Photo by Jon Anderson
Keri Bates, the 2025 chairwoman of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, introduces other members of the chamber's 2025 board of directors during the chamber's luncheon at the Vestavia Country Club on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
One of the first things Keri Bates did when she opened Rocky Ridge Drug Co. in 2017 was join the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce.
She didn’t know what to expect, but she was pleasantly surprised by the results, she said.
She met many people who became mentors and resources as her business faced challenges and sought ways to grow, she said. Now, as chairwoman of the chamber’s board of directors this year, she hopes the chamber can help other business owners tackle the issues they face and collectively move the city’s business community forward.
A major initiative of the chamber right now is developing merchant groups and business districts across different parts of Vestavia Hills.
The city stretches about 18 miles from west to east and includes several distinct business districts. Businesses in those areas could benefit by working together to address issues unique to their specific locations, Bates said.
The Cahaba Heights Merchants Association, led by Katherine McRee, has been a strong example, she said. The association has organized numerous community events, including Deck the Heights at Christmas, Hunt the Heights around Easter, The Heights Hangout in the spring and the Paw-Di Gras dog parade during Mardi Gras season.
The group has worked with city officials on projects to support local businesses, such as road improvements and signage to welcome people to Cahaba Heights.
The chamber wants to help other communities in the city — such as Rocky Ridge — follow that model, and is working to strengthen connections between business owners, Bates said.
“I just really, really believe in the power of relationship,” she said. “The more we can all come together — more minds are better than one, and discussion can be very fruitful in solving problems and coming up with ideas. … We can all do more together than alone.”
Merchant groups also can benefit by sharing ideas, learning from each other and coordinating calendars to avoid scheduling overlapping events, Bates said.
“We don’t want these groups of people to have fragmentation where they don’t communicate and are competing with each other,” she said.
BACKGROUND
Bates moved to the Birmingham area around 1999, graduated from Hoover High School in 2002 and earned a doctorate in pharmacy from Auburn University in 2009.
She got her start in the pharmacy industry at age 16, working at Weldon’s Pharmacy in Hueytown throughout high school and college. She also worked for Walgreens in Auburn, a Target pharmacy, and then served as director of pharmacy for a long-term care pharmacy that filled prescriptions for nursing homes across the Southeast.
But Bates longed to have more direct relationships with customers and, with help from her father, husband and brother, launched Rocky Ridge Drug Co. in 2017. She remains the primary operator.
She quickly got involved with the chamber, became a chamber ambassador and joined the board of directors in 2018. It was the chamber, she said, that helped her and other businesses navigate the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing information about the government’s Paycheck Protection Program and other initiatives that helped businesses survive.
She has gained both customers and employees through her chamber involvement and made connections that helped solve business problems over the years, she said.
But, as she likes to remind people, “The chamber is there to be a resource for you and to be support for you, [but] you can really get out of the chamber what you put into it.”
