Gwyn is the Founder and Managing Director of RGA Consulting Group, LLC, a national consulting business providing strategic planning services focused on growing profitability for its clients by applying effective and ethical business approaches.
A 28-year Air Force veteran, Gwyn served around the world, rising through the ranks to retire as a Brigadier General. Throughout his career, Gwyn successfully led diverse organizations with complex financial budgets in demanding environments by establishing trust and creating a shared vision of success with stakeholders. From leading over 30,000 US, NATO and Afghan special operations personnel in Afghanistan to commanding small-teams engaged in some of our nation’s most sensitive and complex missions, Gwyn’s passion is building and leading diverse groups to accomplish their missions while solving their organizations’ most pressing problems. The Air Force recognized Gwyn with their highest leadership honor – the Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award.
Gwyn is the co-author of Lead to Serve and Serve to Lead: Leading Well in Turbulent Times with Air Force Lieutenant General (ret) Bruce Fister and is a frequent speaker at corporate, non-profit, and government events. A distinguished ROTC graduate from The Citadel, Gwyn earned a Master’s degree from the Air Command and Staff College and was a national security fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Gwyn’s service to the northwest Florida community dates back to his time as Commander of Hurlburt Field’s 24th Special Operations Wing where he led over 2,000 personnel spread across the globe. Gwyn continues to serve on a variety of boards and is the chairman of an international aviation industry committee with over 130 corporate members. He is also the vice president of the Air Commando Heritage Foundation, is active in his local church, and leads a non-profit mentoring and academic tutoring program for at-risk young men in his community.
Gwyn is married to his wonderful wife of 30+ years and they have three adult children.
Mel currently serves as the Association Executive for the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors, is the founder and President of Business Empowered (BE), and was elected in November 2020 as Okaloosa County Commissioner for District 5. Previously, Mel was honored to serve as Mayor of the City of Destin, a Destin City Councilman, and served in the Florida House of Representatives. Through his many years of public and private service, Mel has extensive experience in leadership and teamwork.
In addition to his various positions in public office, Mel has over 10 years of banking, mortgage, and financial services experience, achieving national recognition. As an Association Executive, he serves the Association Board and is responsible for managing a Realtor Association of over 5,400 members within the Association’s Okaloosa and Walton County footprint.
As a State Representative, Mel was honored to serve as Chair of Children, Families, and Seniors Subcommittee, Vice Chair of Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, and Deputy Whip within the House Majority Office. As a Commissioner, Mel had the honor to serve as Board Chair in 2022, Vice Chair in 2021, and as county liaison to several other Boards and Committees through his Commissioner role, including the Okaloosa-Walton Transportation Planning Organization (Vice Chair in 2021-2022), Youth Leadership Council, Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Coalition, and Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.
While serving as a State Representative, Mel was honored as the Florida College System Council of Presidents Legislator of the Year. He carried HB 75, which authorized Florida’s State Colleges to waive specific fees for active-duty military. He was also honored as the Florida League of Cities Defender of Home Rule, and Northwest Florida League of Cities Legislator of the Year.
Mel was appointed in 2022 and reappointed in 2023 by Governor Ron DeSantis to serve on the CareerSource Florida Board of Directors. He was also an at-large selection to serve on the Florida Association of Counties Board of Directors and a Speaker of the House appointee to serve on the Florida Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council. Through his role with the Florida Association of Counties, Mel served on the Finance, Tax, and Administration Policy Committee and as Co-Vice Chairman of the Presidential Select Committee on Preemption.
A 3rd generation Floridian, Mel was born and raised in Ocala, Florida. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Florida State University. Mel has been married to his wife Mona for 33 years, and they have three children: Preston, Casey, and Grace.
Dr. James Walter Ross has 25 years of executive leadership experience in higher education that has resulted in extraordinary national recognition for student success and overall college excellence. Fourteen of these years were in executive leadership at Eastern Florida State College, a large Florida college with 25,000 students, where he served with distinction in leading extensive improvements while overseeing 184 full-time employees and more than half of all college departments while also earning praise for dramatically improving communications and relations between faculty and the administration as well as between the college and the community.
This provided excellent preparation for Dr. Ross to become a highly-successful college President. Dr. Ross achieved this at Pamlico Community College as he led efforts that dramatically increased high morale to an unheard of 95% and brought an unlikely shared vision among employees to create the very best community college in the nation. He led a dramatic culture change that made employees want to become the very best after never achieving national recognition for excellence in any category.
In his seven years as President, Dr. Ross envisioned, inspired, planned, implemented, and oversaw one of the greatest team-oriented improvements in higher education in modern history. The college twice during Dr. Ross’ service achieved the number 1 ranking for student success among all community colleges in America. This ranking as America’s best in student education outcomes came from WalletHub from analysis it conducted of all the hundreds of community colleges across the nation using data from the U.S. Department.
Pamlico Community College likewise earned outstanding national recognition for excellence of the overall college. In fact, SmartAsset named Pamlico Community College the number 2-best community college in America. It examined data from all community colleges across America as provided by the U.S. Department of Education to make its rankings. In two of the years of Dr. Ross’ service, Pamlico was ranked number 2 among the hundreds of great community colleges that exist today in the U.S. The college also earned many other national and state recognitions for excellence during these past seven years.
Dr. Ross attributes the experience he gained at Eastern Florida State College as being instrumental in preparing him for the exceptional success he has enjoyed as a President. He served as Vice President of Advancement and Public Affairs at Eastern Florida State College, a large college with 25,000 students and four campuses on Florida’s Space Coast. In addition to initially overseeing communications, the foundation, external funding, and legislative affairs, responsibilities were expanded dramatically to oversee more than half of all college departments. These additions included human resources; enrollment management; student services; athletics; registrar; IT; workforce development; the King Center for the Performing Arts; five child-care centers; international education; and dual enrollment/early admissions. At EFSC he supervised directly or indirectly 184 full-time employees and was responsible for overseeing more than half the departments of the college. He also enjoyed outstanding relationships with the two excellent presidents he served under in his 14 years of service there. Dr. Maxwell C. King considered Dr. Ross the conscience of the college and often included him in his meetings on critical matters, and Dr. Jim Drake included Dr. Ross in nearly all his meetings and they enjoyed an outstanding working relationship.
Dr. Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation on best practices of Florida community colleges in using entrepreneurial leadership to overcome state budget reductions. One of the most important ways is to be proficient in fundraising. His research showed, however, that few presidents have the expertise and record of success in fundraising needed to protect their colleges in years to come. Dr. Ross in contrast has had an unusual background that has allowed him to achieve enormous success in fundraising in higher education and at Crosswinds Youth Services. His success is a model for the nation among community college presidents. He has raised $55 million in all types of fundraising. He has gained exceptional success in capital campaigns, major gifts, planned giving, and annual campaigns. This includes leading three successful capital campaigns; making the ask that gained six gifts of one million dollars or more; planned giving successes that include receiving a $20 million planned gift; leading record-setting annual campaigns; and establishing two colleges’ alumni associations.
He also has gained another critical skill he identified as necessary for presidents in dealing with inevitable fiscal crises to come. With extensive local, state, and national governmental and political experience, and as a former U.S. Congress Staff Member, he has since excelled in developing extremely strong relationships with elected officials and in utilizing the expertise he has gained in legislative funding to secure $40 million in special state governmental appropriations. With that and $55 million in fundraising, he has raised nearly $100 million in external funding that has been used to significantly benefit students and strengthen communities.
Other factors that have contributed to Dr. Ross’ record of success include his family background. Dr. Ross comes from Slippery Rock, Pa. with a childhood that was filled with love and joy from two wonderful parents and lots of fun with siblings and cousins. His mother was a loving homemaker who emphasized reading early on to each child and constantly cited the importance of education. She read daily to all five children on her lap. She also continually provided encouragement to go to college. Her encouragement was a critical factor in Dr. Ross going to college. Dr. Ross later dedicated his dissertation to his mother for this reason. She also encouraged the kids to go to church at an early age and played a role in making faith a priority for the kids as a lifelong practice. Dr. Ross’ father worked in a factory and taught by example the joys of hard work and striving for excellence. He also was a combat veteran who taught a love of country and an appreciation of veterans who have preserved our freedoms. He was also commander of the local VFW and Dr. Ross has very pleasant memories of going with his father to put flags on graves of veterans.
One part of Dr. Ross’ background is important in understanding why it is so important to him to continue serving others as a college President who makes lives better. The Ross joyful household and family existence was jolted by Dr. Ross’ father being unable to work for more than a year through no fault of his own. While the Ross family was never wealthy, this lack of work and income shook the very foundation of the family. Dr, Ross remembers vividly riding with his father to go get surplus food and the fact that no one else would go with him due to embarrassment. The family received public assistance for about a year and each member felt in different degrees a sense of constant uncertainty and stress. Dr. Ross went to college and earned his bachelor’s degree because he wanted to have a brighter financial future. He went on to earn his master’s degree and doctorate degree so he could help others get their degrees and have better lives. He completed the Harvard leadership program so that he could make a great difference in people’s lives as one of the best leaders in higher education in the nation.
Dr. Ross is married to the former Pam Cranmer, who grew up on a farm in West Sunberry, Pa. She and Dr. Ross met when he was a candidate for the U.S. Congress. Their first date was going out to hand out campaign pamphlets at a mall. One year later they were engaged to be married and six months after that husband and wife. They enjoyed extraordinary blessings throughout their marriage with two incredible kids, Bobby and Christine. They built a successful publishing company and enjoyed traveling the nation to promote a book that Dr. Ross wrote. They cheered their son on as he went to Yale and earned two advanced degrees in earning a Ph.D and also an M.D. in his quest to make the world better. They comforted and supported Bobby as he learned he had ALS and as he fought hard for six years against it. They held him in their arms and prayed together three years ago as he went to Heaven. Two years agothey embarked on a battle to save Mrs. Ross’ life after a diagnosis of six months to live. Today they celebrate the amazing blessing that Pam is now cancer-free. Dr. Ross believes the best thing he has ever done in this life is marry Pam as only good has come from it every day. They have an amazing daughter, Christine, who with her husband Regi, is raising two adorable daughters, Charlotte and Reigny.
Dr. Ross has a deep desire to return to service as a college President so he can use his talents and experience that he has been blessed with to make a giant difference in our world by making lives better in bold and noble ways. He loved his work as a college President so very much and is so thankful for the wonderful people he has worked with. He thanks God for all the lives that have been made better by the inspired team excellence and his leadership role in it. His mission is far from complete… and he is eager to begin anew to serve.
Dr. Mark F. Strickland, Jr., has since 2015, served as Provost and Chief Campus Officer of the Seminole Campus of St. Petersburg College. In addition to his role at the Seminole Campus, in 2022, Mark was given the additional responsibility of overseeing the Health Education and Vet Tech Centers. Mark has and continues to be a major contributor in the implementation and success of the College and Student Experience. Mark has chaired, assisted, and served on numerous college initiatives, along with statewide committees, and presented at several national conferences.
Mark joined St. Petersburg College in 2000 as a College Recruiter. In 2003, Mark was promoted to Coordinator of Enrollment Management and soon thereafter became the Director. Mark departed Enrollment Management in 2011 to become the Associate Provost at the Downtown Campus. In addition to his contributions as an Associate Provost, he also served as the Athletic Director until 2015. Mark also has been an Adjunct Instructor for St. Petersburg College, Barry University, and the University of Tampa.
Mark’s upbringing, as a military dependent, allowed for him to live in multiple countries such as: Egypt, Italy, and Germany. In addition to his time overseas, Mark also lived in Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Virginia, and Florida.
As a late teen, Mark settled in nicely in Seminole, Florida, at the conclusion of his father’s military career and considers Florida to be his home. Mark went on to earn an Associate in Arts degree from St. Petersburg College, a Bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida, a Master’s degree from Nova Southeastern, and a Doctorate in Leadership and Management from St. Thomas University. Mark is married to wife, Wendy, and they have two children, Elle (19) and Ty (16).