TALLAHASSEE–Close to 200 people gathered at Tallahassee’s DoubleTree Hotel Wednesday evening to honor “women who are shaping Florida’s future, who are leading, innovating and lifting others up as they rise,” as Shevaun Harris, Secretary, Agency for Health Care Administration, a keynote speaker and one of the honorees, told the audience.
One of the women was Carrie Baird, Chief Executive Officer of Flagler Cares, the 10-year-old, Palm Coast-based nonprofit that coordinates or provides numerous social assistance, health care, addiction recovery or mental health services, especially for those who can’t navigate the system or have no means to do so, including the homeless and indigent. The organization had served some 5,000 clients at the 10-year mark. (See Baird’s story here.)
It was the first time that the leader of an organization in Flagler County was the recipient of the News Service of Florida’s annual Above and Beyond Award, billed as honoring the state’s most influential women leaders.
“It was an honor to see Flagler Cares recognized at the state level alongside women leading organizations with such long and distinguished histories,” Baird said. “I was encouraged that our accomplishments were acknowledged as significant and noteworthy. Having Barbara Revels there made the moment even more meaningful — she was the one who first envisioned Flagler Cares and has continued to support me personally and professionally as we’ve brought that vision to life.”
Revels, the former county commissioner, had started Flagler Cares, teaming up with the chief executives of AdventHealth Palm Coast and the Flagler County Health Department to launch what they envisioned as a coordinating agency helping residents cut through the maze of health and wellness-related services. They hired Baird, who’d led non-profits before, and the organization took off, fueled by grants Baird writes–and writes still–and a substantial gift from Dr. Steven Bickel, the medical director at the Health Department (where he worked with then-Administator Bob Snyder, who also served on the Flagler Cares board).
“I never would have believed it would have happened had it not been for Carrie,” Revels, the vice president of the Flagler Cares board of directors, said. “I mean that sincerely, because we were a group that was meeting, great ideas and great thoughts and plans, but we had no way to carry them out. And she did.”
It was Revels who nominated Baird for the award. Revels and DJ Lebo, CEO of the Early learning Coalition of Flagler and Volusia and president of the Flagler Cares Board, accompanied Baird to the event (as did Lebo’s indispensable Reef, a golden retriever who, though a service dog theoretically off-limits to roving cuddles, nevertheless magnetizes most everyone around him).
“I really would follow Carrie anywhere,” Lebo said. “She’s a visionary, one of the smartest people I know, and she collaborates. She collaborates with the right people all the time. To me, that’s what you need when you want to build something that’s going to last, and that’s what she does.”
The event was emceed by Dara Kam, the News Service’s senior reporter, whose understated wit sometimes peeks through her sentences. “I had three women who I know quite well who are smashing successes and all of us just accidentally talked about impostor syndrome and how everybody thinks that you’re these fabulous people,” Kam said, pausing a moment. “And we are, right? We are.” That impostor feeling doesn’t quite go away sometimes, she’d said in an off-the-cuff moment before the formalities. “That’s why I love hosting this event, because I love for us all to be recognizing the strength and the power of all the women in this room.”
The News Service had selected House Rep. Allison Tant, a Democrat, as its other keynoter, balancing the speaking gigs Tiger Bay-style (Harris being a DeSantis appointee). Tant was a former chair of the Florida Democratic Party. Her husband Barry Richard, a former member of the House, was among the lawyers who represented George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore case of 2000.
“We are wives, daughters, sisters or mothers. We become active in our communities, we’re PTA moms, we volunteer with non-profits–all of those things that we do, all the hats we wear,” Tant said. She had been a lobbyist for 20 years, took a 20-year hiatus when her son was born–he had developmental disabilities and has had eight surgeries–then became an advocate for people with disabilities, and got elected to the House in 2020.
“So that’s what women who are in this space are doing every single day,” Tant told the audience. “Men too. We change, we grow, we evolve. We serve others. We lead initiatives. We start businesses. We’re entrepreneurs. We champion so much, and we operate under a lot of pressure.” Then, she said, “we come home and we’re a caregiver. We are the healthcare coordinator or the transportation director for our family. And then, of course, we have to make those cupcakes for classrooms.”
She eyed the audience. “Look at every woman in this room. You’re all nodding because you’ve all been there. This is a shared experience,” she said of the juggling, managing, coordinating and understanding it takes to be a woman. “We bring that life experience with us to what we do, and that makes women incredible, because we don’t leave anybody out,” Tant said. “and we do that in heels, and we do that with our damn hair curled.”
News Service Executive Editor Jim Saunders was the only man to ascend the speakers’ platform, as it was time for the awards, which he handed out one by one as Kam read the names and all too-brief biographies of the honorees. Baird, never entirely comfortable in those situations–she was the 2024 Palm Coast Citizen of the Year–navigated the wobbly set of stairs to the platform and accepted the hand-sized glass award shaped somewhere between a pentagon and home plate.
Among those honored: Thomasenia Adams, associate dean for research and faculty development at the University of Florida’s College of Education, where she teaches mathematics education and leads the Office of Educational Research, which supports faculty research funding ($35 million secured last year) “amid a challenging higher-education landscape,” her bio notes in careful wording; Carol Dover, president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association; Stacy Gromatski, President and CEO of the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services (the organization advocates against domestic violence, suicide, human trafficking and truancy); Willa Hill, executive director of the Florida Nurses Association, Julie Morris, executive director of the Florida Conservation Group (it’s helped private landowners conserve some 100,000 acres under her leadership), and Josefina Tamayo, CEO of Volunteer Florida.
“The hard part for me is that it’s not shouted from the mountaintop. To be acknowledged at a state level for the work she’s doing in our small little town, I think it’s so well deserved,” Lebo said. “I’m thankful to Barbara for telling us about it. And I’m thankful that they recognize that she’s worthy of this award.”
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