Eaker, Martin join Hoover Library Board

The Hoover Public Library in November gained two new Library Board members: Mitzi Eaker from Inverness and Lori Martin from Riverchase.

The Hoover City Council appointed Eaker to fill a seat vacated early by Colleen Eikmeier and Martin to fill a seat vacated early by Ruth Cole. Terms on the Library Board normally are four years, but Eaker and Martin are filling only what’s left of the terms of their predecessors. Eaker’s term will go only through Dec. 1, 2023, and Martin’s term will expire on Dec. 1, 2024.

Mitzi Eaker

Eaker was born and raised in Gadsden and graduated from Gaston High School in Etowah County in 1990. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in social work from Jacksonville State University and a master’s degree in Christian education from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

She spent four years as a children’s minister at Southside Baptist Church in the city of Southside and nine years as a children’s consultant and children’s resource team leader for the national Women’s Missionary Union, based in Birmingham. During that time, she wrote two devotional books about mission work.

For the past 10 years, Eaker has run her own marketing company called Mitzi Jane Media, focused on helping small businesses. She also has been a member of the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneurial Council, provided free marketing training for the council and helped create marketing materials for the chamber website.

She ran unsuccessfully for Hoover City Council Place 2 in 2020, coming in last of five candidates, with Sam Swiney winning the seat after a runoff.

Eaker and her husband, Shane, have been married 18 years and have two boys — a 10th grader at Spain Park High School and seventh grader at Berry Middle School.

Eaker said when she homeschooled her children a couple of years ago, they spent a lot of time at the library, took part in kids’ programs and frequently checked out e-readers for road trips.

She met Library Director Amanda Borden during her council campaign and learned more about the library and its future plans and was really impressed, she said. She is excited to see the library setting up a mini-branch of sorts at the East 59 Café in The Village at Lee Branch and would love to see services continue to expand for eastern Hoover, she said.

She thinks she can use her marketing experience to help the library expand its public relations efforts, and she loves that the library is not just about reading, but also the arts and learning, she said.

Lori Martin

Martin grew up in Birmingham, graduated from Ensley High School in 1978 and earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern College in 1982, with a double major in political science and history, and a law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 1986.

She worked for West Publishing Co., who published law books, for almost three years and then went to work for the research library at the Bradley Arant Rose & White law firm, now Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. She is now director of research services for the firm’s 10 offices and 550 attorneys across the Southeast.

When she started, the law library was mostly hard copies and just beginning to offer online services, but now most everything they have is digital, she said.

Martin said she loves public libraries and believes the Hoover Public Library is a jewel and incredible resource for the community. “I want to make sure it stays that way,” she said.

She thinks the library does a terrific job with its programs and events such as the Southern Voices Festival and would love to see programs continue to expand, she said. She is an avid reader, but her husband, Mark Martin, loves to listen to audiobooks, she said.

She and her husband have been married 30 years. She lived in Homewood briefly after getting married, then in Bluff Park about three years before moving to Riverchase in 1995, where they still live, she said. They have two adult children, ages 28 and 25.

The Martins are active members at Riverchase United Methodist Church, where she sings in the choir and plays handbells.