David Bier | Madison City Council District 2 | Our Town w/ Troy Bye

On this episode of Our Town w/ Troy Bye, we welcome David Bier, Madison, Alabama City Council Representative for District 2, accomplished business executive, entrepreneur, and community leader whose career has taken him from the entertainment industry to corporate leadership and ultimately into public service.

David currently serves as Partner and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Frazier & Deeter Advisory, bringing decades of experience in business management, strategic planning, financial oversight, and organizational leadership to his role in municipal government.

Before entering the professional services industry, David spent approximately 22 years in the movie theater business, holding management positions across the country, including regional leadership responsibilities in Texas and oversight of one of the nation's top-performing theaters in Massachusetts.

In 2007, David and four business partners launched Monaco Pictures in Huntsville, Alabama, an upscale cinema concept that helped transform the moviegoing experience in the Tennessee Valley. As Vice President and Operating Partner, David played a key role in establishing, managing, and growing the business before its eventual sale.

Following his entrepreneurial success, David transitioned into executive leadership in the accounting and professional services industry, serving as Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Anglin Reichmann Armstrong. His responsibilities included strategic growth, business operations, organizational development, and leadership before moving into his current mergers and acquisitions role.

In February 2025, David announced his candidacy for Madison City Council District 2, following longtime representative Connie Spears' decision not to seek reelection. Elected without opposition, David began his term in November 2025.

He currently serves as Chair of the Madison City Council Finance Committee, applying his extensive private-sector experience to municipal budgeting, infrastructure investment, economic development, and long-term financial planning. His priorities include fiscal responsibility, managing Madison's rapid growth, supporting public safety and education, improving infrastructure, and preserving the community's exceptional quality of life.

David and his wife, Jennifer, live in Madison, where they raised their two sons, Ryan and Matthew.

In this conversation, we explore David's entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of building and selling a business, his transition into corporate leadership, and what inspired him to enter local politics. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges facing Madison, the complexities of balancing growth with community identity, and the differences between leading in the private sector and serving in elected government.

From entrepreneurship and corporate strategy to public service and community leadership, David shares his perspective on decision-making, accountability, and helping shape the future of one of North Alabama's fastest-growing communities.

Host/Interviewer: M. Troy Bye, Owner, Our Town with Troy Bye, a

brand of the Our Town Company, LLC

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On this episode of Our Town w/ Troy Bye, Troy welcomes Stephanie Cashin, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), EMDR-certified therapist, entrepreneur, and the founder and clinical director of Huntsville Integrative Therapy in Huntsville, Alabama. Known through her online presence as “The Huntsville Therapist,” Stephanie has built a professional identity around helping individuals better understand their emotional well-being, challenge deeply ingrained patterns of thinking, and develop healthier relationships with themselves and others.

Stephanie specializes in working with high-achieving women who, despite outward appearances of success, often find themselves struggling with burnout, anxiety, overwhelming responsibilities, people-pleasing, emotional exhaustion, and the pressure to meet the expectations of everyone around them. Her work addresses a particularly challenging contradiction of modern life: how someone can appear successful, productive, and accomplished while privately experiencing profound dissatisfaction, stress, or disconnection from their own identity.

As the founder of Huntsville Integrative Therapy, Stephanie has established a specialized mental health practice built around individualized, comprehensive care rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Her philosophy emphasizes helping clients understand not only the symptoms they experience but also the underlying beliefs, emotional experiences, and personal narratives that influence how they view themselves and navigate the world.

Stephanie also incorporates Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), an evidence-based psychotherapy approach commonly used in treating trauma and distressing memories, along with principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which emphasizes emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Through her practice and educational content, Stephanie explores issues such as perfectionism, self-abandonment, chronic stress, burnout, emotional boundaries, identity, and the often-unspoken expectations placed upon women balancing careers, families, caregiving responsibilities, and personal ambitions.

In addition to her clinical work, Stephanie is a business owner and mental health communicator. Through her online presence as @thehuntsvilletherapist, along with educational articles and other resources, she seeks to make conversations about therapy, emotional health, and personal growth more accessible and relatable.

Her work reflects an understanding that mental health challenges are not limited to those experiencing obvious crises. Even highly capable, accomplished individuals can struggle privately with feelings of inadequacy, unresolved emotional experiences, or a persistent sense that something is missing from their lives.

Stephanie earned graduate-level education at the University of Alabama and holds licensure as an Independent Clinical Social Worker through the Alabama Board of Social Work Examiners. Her professional qualifications also include EMDR certification and recognition as an approved continuing education provider through the Alabama Board of Social Work Examiners.

Her Huntsville-based practice provides in-person therapy as well as virtual services for clients throughout Alabama.

Learn more about Stephanie Cashin:

Website: https://therapyhuntsville.com

Instagram: @thehuntsvilletherapist

Practice: Huntsville Integrative Therapy

Location: Huntsville, Alabama

Host/Interviewer: M. Troy Bye, Owner, Our Town with Troy Bye, a

brand of the Our Town Company, LLC Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5NjTsQ72k00C5n7ghLapAWatch on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0JwD62zXPncMeFeQdTVomHAudio only available in all other platforms where you get your podcastsFollow us on social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/our-town-w-troy-bye-50033a234/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourtownpodcast

J. Henry Tate is an author, former private investigator, and longtime North Alabama resident whose debut novel, Echoes of Betrayal: Protocol Clean Slate, draws inspiration from an extraordinary chapter of his own life.Before becoming an author, Tate worked as a private investigator in Huntsville, Alabama, during the 1980s. What began as a seemingly routine domestic investigation unexpectedly developed into something much larger—an international espionage case that ultimately involved the U.S. State Department. For decades, Tate considered telling the story as nonfiction, but the complexities surrounding the real events made that difficult. After retiring from the mortgage industry, he ultimately decided to transform those experiences into fiction.The result is Echoes of Betrayal: Protocol Clean Slate, a mystery, espionage, and suspense thriller centered on Jack Campbell, an African American private investigator based in Alabama. Campbell's life is turned upside down when his boss and best friend, Daniel Draper, is shot in front of his family. What initially appears to be an isolated act of violence soon connects back to a previous investigation involving an Army captain and his Air Force wife—and ultimately pulls Campbell into a dangerous world of international espionage, government secrets, hidden identities, betrayal, and threats to national security.Published in 2024, Echoes of Betrayal: Protocol Clean Slate is Tate's first published novel. The 242-page thriller combines elements of mystery and espionage with questions surrounding loyalty, morality, relationships, technology, and the difficulty of knowing whom to trust when appearances can be deliberately deceiving.Tate's influences include authors such as John Grisham, Lee Child, Mark Dawson, and Cindy Dees. He has also indicated that Echoes of Betrayal may not be the end of Jack Campbell's story, with another installment involving the character among his planned writing projects.Beyond writing, Tate has had a varied professional career that has included private investigation and many years in the mortgage industry. He has also been involved in his North Alabama community, including serving as a longtime volunteer and former board member with Habitat for Humanity of Madison County.In this episode of Our Town, Troy sits down with J. Henry Tate to explore the remarkable true experiences that inspired Echoes of Betrayal: Protocol Clean Slate, his years as a private investigator in Huntsville, how an ordinary case reportedly escalated into an international espionage investigation, and why it took decades for Tate to finally turn the experience into a novel.Their conversation also explores the line between fact and fiction, the challenge of fictionalizing events involving real people and government agencies, Tate's transition from investigator and businessman to published novelist, and the creation of Jack Campbell and the world of Echoes of Betrayal.Host/Interviewer: M. Troy Bye, Owner, Our Town with Troy Bye, a brand of the Our Town Company, LLC Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5NjTsQ72k00C5n7ghLapAWatch on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0JwD62zXPncMeFeQdTVomHAudio only available in all other platforms where you get your podcastsFollow us on social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/our-town-w-troy-bye-50033a234/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourtownpodcast