Meet the Past Fellows

2021 Fellow	Douglas Ray was the executive editor of the Gainesville Sun, the Ocala Star-Banner, and the Daily Commercial in Leesburg. He leads a team of reporters from Gannett newsrooms across Florida (Palm Beach Post, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jacksonville Times-Union, Gainesville, more) on issues related to health and aging. ... Read more↑ Read Less Ray has been a newsroom leader since 1988, and led a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting in 2012. “I initiated the Gainesville Sun’s Gainesville For All initiative in 2016 that has public health as a key area of focus,” he said.
2021 Fellow	Mary Alford was elected to the Alachua County Commissioner as District 1 commissioner in 2020, and has taken a particular interest in healthcare issues. She has also served on the board of several local non-profit organizations, including Florida Defenders of the Environment, the Cultural Arts Coalition, and the ... Read more↑ Read Less United Way of North Central Florida. She holds an undergraduate degree in environmental engineering and a master’s of engineering from the University of Florida.
2021 Fellow	Eric Poole serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for County Government (ICG) at the Florida Association of Counties, which provides advance policy and leadership training for county’s 300+ county commissioners. On the legislative side, he works with state officials on their COVID response and the allocation ... Read more↑ Read Less of CARES to counties. “We will also be showcasing this issue during our summer annual conference in Orlando,” he said.
2021 Fellow	Alyssa Brown is the vice president for public policy for the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. Her career spans more than 15 years in public relations, public policy, and business and economic development. She came to Gainesville from Tallahassee where she served as communications director for ... Read more↑ Read Less CareerSource Florida. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Florida State University.
2021 Fellow	Gigi Simmons represents District 1 on the Gainesville City Commission. She is currently working with UF Health to bring additional healthcare services to East Gainesville. She is an advocate for Gainesville’s District I covering most of East Gainesville, serving from 2011-14 as president of the Porters Community Neighborhood ... Read more↑ Read Less Association. She is an accountant and believes her understanding of numbers is a great asset to visioning and planning. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of South Florida.
2021 Fellow	Tonette Graham is associate director of public policy for the Florida Association of Counties. As a lead healthcare, public safety, and economic development lobbyist, Graham provides thorough context of legislative issues to Florida’s 67 counties. Graham maintains a desire to pursue higher education administration ... Read more↑ Read Less and lends her time to numerous community service projects in the Tallahassee and Big Bend area. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management and a master’s of public administration degree from Florida A&M University.
2021 Fellow	Atticus Steinmetz is the Economic Development Manager for the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. “During my time at the Chamber, I have had the pleasure of working with many regional organizations, companies, and government agencies in bolstering the quality of life in our region,” he said. “Notable examples ... Read more↑ Read Less include working with StartGNV to fund talent attraction projects; aiding in getting the Children’s Trust initiative on our local ballot, and campaigning for its passing; assisting the growth of local startups such as EtectRX and Orchard Tech; and assisting large employers in moving to our region such as Amazon.”
2021 Fellow	Ian Fletcher is the vice president of education and talent alignment for the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. He has more than 25 years of experience and is well-versed in leadership, business management and engagement, talent/workforce development, and client relations. He currently oversees the ... Read more↑ Read Less Alachua County Education Compact’s work, a commitment from community leaders to work on a common agenda to solve a complex social problem in education, and manages the Alachua County Education Compact Foundation, the nonprofit extension of the Chamber that supports educational initiatives and programs. Ian holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication production with a concentration in sports management from the University of Florida.
2021 Fellow	Paul Adamczyk is the District 5 Putnam County Commissioner. “I am looking to find means by which we can improve the overall health of the community in Putnam County, Florida, which finds itself regularly near the bottom of several health-related rankings in the state of Florida,” he said.
2021 Fellow	Nkwanda Jah is executive director for the Cultural Arts Coalition and chair of the Alachua County NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee, which focuses on community issues affecting the quality of life and economic equity for all citizens in Gainesville and Alachua County. “I want to be able to reach other cities, ... Read more↑ Read Less counties, states and countries to teach conservation and preservation of our environment as a way of life,” she said.
2022 Fellow	Rob Renzi serves as the CEO of Big Ben Cares, a role which he has held for 16 years. Additionally, Renzi is the Vice President of the board of directors of RWC340B and Treasurer of the United Partners for Human Services. He is an active advocate for LGBTQ health and reducing the cost of pharmaceuticals to expand access for all.
2022 Fellow	Leroy Smith is the Founder and CEO of Diamonds in the Rough Sports, Entertainment, & Education, a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged children develop healthy work ethics and positive attitudes. Prior to this role, Smith served as a Life Coach with Win-Win Elite, Head Football Coach at Jefferson County K-12, and social studies teacher in Gadsden County.
2022 Fellow	Paulina Lewis is the Outreach and Education Coordinator for 2-1-1 Big Bend, Inc. She lives and works in Leon County and serves a wide region within the Panhandle through her work with 2-1-1. Lewis is an active mental health advocate and works to improve access to mental health resources through teaching new classes of 2-1-1 counselors and policy-level engagement.
2022 Fellow	Tiffany McCaskill Henderson is the government relations director for the American Heart Association. Through her work, she is able to represent the AHA in the Florida legislature and executive branch. McCaskill is from Leon County and just recently completed the City of Tallahassee's Neighborhood Leadership Academy.
2022 Fellow	Suzan Gage is the executive director for the Early Learning Coalition of Northwest Florida. She has worked with the coalition for over 15 years. Through her work, Gage focuses on helping young children and their parents navigate early development. In addition to her work with the Coalition, Gage serves many counties throughout the Panhandle region as a member of a variety of boards, including the Tri-County Community Council, Inc.
2022 Fellow	Sara Henley is Policy Analyst for the Florida Association of Counties. Within the FAC, she supports the community leaders in all 67 counties with the tools, resources, and data that they need to serve their constituency. At the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Sara Henley worked on the project Florida Alliance for Response to Epidemics to develop a resource map with the locations of health services for testing, treatment, housing assistance, food banks, and other critical resources for Floridians who had trouble navigating the websites.
2022 Fellow	Stacey Hannigon is the executive director of Beyond Before Community Development Corporation based in Gadsden County. As an active leader in her community, Hannigon has developed local after-school programs for education in technology and the arts, led hurricane relief and COVID-19 response efforts through the county’s Long Term Disaster Recovery Group, and continues to volunteer for a variety of causes within local community organizations.
2022 Fellow	Taylor Brown is the City Manager for Perry, Florida. He has received education in urban planning and has worked hard to guide his community through the immense challenges that come along with a Pandemic. For the last two years, Taylor Brown has been working with the Florida Gas Utility to create new arrangements for the long-term pre-sale of natural gas to large industrial customers at a discounted price. Brown has dedicated his career to improving the everyday lives of people within his community.
2022 Fellow	Robert Mckee is the Deputy Director of Public Policy for the Florida Association of Counties. He is from Leon County and has a background in economics, public finance, and tax policy. In his position of Deputy Director, Robert Mckee represents all 67 Florida counties before the Florida Legislature and Executive Branch and handles finance, tax, administrative, health, safety, and justice issues. He has also led a coalition of Local Elected Officials to reform how Community Development Agencies were funded through legislation.
2022 Fellow	Lindsey McDaniels is the manager of Nursing Case Management for Humana. She has led teams of RN case managers that serve a special needs population. She is from Escambia county. Through her work, she has been able to lead medical missions in the Army National Guard, benchmarked a juvenile diabetes education program, and created an alert for special needs programs at Humana.
2022 Fellow	Monica Johnson is the Program Services Director of the Epilepsy Agency of the Big Bend. Through this role, Johnson leads a team of Care Managers which works to support individuals living with epilepsy in the Big Bend region. Johnson has obtained a Doctor of Public Health and worked in the fields of case management, rehabilitation therapy, and substance abuse counseling prior to her current role.
2022 Fellow	Jared Grigas is a policy analyst for the Florida Association of Counties. Through this role, Grigas serves all 67 counties within Florida. Grigas lives and works in Leon County and has served in a variety of previous positions within the community, including policy fellow with the James Madison Institute, and member of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification team with the Justice Administration Commission.
2022 Fellow	John Trombetta is the Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Project, Inc., which covers 11 counties in northwest Florida, providing support for caregivers of those with memory disorders. Prior to joining the Alzheimer’s Project, Trombetta served as CEO for the Florida State Alliance of YMCAs and as Regional Director of Development for the University of Georgia.
2022 Fellow	Gretchen Thorton is a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent at the Jefferson County 4-H Extension Office. 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization, and Thorton is able to extend their reach to educate her local community. She leads the Let’s Walk Florida Program within Jefferson County and has years of valuable experience with 4-H, public and private school systems, FCCLA, and Extension Service.
2022 Fellow	Catherine Campbell serves as Intake Coordinator at Safe Families for Children. Through this role, Campbell works with a variety of service providers within the community to advocate for families on the edge of care. Prior to her time with Safe Families for Children, Campbell served as Co-Founder and Board President of The HUBB as well as Patient Advocate for the Epilepsy Agency of the Big Bend.
2022 Fellow	Anita Whitby-Davis is the Executive Director of Blautism Inc., a nonprofit organization that serves to address the lack of education amongst Arican-American families and children with Autism. Not only does Anita prioritize the need for resources within these families, but she also tackles the social stigmas that exist in the community through advocacy, education, and making connections with the rest of the community.
2023 Fellow	Spencer Hooker is a junior at Flagler College and an eager leader who is dedicated to achieving collective goals to propel society forward. Through his position as community representative within the Black Student Union, he has worked to connect members of the black student union to the greater St. Augustine community. He has worked on projects, such as a nonprofit (RESET) aimed at tutoring kids, that help to build up his community.
2023 Fellow	Amanda Napolitano is the Executive Director of the DONNA Foundation. As an active leader in her community, Napolitano serves over 2,000 families living with breast cancer annually and has aided in developing education and awareness programs surrounding breast cancer and its effects on a diverse community of people. She is an enthusiastic champion who creates change through a variety of events and programs in the Jacksonville community.
2023 Fellow	Ryan Elizabeth Widdowson is the Supervisor of Federal Programs in Clay County. Through this role, she oversees funding and stakeholder connections through the Florida Department of Education which allows her to work with parents and students all the way up to the Superintendent. Widdowson emphasizes the importance of prioritizing stakeholder engagement and has initiated a system for greater partnerships with each individual school to connect specific needs to available grant funding.
2023 Fellow	Dorothy Slama is the Nurse Administrator for the Sulzbacher Center which primarily serves Duval and Clay counties. In the past, she has been able to work with school board members, community partners, and colleagues as a Youth Development Director in charge of before/after school care in all Clay County Public Schools. Dorothy also was able to collaborate with local programming and the YMCA to build necessary facilities and daily programming for adults with developmental disabilities.
2023 Fellow	Linda Levin is the CEO of ElderSource, an Area Agency on Aging and Aging Resource Center covering seven counties in Northeast Florida. Levin has used her position to develop nonprofit corporate structures to generate revenue that goes back into programs and services for older adults. She is dedicated to addressing social determinants of health and prioritizes the socially and medically underserved.
2023 Fellow	Sheronda Holzendorf has dedicated herself to helping aid the stabilization of those who have been impacted by homelessness. She has prioritized the needs of her community members and demonstrated leadership through the creation of a Resident Engagement Meetings where residents can be civically involved in community improvements. Holzendorf has built up supportive relationships in North and Central Florida to ensure her organization remains equitable and abundant in resources.
2023 Fellow	Dr. Irvin Cohen is the Executive Director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Jacksonville and an agent of change in under-resourced communities. Born and raised in Jacksonville Florida, Cohen works to address family wealth creation within these communities while remaining mindful of the social and political issues that can impede funding and initiative progress. He has dedicated his career to helping communities develop at their highest potential.
2023 Fellow	Jocelyn Turner is Reach Initiative Director for Partnership for Child Health and is focused in Duval county. She oversees three different grants to mitigate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and increase health literacy among health providers. Turner has also launched and cohosts a weekly podcast with a local physician, which ranges from issues on COVID-19 to social justice issues. She offers a unique perspective with a lot of experience working in communities of color, lower-income, and those underserved by the healthcare system.
2024 Fellow	Beth Nelson is the Vice-President of Community Impact for United Way of Marion County, an organization which focuses on community needs to create an environment where adults and children have access to education, good health, safe living, and financial stability to create a positive social impact. She oversees Education, Financial Stability, and Health councils which strategize and implement initiatives to address community needs and improve social outcomes. ... Read more↑ Read Less She also helps develop, initiate, and evaluate the effectiveness of community programs, manage funding opportunities, engage in advocacy efforts, collaborate with community and government partners, and mobilize volunteer support. Having previously worked as a journalist, a town manager, and a director of a Sylvan Learning Center, she is intent on building an empowered and self-sufficient community and is excited for the opportunity to collaborate with others dedicated to doing the same.
2024 Fellow	Briana Kelley is the Director of Human Services for Marion County Senior Services where she coordinates the paramedicine/coresponder teams. ... Read more↑ Read Less She helped to develop and launch the first coresponder team in 2021, which is composed of a paramedic and clinician that work with dedicated senior intervention specialists at the Sheriff’s Office to address age-related concerns with a focus on baker acts, jail, and hospital diversions. She hopes this model will become a statewide practice to allow individuals to age in place with dignity.
2024 Fellow	Esmeralda Batiz is the Outreach Manager for Community Health Center Inc, and is responsible for directing six community event specialists and two community health workers in the design and implementation of strategic outreach initiatives to ensure that healthcare access is available to all members of our community. ... Read more↑ Read Less She works on projects aiming to lessen barriers to care by connecting individuals to the centers, increasing health education, and addressing socioeconomic determinants of health. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, she spearheaded a community-driven vaccination campaign with the objective of ensuring the maximal vaccination of community members against COVID-19. Overall, her projects contribute to the health and safety of her county’s residents.
2024 Fellow	Jacqueline Roeis a mental health coordinator within the Sumter County School District. With this position, she oversees counseling services provided by the school district and other community agencies, she ensures all students and teachers receive mental health training and resiliency training. ... Read more↑ Read Less She reaches out and works with the administrators, teachers, students, and the families of this school district, actively working on mental health awareness. She is excited for this opportunity to expand her knowledge on issues that affect the counties she is actively involved in!
2024 Fellow	Katina Mustipheris the Chief Executive Officer of Elder Options, state-designated area agency on aging and Aging and Disability Resource Center, dedicated to being a place for elders to receive unbiased information, resources, and assistance in the community. She oversees the daily operations of Elder Options in which serves a 16 county Planning and Service Area in North Central Florida. ... Read more↑ Read Less Her work has also been dedicated to the younger population by assisting the start of the Community Action Coalition which supports the youth and brings awareness to the danger of substance abuse among younger generations. She is excited for this opportunity as it is a great stepping stone in helping create a healthy community where everyone has access to quality healthcare.
2024 Fellow	Linda McDonald is an Environmental Health Professional for the Florida Department of Health in Wakulla County. Some of her primary responsibilities include improving the overall quality of the environment in a particular community by conducting inspections, research, education or advocacy in areas such as food safety, water quality, air pollution, waste and biomedical waste management, and occupational health. ... Read more↑ Read Less After major hurricane Michael in 2018, she participated as a group leader in a community mental health assessment to conduct surveillance of Bay County, Florida residents directly impacted by the catastrophic storm. The goal of the surveillance was to identify the major stressors post storm residents experienced. Through the Academy she aims to learn how to lead by example, interact successfully with my community and ultimately change lives for the better.
2024 Fellow	Marimil Padilla is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of All Steps Count, Florida's Infant and Toddler personal intervention recruiting company that focuses on the early intervention of infants and toddlers who have or who are at-risk for developmental disabilities or delays. She is responsible for recruiting, training, and evaluating all Infant Toddler Developmental Specialists (ITDS) overseeing North and West Central Florida. ... Read more↑ Read Less She has been a leader in several different foundations and groups, along with also developing a sports organization named Batista Volleyball Academy and where she supervises the leadership program among all of the athletes. As a leader and advocate for her CODA and Latino community, she is honored and excited for this opportunity.”
2024 Fellow	Natasha Dobkowski is the Marketing and Fund Development Coordinator of Marion Senior Services, a nonprofit, charitable social agency providing supportive care services for the elderly of Marion County. She manages all of the fundraising, marketing, community relations, and government advocacy. ... Read more↑ Read Less Additionally, she also had the opportunity to be a part of the Marion County Co-Responder team, which pairs a Community Paramedic with a behavioral health specialist. On this team she is able to offer guidance in terms of the legislative process and advocate for policy that support the expansion of the community. Ultimately, she has identified that working together, in terms of a multifaceted approach, would benefit the community as a whole.
2024 Fellow	Nishika Stafford is the director of Health and Economic Mobility of United Way of Lake and Sumter. UWLS serves the local community by addressing the greater needs of health, income, and education. Today, United Way operates in nearly 1,800 communities to assist those experiencing needs in income, education, and health. ... Read more↑ Read Less The bulk of individuals served by the United Way are members of the “ALICE” population (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed). She has led UWLS and volunteers in the community including churches, higher institutions and other businesses to raise, collect and distribute food annually around the holidays and the time of when children are home from school. Through her leadership serving Lake and Sumter counties, she is eager to learn and take action on making healthier communities.
2024 Fellow	Olajuwon White is the Director of Veteran Services for the Levy County Board of County Commissioners where he oversees day-to-day operations of the county’s Veterans’ Service Office program and serves over 4,000 Veterans and their families.... Read more↑ Read Less He helped lead to address challenges faced by Veterans in rural communities regarding awareness and utilization of health benefits. In 2023 he was awarded the Achievement Award by the National Association of Counties for his “Veterans Benefits in Rural Communities Public Education Campaign”, and he is excited to further develop this project during the Academy.
2024 Fellow	Robbin Washburn is the Public Health Services Manager B-SES, at Florida Department of Health in Sumter County and manages the Information Technology Department as well. With 23 years of Public Health service, Washburn currently... Read more↑ Read Less also manages the Health Education outreach activities and programs, working with other leaders to educate the community on a variety of topics such as drowning prevention, health equity, and health community. She is an active leader and voice in her community with over two decades of preventative work.
2024 Fellow	Stephen Kennedy is the Assistant County Administrator of Sumter County. Some of his primary responsibilities with this position include managing Information Technology Services and Public Safety Agencies, which include the oversight of both medical and health aspects such as the Medical Director contract and 911 services.... Read more↑ Read Less Additionally, he was also a main initiator behind the streamlining of emergency communications in Sumter County by leading the transitions to Next Generation 911 services. With the effective use of technology, it can be ensured that there is optimum utilization of resources, enhancing community safety. Ultimately, Kennedy blends technological strategies with public safety goals, ensuring a technological alignment with Sumter County’s needs.