We Must Be The Change - Magazine - Page 8
ACTION: Education and workforce
$1 million
donated
Work still to do for retired VP
to Morehouse School
of Medicine
Bobbie Knight takes helm at HBCU Miles College
after 37 years with Alabama Power
Southern Company
Gas and the Southern
Company Gas Charitable
Foundation donated
$1 million toward
academics and efforts
to provide greater
equity in healthcare
led by Morehouse
School of Medicine.
The donation, part of MSM’s
“Expansion into the Future
Initiative,” enables the medical
school to strengthen its academic
offerings and research enterprise,
including its budding Natural
Products Research Center
and the development of an
Emerging Pathogens Research
Team focusing on topics like
coronaviruses.
“As our communities continue to
be impacted by the coronavirus
and work to recover from what
became a global health crisis,
Southern Company Gas recognizes
the immediate need to support
institutions seeking solutions
while addressing critical health
equity issues,” said Kim Greene,
chairman, president and CEO
of Southern Company Gas. “We
support MSM’s cutting-edge
research and education model,
which fosters greater inclusion in
not only healthcare but ultimately
our entire society.”
8
WE MUST BE THE CHANGE
Becoming president of Miles
College – the first female chief
executive in the school’s 122-year
history – wasn’t part of Bobbie
Knight’s retirement plan.
After 37 years with Alabama Power,
where she held several leadership
positions, including vice president of
Public Relations and vice president of
the company’s Birmingham Division,
Knight wasn’t in the market for a new,
full-time job.
Indeed, Knight had plenty going on
even after her 2016 retirement from
the power company.
In 2017, she was elected to Miles’
board of trustees and co-chaired
newly elected Birmingham Mayor
Randall Woodfin’s transition team.
Then, in 2018, she was appointed to
the Birmingham Airport Authority,
where her colleagues immediately
elected her chair. She also had her
own consulting company, not to
mention other, ongoing volunteer
civic obligations.
But when longtime Miles President
George French announced last year
that he was leaving to become
president of Clark Atlanta University,
the Miles board of trustees quickly
turned to Knight to serve as interim
president of the 1,700-student college
in Fairfield near Birmingham.
“I was absolutely floored,” Knight said.
“I deliberated long and hard after I got
over the initial shock of being asked to
consider this opportunity, and I have
continuously prayed for the wisdom,
strength and courage it will take to
lead this institution with integrity,
compassion and a servant’s heart,”
Knight said at the time.
“During this transition, the job before
me is clear; first, to serve the students
of Miles College by ensuring they
receive a quality education, that they
are equipped with the tools they
need to be successful here and in the
future and that they enjoy a safe and
fulfilling campus life. Second, my job is
to maintain a fiscally sound institution.
I have a business background and
my plan is to use business principles
and practices to keep this institution
financially strong.”
It didn’t take long for Knight to
make a mark. In January 2020, Miles
announced it had received its single
largest contribution from an individual
donor in school history – $1 million.
The donation came from a celebrity
more often associated with another
Alabama institute of higher learning:
Charles Barkley, the former Auburn
University and NBA basketball great
and television commentator.
Barkley singled out Knight in his
comments about the donation. “I’ve
gotten to know Bobbie Knight over the
last year, and it was really something
I wanted to do,” Barkley said in a
statement. “To have a female president
is a big deal, and I want to help Bobbie
be as successful as she can be.”
Knight said that even though Barkley
didn’t attend Miles or any other
historically black college or university,
“he understands how vitally important
HBCUs have been in this country.”