NoVES members Ralph Hammelbacher and Faith Halter recently returned from a 3-plus year sojourn in Birmingham, Alabama, where they moved temporarily for Ralph’s work. Their initial reservations about living in the Deep South lifted when they decided to approach it like any other move to a different culture: as a chance to explore and to learn. It was a transformative experience in many ways. Ralph and Faith will share some of their insights about this region of our country and about themselves.

Faith Halter and Ralph Hammelbacher are members of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society. Ralph’s career has been as an organizer of adventurous travel, and in Birmingham he was president of the tour company International Expeditions. Faith is a leadership coach and organizational consultant specializing in stress reduction and helping people find creative solutions to issues affecting their lives and work. She spent twenty-five years in the environmental field, first as an attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then as a consultant. They have traveled to a combined total of more than 100 countries.