By Javacia Harris Bowser | For The Birmingham Times
After 43 years as a communications professional who’s done noteworthy and award-winning work in both journalism and public relations, Sherrel Wheeler Stewart is retiring — sort of.
Though Stewart retired officially on Oct. 1, from her role as Strategy and Communications Officer for Birmingham City Schools (BCS), her story is far from over.
“This is the time to pursue my real passion, which is writing,” Stewart, 65, told The Birmingham Times during an interview on a cool, comfortable fall morning at her home in Hoover, Alabama.
Perhaps that’s why the first thing on her agenda is to buy a new laptop. She’s literally worn out the keys on her current computer.
Over the past four decades, Stewart has held numerous positions at various media outlets and other organizations, including The Birmingham News, The Tennessean, WBHM 90.3 FM, Southern Natural Gas, and others.
She’s been a leader of the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists (BABJ) and a visiting professor at the University of Alabama, in addition to mentoring countless emerging journalists and helping to recruit top talent.
In her role with BCS, she helped the school system navigate the tumultuous times of the COVID-19 pandemic and shape campaigns aimed at shifting the oftentimes negative narrative about public schools.
Success Starts Here
Stewart, a proud Birmingham native, grew up in the Riley neighborhood with her parents, the Rev. Herbert Wheeler and Veraneice Wheeler, and her three older siblings: Herbert, Vincent, and Clovia. As Stewart reflects on her childhood, she notes the positive impact of attending Riley Elementary and Jones Valley High School, both which were part of BCS.
“I can’t say enough about my education in [BCS],” Stewart said. “I had very good teachers from elementary school to high school who really encouraged me and who sought opportunities for me to grow.”
In fact, it was a counselor at Jones Valley High School that encouraged her to apply for an internship program with WBHM so she could learn more about news reporting. Stewart’s fond memories of her school days motivated her to want to work for the school district.
“That’s why I wanted that job,” she said, “because I got so sick and tired of hearing folks bash our school district.”
Stewart started at BCS in June 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was like baptism by fire,” she recalled. “There was so much to do. I had to think fast every day about getting messages out to parents and informing the public about what we were doing and why we were doing it. It was just a constant churn of information.
“After we got beyond COVID, I wanted to work on the perception of BCS because there are some people who assume it’s not good because it is an urban school district. Well, that’s a lie. BCS offers quality education for scholars and tremendous support for its employees.”
The Success Starts Here campaign is meant to shift the narrative. The initiative shares the message that BCS graduates are having “an impact on our state and our world,” Sewart said in a 2023 AL.com article about the program, to help increase enrollment across the school district and make BCS “the first choice in education for all students in this area.”
“There is just so much success that has come out of the school district,” she added. “We need to be reminded ourselves, and we need to make certain that the community knows that there is success produced every day in BCS.”
A Storied Career
Stewart began her journalism career in August 1982 at The Birmingham News just after graduating from the University of Alabama. “I was a grunt,” she said with a laugh when asked about her first post-college job. “I was like the kid of the newsroom.”
There were no reporting positions open at the time, so Stewart was hired as an editorial assistant. But she was soon moved up to be a zone reporter covering communities north of downtown, including North Birmingham, Norwood, Fultondale, Gardendale, Kimberly, Morris, and Warrior.
She still remembers showing up to cover her first council meeting in Kimberly dressed in a pantsuit, pumps, and pearls. Everyone else at city hall — dressed in denim — thought she was a lawyer there to “get somebody out of jail,” she said.
No matter what community she covered, Stewart built relationships with people whose stories she wanted to tell. “I realized that we were different in many ways, but I still needed those relationships in order to get the news,” she said.
Eventually, Stweart started covering the Birmingham City Council for The Birmingham News before moving on to The Tennessean, in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1987 to serve as the education editor and to supervise the newspaper’s interns.
The Next Phase
Then she and her husband, William Stewart, were ready to have children, she took a job as communications coordinator at Southern Natural Gas in Birmingham.
“At the time, we were starting a family,” she said. “There are many women who are very strong and have been able to keep up the pace required for reporting and editing in a competitive environment, but, honestly, at that period of my life, I wanted that 9-to-5 so I could enjoy that next phase of my life.”
Being out of the newsroom allowed Stewart to participate in other civic initiatives, such as a young professionals group assembled by then-Mayor Richard Arrington.
“We were like a quasi-cabinet,” she explained. “He would meet with us on a monthly basis, and we would sit around the table and talk about issues, things going on in the city, and give feedback. Most of us were in our early 30s, and I really appreciate him so much for that.”
Later, Stewart was called back to her alma mater, the University of Alabama, to serve as a visiting professor/professional in residence in the journalism department. During that time, she also worked as a writing coach for The Tuscaloosa News and the Alabama Press Association.
Future Draft Picks
In 1999, she returned to The Birmingham News as an investigative reporter and Saturday editor. She was also given an unexpected charge when her higher-ups asked her to help recruit and retain more Black journalists. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute. You’re telling me you want me to find Black folks? It’s on!’”
Stewart attended career fairs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), such as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Jackson State University, and Howard University. She recruited at conventions of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and tapped a few students from her days at the University of Alabama. She called the folder of resumes she collected from top talent her “Future Draft Picks.”
Throughout Stewart’s career, mentoring younger journalists has always been a top priority.
“When I wanted to write, I really didn’t have anybody,” she said. “Until I got to The Birmingham News and met Ingrid Kindred, who became my mentor, I didn’t know any Black female writers. I just knew I wanted to write.”
Stewart left The Birmingham News in 2012 and, after freelancing for a year, went on to work at WBHM for five years before taking the position at BCS.
As Stewart looks back over her career, what she’s most proud of is, “the people I’ve been able to cheer,” she said.
“I said ‘cheer’ because the majority of the people I have mentored already had the skills, the ability, and the capacity. I’ve tried to be that person who just said, ‘You can do this!’”
Stewart mentored Staci Brown Brooks, who after a long career at The Birmingham News and AL.com went on to work in communications at Alabama Power Company and currently serves as president of the Alabama Power Foundation and vice president of Alabama Power Charitable Giving.
“When I met Staci, she was 19 years old, and she already had drive and initiative and was intelligent,” Stewart said. “Same with Joseph Bryant, [who is currently the government reporter for AL.com]. Joseph was already on fire. He just needed somebody to say, ‘You got this! Go for it!’”
Testimonies
Bryant said, “Very few people have played a major role in seemingly every aspect of my life more than Sherrel Stewart. In fact, she had a part in most of my major career moves, beginning when she drove a van full of college students to a job fair where I landed my first internship to eventually serving as my editor in my earliest days at The Birmingham News.”
He added, “She checks all the boxes as a mentor, boss, and friend. Sherrel has touched countless people and delivers her own brand of wisdom, wit, and passion to everything and everyone she touches. When you call, she’ll answer. If you’re in need, she’ll deliver.”
Brooks said, “Sherrel was one of my journalism instructors in college, and it was a special delight to end up working with her at The Birmingham News so many years ago. I wish her well in her retirement, but we all know Sherrel doesn’t really know how to stop working.”
Brooks added that Stewart has a heart for the Birmingham community “and especially a heart for children, [so] I know she will continue to serve. Hopefully her projects will just be spaced out by some fabulous trips.”
In fact, that’s exactly what Stewart has planned. She promised someone special that she would take a break.
In 2024, Stewart’s husband of 37 years passed away. “I had promised [William] that I would retire, slow down, and enjoy life,” she said. “I’m going to keep that promise.”
Among the excursions she has in mind are a trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and an African safari, as well as a trek to the Mediterranean Sea and the South of France. She’s also planning more visits to see her daughter Alexandria, a 31-year-old physical therapist who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and she wants to spend more time with her son BJ, 34, who has special needs and lives at home with Stewart.
“A News Nerd Forever”
The Birmingham Times met with Stewart in her “happy place” — the backyard patio of her home, which complete with a fire pit and plush outdoor furniture. Also adorning the space is a luscious Japanese maple tree that “sets the tone,” Stewart said. It’s the perfect place to relax or to write.
“But I also have a television,” she said, pointing to the flat screen mounted on the side of the house. “I’m a news nerd forever.”
Always in mentor mode, Stewart stressed the importance of being well read for any young person considering a career in journalism. “Find other writers and journalists you like, emulate some of their approach to storytelling, and then find what works for you,” she said.
The veteran journalist and PR pro also offered this advice: “You don’t do it because you’re trying to get rich. You will make enough to eat if you do it well, but journalism is something you do because of your passion and your purpose.”
During retirement, Stewart has plans to freelance write and report, which she has done consistently over the course of her career. She has freelanced for The Root, Black America Web, Reuters, the BBC, and other media outlets. In the future, she hopes to do some feature writing centered on education. But she also has book ideas and has dreams of writing a television series and pitching it to Netflix.
“The challenge is for me to slow down,” Stewart admits with a laugh.
