Brenda Dennis earns Alabama Accredited Chamber Executive designation

Brenda Dennis added a statewide chamber credential to a résumé already marked by rapid growth in Millbrook. The Millbrook Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO earned the Alabama Accredited Chamber Executive designation, one of only 29 chamber professionals to receive it so far and one of four honored in 2026.

Alabama Chambers presented the designation during its Night of Champions on April 28 in Huntsville as part of the 2026 Executive Leadership Conference, which ran April 28-30. The program is designed to recognize chamber executives for experience, service to Alabama chambers, training, continuing education and professional achievement. Applicants must have at least five years in the chamber industry, submit an essay and provide four letters of recommendation, along with the $150 application fee.

For Millbrook, the credential carries more than personal cachet. Chambers are often the group a city uses to recruit employers, line up partners and push public-facing projects, and Dennis now carries a statewide designation that signals peer-reviewed chamber leadership. That matters in a city where the chamber has already been part of visible civic work, including a collaborative mural grant program with the City of Millbrook, support for the Alabama Mural Trail and scholarships through the Junior Ambassador Program.

Dennis joined the chamber industry in 2021 and became president and CEO in November 2023. Since then, Millbrook coverage says chamber membership rose 41 percent and operating income climbed 54 percent. The chamber’s own staff page says Dennis rebranded the organization, tripled operating income and increased membership by nearly 50 percent. The chamber also earned Alabama chamber accreditation in 2024, a milestone that gave Dennis and her board another benchmark to build on.

Her professional credentials have expanded quickly. Dennis earned her IOM from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in June 2025 after completing 96 credit hours of nonprofit management instruction. She has more than 20 years of experience in public relations and development, and her background includes service with Leadership Montgomery and the Prattville-Millbrook Sunrise Rotary Club. She is also a Huntingdon College graduate.

The chamber association behind the honor traces its roots to 1937, when it began as the Alabama Association of Commercial Organizations. This year’s other AACE honorees were Kristy Drake of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, Stan Witherow of the Albertville Chamber and Heather Lebischak of the North Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

In a county where local chambers are often expected to do the quiet work of business retention, new investment and civic coordination, Dennis’s latest credential strengthens the Millbrook chamber’s standing in Alabama’s broader business network.