Michele Coley is a Tuscaloosa enterprise proprietor who has earned a status for serving to the neighborhood.
Coley, proprietor of the Allstate Coley Company, was just lately given the very best award bestowed by the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce. She’s the Chamber’s Charles H. Land Member of the 12 months, an award introduced in recognition of her dedication to enhancing West Alabama.
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“Michele Coley is absolutely devoted to serving the West Alabama neighborhood, and the Chamber is lucky to have her on our group,” stated Jim Web page, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama.
“The work she has finished to carry new power to the Numerous Enterprise Council and Girls’s Management Alliance is actually making a distinction. Her ardour for the neighborhood is unmatched and she is going to proceed to be an asset to West Alabama,” he stated.
Coley, who serves on the Chamber’s board of administrators, stated being acknowledged as Member of the 12 months was “extremely surprising.”
“It was humbling. Nonetheless, it is simply laborious to imagine that you realize, of all of the members of the Chamber, I am the member of the yr, and I am like, Effectively, what did I do to deserve this?’ ” Coley stated.
Along with Member of the 12 months, Coley has been named the Chamber’s 2023 board chair, which is a place that Coley stated she at all times aspired to fill.
The Montgomery native moved to Tuscaloosa in 1991 to pursue an schooling on the College of Alabama. Coley labored promoting insurance coverage for a number of years earlier than beginning her personal insurance coverage enterprise in 2018. Earlier than opening her enterprise, Coley labored as a radio announcer for Tuscaloosa’s WTUG radio station.
Coley turned concerned with the Chamber in 2010 whereas working at an area financial institution. She attended networking occasions the place she was launched to the Minority Enterprise Council, which has been renamed the Numerous Enterprise Council. Coley has served as chairwoman of the Numerous Enterprise Council for a number of years.
Coley at the moment serves on the Chamber’s government committee as vice chair of management and neighborhood growth and she or he was instrumental within the revitalization of the Numerous Enterprise Council and the Girls’s Management Alliance.
Along with her work with the Chamber, Coley serves on the town of Tuscaloosa Elevate Advisory Council, the UA Faculty of Persevering with Research’ board of tourists and she or he is a member of the Tuscaloosa Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The Member of the 12 months Award is called after the late Charles H. Land, a former chamber president who was additionally writer of The Tuscaloosa Information.
Here is a take a look at different awards that had been introduced Feb. 3 at the chamber’s 121st annual celebration on the Bryant Convention Middle.
• Terry Saban earned the Chairman’s Management Award. Saban is dedicated to serving the West Alabama neighborhood by way of her dedication to initiatives akin to Habitat for Humanity, the Nick’s Children Basis and, most just lately, her partnership with the town of Tuscaloosa to develop the Saban Middle, a state-of-the-art, interactive schooling heart for kids.
• The DCH Well being System earned the Robert C. Tanner Company Service Award, which acknowledges the company management, philanthropic efforts and neighborhood service by a member entity in West Alabama area.
• Whitni Molden of Resort Capstone earned the Ambassador of the 12 months Award.
• Cassius Lanier, proprietor of Lanier Automotive and who was elected to the District 7 seat on the Tuscaloosa Metropolis Council in 2021, was introduced with the Numerous Enterprise Council Trailblazer Award.
• Whatley Well being Companies earned the Nonprofit of the 12 months Award.
• Kim Ingram of Hayes Ingram, LLC and Dr. Billy Kirkpatrick of 5 Horizons Well being Companies earned Distinguished Service awards. This award acknowledges folks or organizations for his or her neighborhood service and management.
• Rebecca Patterson and Taylor Pearce of Gourmade Kitchen earned the H. Pettus Randall Entrepreneurial Rising Star Award.
• Inge Beeker of Beeker Property Group. earned the H. Pettus Randall Entrepreneur of the 12 months Award.
Attain Jasmine Hollie at JHollie@gannett.com.