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Council of Advisors

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Senator Bob Graham is the former two-term governor of Florida and served for 18 years in the United States Senate. Graham also served for 12 years in the Florida legislature for a total of 38 years of public service. He is recognized for his leadership on issues ranging from healthcare and environmental preservation to his ten years of service on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – including serving as chairman in 2001-2002. After retiring

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After graduating from law school at the University of Florida, Martha Barnett became the first female attorney hired by Holland and Knight where she has practiced law for 40 years. Barnett was elected president of the American
Bar Association in 2000, only the second woman to head
the ABA in its history. Barnett also served alongside first
lady Hillary Clinton on the inaugural ABA Commission
on Women in the Profession, which has produced leading research on women in the

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J. Hyatt Brown is the former president and chief executive officer of Brown and Brown Insurance and currently serves as the chairman of the organization. B&B is the seventh largest insurance broker in the Unites States and is publicly owned (NYSE:BRO). He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1972 and served as Speaker of the House from 1978 to 1980. Brown currently serves on the board for International Speedway Corporation in Daytona,

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Mary Chiles is a public relations professional that has passionately served Floridians for more than 28 years. She joined Gov. Graham’s administration in 1980 as the Public Relations Coordinator for the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. There she helped to institute and promote the Sunshine State Games. Chiles served as the County Organization Director for Gov. Graham’s first U.S. Senate race. After Graham’s successful campaign, Chiles was appointed as the Director of Constituency

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Mr. Cunningham is CEO of The Brand Advocates, Inc. an award winning public relations firm in Miami. His team won the 2015 PRNews Platinum PR Award in the community relations category. These awards represent and honor the best work in the public relations industry. Mr. Cunningham is an expert in public relations and public affairs. He has led successful public relations and public affairs campaigns for a government and private sector clients over the last

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James “Jim” Edward Eaton is an Attorney at Law and member of the Florida Bar, practicing with James E. Eaton Law Office. Jim is also the President and Owner of Capital Strategies, Inc., a firm that represents corporate clients before Florida State government in health care, insurance, and construction, among other issues. Prior to his current roles, Jim was the owner of Florida Family Primary Care Centers, in which he operated six primary care clinics in

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Joan Forrest is the former president and CEO of the St. Petersburg-based Dawson Academy, a postgraduate educational and clinical research facility, dedicated to the advancement of dentistry Prior to joining the Academy, she was founder and President of Prime Performance, a training and consulting company specializing in developing self-directed work teams and facilitative leadership. Forrest’s career has also included management positions with AT&T and United Technologies. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of

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Liana Guerra is Chief of Staff, Office of Rep. Darren Soto, in the U.S. House of Representatives. She earned a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Florida in 2015, and completed her M.B.A. through UF in 2020. As an undergraduate, she was active in Bob Graham Center programs, and was in the inaugural class of Reubin Askew Scholars, a program that provides students with intensive leadership training and a research stipend

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Pegeen Hanrahan is a registered Professional Engineer and Principal of Community and Conservation Solutions, LLC. A native and lifelong resident, she served Gainesville, Florida as its Mayor from 2004-2010, and as a City Commissioner from 1996-2002, leaving office both times as a result of term limits. For nearly ten years, one of her primary clients has been the Trust for Public Land's Conservation Finance Program. With TPL, Ms. Hanrahan has helped develop and pass ten

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Scott Hawkins, the Vice Chair of the law firm, Jones, Foster Johnston & Stubbs (and Shareholder since 1990) and the Past President of The Florida Bar (2011 - 2012), is Florida Bar Board Certified in Business Litigation and practices commercial and corporate litigation with an emphasis on intellectual property, trade secret disputes, covenants not to compete, securities and real estate litigation. He also has significant civil and administrative litigation experience in areas involving environmental and

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Sarah Logan is Chief of Staff to the Head of External Affairs at BlackRock. She is responsible for coordinating cross-regional and strategic initiatives on the External Affairs team. This includes managing deliverables across BlackRock's Global Public Policy, Social Impact, Corporate Sustainability, Stakeholder Capitalism, and Academic Engagement functions. Before BlackRock, Sarah was a Senior Advisor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she led public affairs strategies for the foundation and outreach with federal officials,

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Susan MacManus is a Distinguished University Professor at USF in the Department of Government and International Affairs. For the last six election cycles, she has served as political analyst for WFLA News Channel 8. Since 2008, she has been a featured columnist on sayfiereview.com—a widely read Florida-based political website. WFLA TV’s weekly program, Road to the White House, on which MacManus appeared as a panelist was nominated for a Suncoast Emmy award in 2008. She

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James H. "Jim" Pugh, Jr. is the former chief executive officer, owner and chairman of Epoch Properties, Inc. one of America's largest multi-family developers. Epoch has developed over 37,000 housing units in 56 cities from Florida to California. Epoch is recognized annually as one of the "giants" of housing, and is ranked annually within the top 50 multi-family builders in the U.S. Pugh is a graduate of the University of Florida. He served as an

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Francisco J. Sánchez is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Tampa office who focuses his practice on trade policy, regulation and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) process including mitigation measures. Francisco served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Trade until 2013, a role former President Barack Obama nominated him to in 2009. As Under Secretary, Francisco led the International Trade Administration in its efforts to improve the global

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James H. “Jim” Shimberg, Jr. is chair of the council and a partner with Shubin Law Group and The Euclid Group. He is also senior advisor to the ownership group and executive team of Strategic Property Partners, the developers behind Water Street Tampa, the largest development project in Tampa's history. Prior to this appointment, he served as Tampa City Attorney. He has served as general counsel for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, chairman of

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Stephanie J. Toothaker, Esq., is chairwoman and chief strategist at Toothaker.org, representing private equity firms, innovative companies, and entrepreneurial individuals seeking complex land development entitlements. She is a 1997 graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and practices land-use and environmental law in south Florida. Ms. Toothaker is consistently recognized as an effective advocate at the federal, state and regional level, regularly representing clients before governmental entities throughout South Florida. She has

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Nicole Washington, has more than 10 years of experience teaching, conducting educational research and advocating for evidence-based educational policies. As the state policy consultant for the Lumina Foundation, Nicole plays a key role in developing the foundation’s Florida strategy and determining its investments. She has served as the associate director of governmental relations for the State University System Board of Governors and as the budget director for education in the Governor’s Office of Policy and

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Stephen Zack is a former president of the American Bar Association and was the first Hispanic American to assume the ABA presidency. He was nominated by President Barack Obama for the position of Alternate U.S. Representative to the Sixty-eighth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and also served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. State Department. Zack was the first Hispanic American and youngest President of the Florida Bar. He has also