How a phone call nearly 30 years ago helped create community

By María Saporta

It was a call Hala Moddelmog says changed her life, at least her career.

It was back in 1995. Moddelmog, who had been in the food service business since 1981, had just been promoted to president of Atlanta-based Church’s Chicken chain of restaurants, the first woman to get such a job nationally in the industry.

“The nanosecond I got the title as president, I got the call from Ann Cramer and Jane Smith,” Moddelmog said in a recent interview with Cramer. “Ann said: ‘You are the only woman in town with that title.’”

At the time Moddelmog and Cramer, who had a leadership role at IBM, barely knew each other.

“I was so happy that we now had a woman in the top executive offices working for a company that was headquartered here,” Cramer said.

During the mid-1990s in Atlanta, it was extremely rare to find women in the executive suites of major companies.

“Ann invites me to lunch with Jane Smith [a Spelman alumna who was the program director for Jimmy Carter’s Atlanta Project],” Moddelmog said. “It was clear they thought that part of my duty of being a woman president of a company that was headquartered here, that I should be involved in the community. It didn’t feel like a choice. It felt like it was a responsibility. I was totally flattered that these women asked me to lunch.”

Cramer, who now chairs the board of Atlanta Way 2.0, chimed in: “Yes, it was the title, and yes, it was an Atlanta company, and yes, she was a woman. It was important to us to elevate and connect who you are and what you’re doing with expectations.”

At the time, Moddelmog had a fourth grader and a second grader. Plus, she was working extra hard to master the job as president of Church’s.

“I was a marketing person,” Moddelmog said. “The guys who chose me, chose me because of strategy. Another reason I got the job was because I had bonded with the franchisees, and I knew the numbers. That was a very special time.

Despite her personal and professional commitments, Cramer and Smith, who died in December 2020, insisted Moddelmog become engaged in the Atlanta community.

“They made sure I got into Leadership Atlanta in 1997,” Moddelmog said. “And you can’t hide from Ann.”

At the time, Cramer said “women did volunteer work, and men did the civic work.” But there finally was a top woman executive who could be considered a peer in the civic world. 

“It’s not where you sit, but on what you stand!” said Cramer, about leadership. “Not only did Hala hear us, but she acted on it.”

Eventually, Moddelmog joined the Metro Atlanta Chamber and got involved with the Alliance Theatre. “I didn’t get invited to join the Woodruff Arts Center board until Virginia Hepner was here.”

Fast forward to 2006, Moddelmog, a breast cancer survivor, became president and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Later she was named president of Atlanta-based Arby’s Restaurant Group. Then in 2014, she became the first woman president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, a role she held until 2020 when she became CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, a position she holds to this day. 

Those roles can be traced back to the pressure she got from Cramer and Smith in the mid-1990s to get involved in the Atlanta community.

“It meant everything,” Moddelmog said. “There is no way I would have had the opportunity to be interviewed to be the CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber or the Woodruff Arts Center if I had not had that meeting with and an invitation from Ann and Jane. It was a not-so-subtle message: “Get yourself involved.” It changed everything.”

Moddelmog shared the story about Cramer and Smith when she was interviewed for the Monica Pearson Show and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. During the interview, around minute 14:50, Moddelmog shared the story about Cramer’s initial call and how important it was in strengthening her role in the community. 

This story exemplifies the tradition of the Atlanta Way. 

For decades, whenever a new executive would come to town, a group of business leaders would call on him — yes, they were almost always male — and explain that in Atlanta, you not only have to pay your office rent, but also your civic rent. They shared a clear message of welcoming the new executive to Atlanta and find ways to make sure he became engaged in the community.

Today, one of the key initiatives of Atlanta Way 2.0 is to establish a “welcome wagon” for people new to the city. The welcome wagon is not limited to CEOs but to leaders of all kinds in a wide array of fields – from the arts, music, nonprofits, social organizations, and neighborhood groups.

The Atlanta Way 2.0 movement invites our Activators to get on board the welcome wagon by inviting newcomers to the city and region to become involved in making our community as close-knit as possible.

As the Moddelmog story demonstrates, it is a model Cramer has been practicing for decades. Imagine the dividends that we will reap as a community when we replicate that practice.

Certainly, the message is not lost on Moddelmog.

“Atlanta will let you in if you are willing to do the work,” Moddelmog said. “There are not a lot of other places where that is true.”

Maria Saporta is the CEO of Atlanta Way 2.0 as well as the executive editor of SaportaReport. We will continue to share stories highlighting the principles and practices of Atlanta Way 2.0.