As Thanksgiving approaches, we turn our focus for November toward two nonprofit organizations dedicated to service to others. Our speakers this month are Kristen Greenwood of Girlspring, a Birmingham-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls; and Ashton Johnson of The Arc of Central Alabama, a nonprofit serving people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Kristen Greenwood

Since 2016, Kristen Greenwood has served as Executive Director of GirlSpring, a Birmingham based non-profit with a mission of empowering girls. Prior to her role at GirlSpring, Greenwood worked at the Birmingham Museum of Art where she spent 15 years in the Education Department in various roles after receiving her MA in Art History from the University of Alabama. While at the Museum, Kristen developed a teen leadership program, Teen BMA. In addition to the teen program, she has a great deal of experience working with youth through the Museum’s school tours, outreach programs, studio art activities at the Museum and in the community, and community family days and festivals.

Through her role at the Museum, and at GirlSpring, she has worked in partnership with a number of community organizations, and has volunteered and served on several community boards. More recently she has served on the Stakeholder’s Committee of the Young Women’s Initiative at the Women’s Fund, and on the planning committee for the Powered by Girls conference in partnership with the Alys Stephens Center and Artplay.

In 2018, she was one of 16 selected to be a participant of the BBVA Compass Momentum Business Development Program developed in conjunction with the University of Texas, and in 2019 she was selected as a UAB Top 25 Excellence in Business Award recipient.

When she is not working, she and her husband enjoy traveling and try to make it overseas at least once a year.

Ashton Johnson

Born and raised in Birmingham, Ashton says she has always been proud of our community’s focus on philanthropy. Having personally experienced several obstacles as a teenager, she felt a desire to grow a career within the non-profit sector.

After graduating from UAB with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, she worked as a loaned executive for two years with the United Way of Central Alabama. Ashton served a year as a volunteer on The Arc of Central Alabama’s Junior Board before getting the opportunity to join the development department as the Donor and Volunteer Specialist.

As she approaches her four-year anniversary with The Arc, she likes to look back on the experience and says “there’s no place like home.” To Ashton, serving the mission of The Arc is more than a job, it is like joining a family.