Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Meet Julia Harwell Segars - 2012 Frances E. Couch Award Recepient

Julia Harwell Segars currently serves as Vice President for the Eastern Division of Alabama Power Company, and is responsible for customer service operations and external affairs for a 12-county area of East Alabama. In previous roles, she has served as Chief Information Officer, workforce development manager, company magazine editor and media spokesperson. Segars graduated magna cum laude with a degree in journalism from The University of Alabama and served as a newspaper reporter before joining Alabama Power in 1986 as a writer.

Segars’ civic involvement includes serving on the boards of the McClellan Development Authority, Calhoun County Economic Development Council, Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce, Anniston Museum of Natural History Endowment Board, and the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind Foundation. She currently serves as president of the Jacksonville State University Foundation and serves on the Alabama Women’s Commission, YMCA-Calhoun; and she is a member of the Anniston Rotary, Calhoun County’s Women’s Executive Network, and Etowah County’s First Friday Forum for executive women. She is a founding director and current chairman of G.E.T.T. Moving East Alabama, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting progress across Calhoun County. Segars is a graduate of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation fellows program and MOMENTUM, a women’s leadership program.

Segars is most proud to have leveraged her talents and professional success to advance the development of young women, who she says, “need to know that they can reach their dreams and are worthy of them.”

The most valuable lesson Segars has learned through Girl Scouting and service to the community is, “Goals are more likely to be reached, and the product most definitely enriched, through the contributions of a team with a variety of viewpoints and skill sets. Everyone needs help and has something to offer.” 

Segars will be honored at the 2012 East-Central Women of Distinction on March 9. For more information, visit girlscoutsnca.org/wodeastcentral.