FAIRHOPE, June 28, 2025 – Wendy Allen, the first woman ever to chair the Baldwin County Commission, will retire July 1, 2025, after a decade as a Program Director of South Alabama’s health and sustainability organization, Smart Coast.

 

Allen, remembered for pioneering a series of lasting Baldwin County initiatives, will take up responsibilities in a family-related business.  Her early civic leadership – a noted series of “firsts” – included originating the County’s first long range plan.  She also played a key role in developing the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, and convened the first area Council of Governments to address what is now the County’s web-based Geographic Information Service.  Allen was also on the first policy board for Mobile Bay’s National Estuary Program and was a first co-Chair of Envision Coastal Alabama.

 

“Wendy Allen’s civic initiatives are readily traced into her later leadership with us”, observed Smart Coast Vice-President Beverley Allen (not family-related), a Daphne accountant and business owner.  “Her long-term interest in intelligent development led to formation of the Green Coast Council that’s now encouraging sustainable business practices in the region.”  The Green Coast Council is based on the concept of businesses making “triple bottom line” decisions of economic vitality; environmental stewardship; and social responsibility.

 

Wendy Allen joined Fairhope community advocate Charlene Lee in 2002 to promote smart growth in Alabama’s rapidly swelling coastal population.  The pair developed projects within the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

 

Their experience together led to the creation of Smart Coast, whose Board membership over the last decade has witnessed a succession of area leaders in business, education, medicine, financial management, public relations and community planning.  Besides the Green Coast Council, the group is widely known for creating programs advancing health among school children, including Safe Routes to Schools walking programs.  Last month, Smart Coast was honored by the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and AARP Alabama, for its leadership in encouraging Complete Streets policies throughout South Alabama.

 

“Smart Coast is deeply indebted to Wendy for her tremendous contributions, not just to our organization but to our whole coastal region,” Vice-President Allen noted.  “Her passion and concern for the environment has had an impact we’re already feeling – and we can only imagine what it will mean for future generations of Alabamians.  We will miss her greatly as she moves into a new chapter of her life.”