Jay Alexander – Chairman of InTown Publishing & Intown411.com.
Jay Alexander is a South Florida businessman who founded InTownUSA Publishing in 2006. Intown411 is a totally integrated, interactive and pro-active medium designed by and for people who love attractions, restaurants, night life and shopping. Alexander also owns and operates pedicab companies in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston, Newport R.I. and New York City.
Kitty Barran – Grants Manager at 211 Broward
Kitty Barran spent much of her 20-year communications career fielding questions from inquiring reporters as the head of the media relations departments at Farmers Insurance Group in Los Angeles and Zurich Financial Services in London. She is now Grants Manager at 211 Broward and also manages social media and website content for Club211, a membership and advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the organization, and Teenspace211, an online resource and helpline for teens. She has served as pro-bono director of development for BrowardBulldog.org since its launch in 2009.
Kevin P. Boyd – Owner of Boyd Public Relations and former managing editor, Hollywood Sun-Tattler.
Kevin Boyd enjoyed a 17-year, award-winning career as a newspaper reporter and editor for such major news providers as the Chicago Tribune Co., Knight-Ridder, Scripps Howard and United Press International. For the past 19 years, he has worked as a senior account executive and partner/owner at three prominent Florida public relations firms. During his public relations career, Boyd has represented companies and organizations regionally, statewide and nationally, for both privately-owned and publicly-traded companies, as well as educational and non-profit organizations. Boyd has served on Broward’s Charter Review Commission and is an elected officer and member of the board of directors of the nonprofit, nonpartisan legislative advocacy group Broward Days. He has done pro bono work, including fundraising, for a number of charities including the United Way of Broward County, Henderson Mental Health Center, Women in Distress of Broward County, American Cancer Society and Boys and Girls Club of Broward County.
Gene Cryer - Chairman of Broward Bulldog, former editor of the Sun-Sentinel.
Gene Cryer was editor and vice president of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for 15 years before retiring to pursue his passion for writing novels. Before becoming the chief editorial executive of the Sun-Sentinel, he worked as a reporter and editor at several Illinois newspapers. During his tenure in South Florida, the Sun-Sentinel doubled its circulation to more than 300,000 daily and 400,000 Sunday.
Cryer is a former Pulitzer Prize juror who has won awards as a journalist, manager and short story writer. He was honored by Southern Illinois University as an outstanding journalism alumnus, and served on the alumni advisory committee of the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. He taught journalism as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, conducted editing workshops for the Florida Center for the Book and the National Writers Workshop and is the immediate past president of The Writers’ Network of South Florida. He serves as a volunteer narrator recording books and periodicals for Insight for the Blind. Gene’s principal avocation over the years has been as an award-winning horse exhibitor and breeder. He served two years as national president of the Appaloosa Pleasure Horse Association and ten years on the board of directors.
Lisa Gibbs – Senior Writer at MONEY magazine and former executive business editor of The Miami Herald.
Lisa Gibbs has covered a variety of personal finance topics since joining MONEY in 2009. As the Herald’s executive business editor, she supervised business coverage in print, radio and online. For two years during her tenure, the Herald’s Business section won a Best in Business award for General Excellence from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW). Before the Miami Herald, Gibbs was an investing writer for MONEY, and covered South Florida for Florida Trend. She also was a reporter and editor for the Miami Daily Business Review, where she was a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a project analyzing Chapter 11 bankruptcies. Gibbs is on the board of SABEW and chairs the organization’s international committee, which is working on projects to promote business journalism excellence outside the United States. Born in Hollywood, she graduated from the University of Miami and is a 7th-generation South Florida native.
Florence Beth Snyder – First Amendment attorney and former Administrative Law Judge in the Southern District of Florida
Florence Snyder is a former general counsel to Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc. Her media clients have included Miami’s Channel 7, USA TODAY, the Ft. Myers News-Press, the Independent Florida Alligator, and radio talk show host Randi Rhodes.
Snyder has chaired The Florida Bar’s Media Law Conference and Reporters’ Workshop, and is a past recipient of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County’s Juvenile Advocacy Award. She was a Supreme Court appointee to the Board of the Florida Bar Foundation, and sits on the advisory board of the Bureau of National Affairs’ Media Law Reporter. She has served as a trustee of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a school for journalists which owns the St. Petersburg Times. She entered public service as an administrative law judge in 1999 and was later special counsel to the Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Family Services. Snyder returned to private practice in June 2009. She concentrates her practice in assisting businesses, governmental entities and individuals in the development and execution of sound and sustainable business strategies. She lives in Tallahassee.
