By Nicole S. Daniel
The Birmingham Times
After recently being elected Southern Area Director of The Links, Incorporated, Vanessa Falls remembered a piece of advice she received from one of her mentors.
“She said, ‘If you’re leading and nobody’s following, you’re just taking a walk.’ I don’t want to just take a walk. I want people to follow me. I want people to join me. I want people to walk side-by-side with me to do what The Links, Incorporated, was established to do—and that’s to serve the underserved.”
Falls was installed during the Southern Area of The Links, Incorporated, Conference, which was held last month in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her term is for the 2023–2025 biennium, but her work with the organization began more than 20 years ago.
“It is an honor to serve as [Area Director]. I believe, through intentional friendship and service, we will set the trend and become the arbiters of paradigm shifts that will change our world for the better,” said Falls, who is the first Southern Area Director from Birmingham.
While she is “excited” to be the first, Falls said, “I don’t believe in sitting on a throne. … Everybody likes to be first, but what means more to me is to be good, to be respected, to do what I was called to do, and to lead with intentionality. I want to make sure I fulfill the promises I made in my campaign brochure. Being first is OK, but being first and not doing what you said means nothing.”
Falls is a member of the Birmingham (AL) chapter, one of 82 in the Southern Area, which is comprised of chapters in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the Commonwealth of Bahamas. Her role as the new director is to guide more than 5,000 volunteer members in those locations.
Since joining the organization in 2003, Falls has served as Southern Area Vice Director, Southern Area Secretary, and President of the Birmingham (AL) Chapter. Additionally, she has been a member of numerous committees for the organization including the National Membership Committee, National Ethics & Standards Committee, and National Governance Committee and now her current role. In each position, she worked hard to “[do] what I was elected for,” she said.
“I want to be about it, not talk about it,” Falls added. “I believe in providing when I’m elected. You put your trust in me, and I don’t want that trust violated.”
Serving as Southern Area Director will give her a greater opportunity “to provide those tools, resources, energy, information, anything that could make the community, the world a better place than I found it,” she said.
In addition to adhering to her mentor’s advice, Falls is also governed by one of her favorite quotes from tennis icon Serena Williams: “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble.”
The Gift of Giving
Falls was born and raised in Birmingham, in a two-parent household. She is the oldest of three, with sister Michele Perry and brother Thomas Falls Jr.
Falls can remember seeing her parents, married 52 years, praying together, giving to various causes together, and loving together. She saw her parents as kind, giving Christians who were all about service, which ultimately made them her role models.
One day, Falls recalled, she came home and saw four kids at the kitchen table eating spaghetti.
“I said, ‘Daddy, what are you doing?’ He called me by my middle name, ‘Rena’, and said, ‘They knocked on the door and said they were hungry, so I’m feeding them.’”
Falls believes her father’s cleaning service, Falls Facility Services Inc., has been successful for 60 years because he is such a loving and caring person.
“We started with five employees in 1959. It was myself, my father, my brother, my sister, and my mother. We now have 200 employees,” said Falls, who is executive vice president (EVP) of the company.
“I believe my father was passionate about service, giving back to those that could not do for themselves, helping those and teaching those that could not fish how to fish,” she said.
When giving back, she added, it’s important that “you don’t just give [people] a handout. You should teach them how to grow and how to make their own.”
Falls attended Birmingham City Schools and John Carroll High School. After graduating from high school in 1975, she attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she majored in special education.
“I told myself, ‘This is my calling.’ That’s why I pursued that field in college,” she said.
Through an internship at the Nazareth House, a special needs facility that was part of the Catholic Diocese in Birmingham, Falls learned a lot about individuals with disabilities.
“I saw [what they could do] if you gave them an opportunity to get some form of education or an opportunity to learn a craft. I felt that was an area that was neglected,” she said.
Falls completed her undergraduate studies in 1979. Afterward, she worked part time at her family’s cleaning business while pursuing her master’s degree in special education and certification in counseling at The University of Alabama in Birmingham. When she completed her studies in 1982, she became a school counselor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, a position she held until 2009.
Currently, in addition to her roles of EVP for Falls Janitorial Services and Southern Area Director of The Links, Incorporated, Falls is a member of the board of directors for the Industrial Development Board for the city of Birmingham and chair of the board of directors and Capital Fund for the YMCA.
She and her husband, Walter Body, retired Director of Multicultural Marketing and Consumers for Coca-Cola UNITED, have four children and one granddaughter.
“Collaborative and Proactive”
Falls joined The Links, Incorporated, in 2003, when she was invited by a friend.
“[Participation] is by invitation not application. My sponsor saw something in me that she thought I could give to the organization,” said Falls, who in her current role plans to align the goals and objectives of the Southern Area with those of the national organization.
“I want to provide impactful and transformational programs that will permanently transform the lives of people,” she said. “This goal includes uplifting our Black and brown children and their families by providing educational and cultural opportunities that otherwise might not be available to them.
“I believe that how you lead and how you guide may be different, and everyone is different. I am going to lead with intentionality, standing on the promise of the two tenets [of The Links, Incorporated]: friendship and service.”
“When you serve alongside a friend, you do it better, you do it harder, you do it with the heart,” Falls said.
Birmingham-area members of the organization said they are pleased to have Falls as the Southern Area Director of The Links, Incorporated.
Cheryl Anderson Kidd, president of the Birmingham (AL) Chapter, said, “Our chapter is proud of Vanessa and fully supports her as our newly elected Southern Area Director. Her core values are friendship, integrity, honesty, and service. She will be outstanding in this role.”
Terri H. Gardner, president of the Magic City (AL) Chapter, said, “Vanessa’s leadership is collaborative and proactive. She will reflect the organization’s values well as she leads us.”
Dr. Tonya Perry, president of the Tri-County (AL) Chapter, said, “We are blessed to have Vanessa as our Southern Area Director. She is not only prepared for this role but also equipped with an impressive work ethic that keeps the members of my chapter excited as we serve our community.”
The Southern Area is one of four areas of The Links, Incorporated, which consists of more than 16,000 professional women of color in 288 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.
