Literacy

Education

Florida Atlantic University appointed Kelly J. Shannon, associate professor of history and the Chastain-Johnston Middle Eastern Studies Distinguished Professor in Peace Studies, as the new director of FAU’s Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Initiative. PJHR’s mission is to work toward developing and sharing the best practices for promoting tolerance and understanding of diverse cultures.

Florida Atlantic University named Justin Perry, Ph.D., as the new dean of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. Perry was dean of the School of Education, Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair, and professor of counseling and educational psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Perry served as dean of the School of Education, Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair, and professor of counseling and educational psychology at the University of MissouriKansas City.

Jack Rechcigl was appointed as interim center director of the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, in Davie. The Broward location is home base to other UF/IFAS Extension centers in other southeast Florida counties including in: Brevard, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Indian River, MiamiDade, Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Seminole Tribe, and St. Lucie. The centers focus on areas of research of sustainable management for tropical and subtropical landscape systems; termite identification and distribution, wildlife ecology and conservation, palm production and maintenance, environmental horticulture, aquatic plant management, turfgrass science and sea level resilience in South

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Florida.

Florida International University’s Board of Trustees elected Trustee Dean Colson, a former chairman of the state Board of Governors, as the new chairman of the FIU Board of Trustee, for a two-year term. Colson is a partner at the Coral Gables-based Law Firm Colson Hicks Eidson. He has served on the FIU board since 2017, and succeeds Chairwoman Claudia Puig, an FIU alumna who served as chair from 2015 - 2020.

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Vera

The Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County swore in its new board officers at its annual meeting. They are: President: Len Gray of West Palm Beach and a retired human resource consultant. Vice Presidents: Laurie Gildan of North Palm Beach, an attorney and shareholder at the firm of Greenberg Traurig, and Nancy Vera of Delray Beach, a creative event professional; Secretary: Bernadette O’Grady of Palm Beach Gardens, director of programming and media convergence for WPTV NewsChannel 5; and Treasurer: Matt Criscuolo of Boca Raton, an attorney with the law firm of Cozen O’Connor. Members at Large include: Regine Bataille of Delray Beach, a pediatric physician at Gentle Medicine Associates in Boynton Beach; and Harvey Oaxaca-Guzman of Oakland Park and director of the Departments of Multicultural

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Miami’s multicultural, contemporary dance ensemble the Peter London Global Dance Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has named Kal Gajraj as its first executive director. Gajraj comes to PLGDC after working as the chief marketing officer of Florida Grand Opera.

Grammy-nominated conductor Alastair Willis was named principal conductor and artistic adviser of The Symphonia, South Florida’s World Class Chamber Orchestra. Willis has guest conducted with The Symphonia for the past several seasons, as well as in its second season in 2005, and served as principal conductor for the orchestra’s “New Directions” concert series in 2019. He also serves as music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

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and Migrant Education for the school district of Palm Beach County. Parliamentarian is: Lynn Kalber of West Palm Beach, and a journalist with Boca Raton magazine. Immediate Past President is;-): Tom Streit of Jupiter, and a retired real estate lawyer, formerly a partner at Akerman LLP.

Cultural Community

Charlotte Pelton, president of Charlotte Pelton & Associates, was elected as chair of the board of directors of Community Partners of South Florida. She succeeds Allison LaBossiere, who was named immediate past chair.

Public relations, marketing

Cristina Sacco joined Game 7 Comms, a Boca Raton-based brand strategy & communications consulting firm, as vice president of marketing. Previously, Sacco completed a multi-year engagement with Cross Country Home Services, during which she managed an enterprise-wide rebranding and repositioning of the company to Cinch Home Services. TransMedia Group appointed Alana Pulver manager of public relations and social media.

Real estate

Cavache Properties, LLC. appointed Heather Parnass as the on-site sales associate for SeKai Residences, a luxury gated townhome community in Lighthouse Point. Colliers International Florida announced that Christopher Twist joined the firm as senior director. Twist was previously a principal at Dodge Real Estate Corp.

Gaming

Seminole Hard Rock Support Services, an organization created to provide support worldwide to hotels, casinos and cafes for Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International, appointed Keith Sheldon as the new president of entertainment. He was most recently executive vice president of programming and development at BSE Global.