The Community Foundation of the Florida Keys is proud to announce that 33 local nonprofit leaders graduated from its 2024 Leadership Success Academy. While this was the 17th year of the program, it was the first time that the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys hosted it in Islamorada.
“We are proud to bring our signature training to Upper Keys leaders who want to help make their organizations stronger and more efficient,” said Jennifer McComb, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys. The sessions at the Florida Keys History & Discovery Museum focused on leadership, board member roles, nonprofit finance, fundraising, communications, and strategic planning.
The 2024 graduates are: Melissa Bittner, Hannah Brumbalow, Chris Clark, John Cooper, Beverly Corley, Adriana Cuomo, Frank Derfler, Kristi Ferrise, Stacey Graham, Kelly Grinter, Megan Hughes, Averil Kimble, Pastor John Krainer, Tanya Manchester, Claire Montang, Nicole Neves, Cristina Pearse, Stephen Pearse, Alissa Reckard, Vicki Reeves, Afton Ridge, Rosie Sanchez, Angela Sayre, Stephanie Snyder, Jessica Soto, Bruce Troutman, Casey Watkins, Sue Woltanski, Mary Woods, and Isis Wright.
2022 Leadership Success Academy alumni K. Shylon Martin from the Upper Keys Humane Society and Brittany Parker and Amy Young from the Good Health Clinic returned to learn and graduate again with their fellow nonprofit board members.
Other organizations represented included Crustacean Plantation, the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center, Forgotten Felines, the Guidance Care Center, Habitat for Humanity of the Upper Keys, Just Older Youth, Leadership Monroe County, the Marathon Wild Bird Center, the Metropolitan Community Church/Cooking with Love, the Monroe County School District, the Montessori School of Key West, New Life Church, the Old Island Restoration Foundation, Payton’s Promise Sanctuary, the Protea Foundation, the Upper Keys Rotary Club, and the USCGC Ingham Memorial Museum.
Presenters included nationally renowned nonprofit expert Alex Counts, strategic planning expert Robert S. Gold, Good Health Clinic executive director Kate Banick, and Martha Roesler, chief development officer of the Coral Restoration Foundation.
A special addition this year was a “hot topics” presentation on nonprofit collaboration from AH Monroe’s executive director Scott Pridgen and Samuel J. Kaufman, long-time board chair of the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition. Their organizations merged effective January 1. They explained the process their boards went through to make this happen, and how they weighed the pros and cons of their collaboration options, ultimately choosing a merger for the greater good of the community.
The two day program took place on March 26 and March 27. The next session of the Leadership Success Academy will be held in 2025 in Key West.
The 2023 Leadership Success Academy was hosted by the Tennessee Williams Theater in Key West.
