Left to right: Kim Lewis, 2019 Chair of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber Board of Directors, with Bobby Bradley, winner of the Chamber’s annual Distinguished Service Award. This is the highest honor the Chamber presents to an individual. (Hiroko Sedensky/February 18, 2020)

The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber hosted its 84^th Annual Membership Meeting on Tuesday, February 18 at the Von Braun Center North Hall. During the event, our 2019 Board Chair Kim Lewis officially passed the gavel to our 2020 Board Chair, Kevin Byrnes.

In her last official act as Chair, Lewis presented the Distinguished Service Award to Bobby Bradley, a 4^th generation Huntsvillian who has been involved in numerous professional and community organizations. Bradley is co-founder of Village of Promise, an organization that works to address the needs of children and families in low income neighborhoods in order to break the cycle of generational poverty.

Our Annual Membership Meeting gives us the opportunity to present updates on the past year to members and community leaders, plus look ahead to what’s in store in the coming months. We also distributed our 2019 Annual Report to attendees, and it is published online.

Destin Sandlin was the keynote speaker for the luncheon.  He is an American engineer and science  communicator who produces the video series Smarter Every Day on his YouTube channel of the same name, which was launched in 2007.  To date, this educational series has amassed 7.7 million followers. Sandlin explores the world every day using science and shares what he learns in hopes that people will see the world differently.

Sandlin has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Sandlin was, until late 2018, a full-time Missile Flight Test Engineer at Redstone Arsenal. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.