Featured Falcons: Brooke McKinley

May 20, 2025

Before becoming the leader of a nonprofit serving families in crisis, Brooke McKinley learned the value of service and community as a student at the University of Montevallo. Today, she leads Shelby Emergency Assistance with those same values, helping people not only survive emergencies, but build better futures.

As a transfer student from Central Alabama Community College, McKinley was drawn to Montevallo for its welcoming atmosphere. Inspired by her cousin who worked in the field, the Sylacauga native found herself pulled toward social work and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in 2008.

“I just love that it’s a career where we get to help people,” she said. “You really get the payoff of feeling like you’re leaving the world in a better place than you found it.”

Some of her most meaningful memories from her time at UM include living in Main Hall and the mentorship she received from her advisor, the late Dr. Susan Vaughn ’71, professor emerita of social work and former director of the Social Work Program.

“She believed in me, always encouraged me and was one hundred percent honest with me,” McKinley said. “When I got this position she said, ‘You should be so proud of yourself.’ That validation from someone I admire so much meant so much to me.”

After starting her career in public service — first as a social worker with the Alabama Department of Human Resources, then as a program coordinator with Judicial Correction Services — McKinley realized her true calling was in nonprofit work. She held various roles at the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama until 2015, gaining experience in community outreach and service delivery.

Over the next eight years, she brought that passion to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, where she served as director of marketing and public relations, as well as mentoring and development coordinator. In those roles, she organized fundraising events, strengthened community partnerships and helped expand the agency’s overall presence.

In April 2023, McKinley was appointed as executive director of Shelby Emergency Assistance, a nonprofit that provides basic needs to Shelby County residents in crisis, helping them achieve self-sufficiency and empowering them to make positive contributions to their community.

“Say someone’s lost their job or become disabled and they find themselves in a financial bind,” she said. “We can help provide utility assistance, housing assistance and medical assistance for things like glasses, prescriptions or medical equipment. We also have a food pantry, and we help with toiletries.”

On the self-sufficiency side, SEA understands that while some clients just need financial support through a crisis, others benefit from more long-term solutions to avoid future hardships. That’s why the organization also provides job preparation, résumé assistance, financial coaching and household budgeting.

Every day as executive director is different for McKinley, but her main responsibilities are staying connected with her staff to see if they have what they need, tracking which families SEA is serving, noting what resources are needed and determining whether the organization has the funding to meet those needs. She also writes grant reports, meets with funders to try to get support, collaborates with SEA’s board of directors to plan fundraisers and works on community outreach.

“We’re known as the most affluent county in Alabama, and we have the lowest poverty rate in Alabama by county,” she said. “But there are a little over 20,000 people living in poverty. There’s homelessness, but people don’t see it because it’s not as blatant as in the city. There is so much need even amongst so much affluence.”

Getting to see people transition from being in crisis to getting stable again is what McKinley finds most rewarding.

“When they feel like there’s no hope and this is their last-ditch effort to get some help, and we’re able to say, ‘Absolutely, we can meet that need,’ it’s not just that need being met,” she said. “For them it’s ‘Hey, someone’s heard me, someone cares enough to do something, it’s going to be okay.’”