STEPHANIE BELL was first elected in 1994 to the Alabama State Board of Education which oversees the state’s kindergarten through 12^th grades, two-year colleges, workforce development, and teacher education programs. She was re-elected in November 2008 to serve a fifth term on the board.

Mrs. Bell is a charter member of the National Council of Women Advisors to Congress and a seven-year member of the Education Commission of the States. She has been appointed to serve three terms on the National Association of State Boards of Education Governmental Affairs Committee and was executive director of the Statewide Committee on Reforming Education. She participated in the National Governors’ Association Alabama Travel Team to develop education policy and was a charter member of the Education Leaders’ Council.

She has participated in regional and national reading conferences in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and recently served on two National Association of State Boards of Education Study Groups: “Reading at Risk: How States Can Respond to the Crisis in Adolescent Literacy” and “Beginning in the Middle: Critical Steps in Secondary School Reform.” (Alabama’s Reading Initiative was used as a model for addressing the nationwide crisis in adolescent literacy.) She represented Alabama at the National Council of State Legislators’ Conference on Teen Health and Pregnancy Prevention, and was appointed to the Alabama Teacher Preparation Advisory Council.

As a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser/Alabama Journal, Mrs. Bell covered all facets of government, including education, the courts, and the legislature. She was presented the CASE II Media Award by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education for a series of articles she wrote about corruption and abuse in the state’s two-year college system. She was recognized by the Alabama Press Association in the Best News Story category and was a Hector Award nominee for meritorious reporting.

Mrs. Bell taught English to Chinese adults while living in Taichung, Taiwan, and wrote a weekly column about her experience for The Montgomery Advertiser.

Quoted in numerous major books and national publications, she has also been interviewed by the BBC (broadcast internationally), major national radio talk shows, and National Public Television and Radio. She appeared statewide on Alabama Public Television in an hour-long debate as one of two opponents of the proposed largest tax increase in the state’s history.

She has been a speaker and panelist for many organizations, including the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. She has been a Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee member for 15 years and a Federation of Republican Women member for nearly 30 years.

Mrs. Bell has participated in YMCA Youth in Government programs, the Alabama Youth Leadership Forum, and the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation. She has also coached several YMCA youth soccer teams.

She has volunteered as a counselor for SAV-A-Life Ministries and newsletter editor at Father Purcell’s Exceptional Children’s Center. She has served on the Governor’s Domestic Violence Advisory Council, the Family Guidance Center Board and Camp ASCCA committee.

She has been a Junior League of Montgomery member for 24 years, served on its Board of Control, and chaired the League’s committee that published the city’s first comprehensive college scholarship and financial aid booklet.

Mrs. Bell is listed among the Outstanding Young Women of America and has received the “Friend of Education” Award, the Emma Sansom Heroine Award, and the Alabama Eagle Award for her work for “God, Family, and Country.” She was honored by the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Program as the recipient of the O’Brian Legacy Award.

She attended Montgomery public schools (starting in first grade), graduated in 1975 from Jefferson Davis High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Auburn University.

The former Stephanie Wolfe has been married 29 years to attorney John C. Bell. They have three daughters: Sarah, a practicing attorney who graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law; Becca, a graduate student in the Harrison School of Pharmacy at Auburn University; and Katie, a sophomore bio-medical sciences major at Auburn University. John David, their son, is in heaven. They are members of Trinity Presbyterian Church.