. Karen Benn Marshall

District 5

Katherine Robertson

District 6

Anita Archie

Emeritus Board Member

Dr. Lori Owens

Emeritus Board Member

Julia Harwell Segars

Emeritus Board Member

Kate Scarbrough

Junior Board Member

Penny Townson

Junior Board Member

Stefanie Reeves

Junior Board Member

Dr. Delores Johnson Price

Emeritus Board Member

Laura Leigh Latta

Junior Board Member

Emily Herring

Junior Board Member

Samantha Bagwell

Junior Board Member

Genesis Player

Junior Board Member

Jesalyn McCurry

Junior Board Member

Mary Jacque Carroll

Junior Board Member

Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier

Senate

Sen. Priscilla Dunn

District Legislative Appointment

Rep. Barbara Drummond

Legislative Appointment

Rep. Becky Nordgren

Legislative Appointment

Rep. Terri Collins

District Legislative Appointment

Tracy Plummer

District 7

Carol Sue Nelson

District 6

Jeneene Suttle

District 5

Gina Johnson

District 4

Jennifer S. Maddox

District 3

Cathy McGowin

District 1

Former Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin

At-Large

Debbie Long

At-Large

Suze Butts

Chair At-Large