A fifth-generation Floridian, Glenda Hood has dedicated her life to the principles of responsible civic leadership. Growing up in the Lake Conway area, she attended Pine Castle Elementary and graduated from Oak Ridge High School in 1968.

After two years at the all-women Queens College in Charlotte, NC, she spent a year abroad majoring in Spanish at the University of Valencia, Spain. However, the lure of home brought her back to Central Florida, where she graduated from Rollins College.

Hood became an OCPS ADDitions volunteer, teaching English as a second language to students at Lake Como Elementary several days a week. Dedicated to learning more about her community, she became the first non-businessperson allowed to participate in Leadership Orlando. Hood was appointed to the Municipal Planning Board by Mayor Carl Langford, and in 1982, ran for city commission, unseating a 16-year incumbent. During her third term, she became the first woman (and youngest ever) elected as Mayor of Orlando.

During her three terms as mayor (1993-2003), the city’s geographic area grew by more than 50 percent; Orlando became positioned as a high-tech center and competitive international market; and the arts were elevated to a civic priority and economic driver. She also established unprecedented partnerships in education.

Hood also served as Florida’s Secretary of State, where she was instrumental in crafting the state’s Strategic Plan for Economic Development, and it’s 10-year Cultural Strategic Plan, as well as leading international business initiatives in Latin America and Asia. She was widely credited for overseeing the seamless 2004 election cycle and for assisting counties in election preparation during recovery efforts after hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jean.

Today, Hood is the founding partner of triSect, LLC, a strategic consulting firm focused on civic innovation serving the business, government and independent sectors. She and and her husband Charles have been married for 46 years and are the proud parents of three married children and 11 grandchildren.

Dr. Joseph G. Joyner has lived a life committed to the educational advancement of students throughout the state of Florida and is the current president of Flagler College. Prior to this role, he served as the superintendent of schools for St. Johns County School District in St. Augustine, Fla.

Dr. Joyner graduated from Colonial High in 1973 and received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University. He continued his education at the University of Central Florida (UCF), receiving his master’s and doctoral degrees in education, and was selected as UCF’s Outstanding Alumnus (2005) and Alumnus of the Decade (2008).

Dr. Joyner began his career in education in 1977 as a teacher and coach for Autauga County Schools in Alabama. Three years later, he accepted his first teaching position with Orange County Public Schools. At Apopka High, he served as teacher, coach and assistant principal before his appointment as principal from 1989-1993. Under his leadership as principal, the school received the National School of Excellence designation by the United States Department of Education. Over the next 10 years, Joyner provided leadership as a senior director, associate superintendent and the area superintendent of OCPS’ North Learning Community.

Throughout his entire career, Dr. Joyner has advocated for academic achievement and has maintained his focus on the individual needs of every student. He is an active member of his local community and has received several awards for his commitment and leadership. He is the 2009 recipient of the Salvation Army A. H. Gus Craig Award in recognition of his community service, and was selected as the Florida Superintendent of the Year by the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

He and his wife Susan have been married for 42 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren.

Melquiades R. “Mel” Martinez was born in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, but came to the U.S. in 1962 as part of a Roman Catholic humanitarian effort called Operation Peter Pan. He lived with two foster families in Orlando until his parents’ arrival in 1966.

He graduated from Bishop Moore High School in 1964 and later attended Florida State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and a law degree.

During his 25 years of law practice in Orlando, he also served as president of the Orlando Utilities Commission and chairman of the Orlando Housing Authority.

Martinez was elected Orange County Mayor (then Orange County Chairman) in 1998 and served in this capacity for two years. While in office, he implemented what became known as the “Martinez doctrine” which prohibits development from taking place unless adequate public infrastructure, specifically school capacity, is able to support such development.

Following the election of President George W. Bush, Martinez was appointed, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and was the first Cuban-American to serve in a presidential cabinet. Martinez is best known for his efforts to increase homeownership among all Americans and to eradicate homelessness.

In 2004, he became the first Cuban-American elected to the U.S. Senate and retired Sept. 9, 2010. Currently, he serves as chairman of the Southeast U.S. and Latin America for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Martinez and his wife Kitty reside in Winter Park and have three children and five grandchildren.

Nobel Prize winner Marshall Warren Nirenberg is an American biochemist and geneticist best known for deciphering the genetic code. He was born in New York City, moved to Orlando at the age of 14 and is a 1945 graduate of Orlando High.

From a young age, Nirenberg took an interest in biology and benefited greatly from his move to Florida. He enjoyed exploring the state’s ecosystems and sought mentorship and instruction from museum curators and biochemists at nearby World War II training camps.

Nirenberg attended the University of Florida where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Michigan. After completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the American Cancer Society, he became a research biochemist for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Section of Metabolic Enzymes in 1960. There, he began his work cracking the RNA code, and in 1962 became head of the Section of Biochemical Genetics at NIH.

In the years to follow, Nirenberg and his group of scientists deciphered the entire genetic code by matching amino acids to synthetic triplet nucleotides. In 1968, Nirenberg shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert Holley for their work in cracking the genetic code.

Nirenberg received various other honors and awards throughout his life, including the Molecular Biology Award from the National Academy of Sciences, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University and the National Medal of Science. He holds honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale universities and the universities of Michigan, Chicago and Windsor (Ontario). He was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Paul VI.

In 2010, Nirenberg passed away and is survived by his second wife Myrna Weissman, a professor at Columbia University.

Charles T. Wells is a native of Orlando and a member of GrayRobinson’s Appellate and Litigation practice groups. Before joining the firm, Wells served as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court for more than 14 years.

Wells graduated from Boone High in 1957 and received his bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from the University of Florida. Following his law school graduation In 1964, he entered private practice in Orlando, where he remained until 1969. He then served a one year term as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice in Washington D.C., before returning to Orlando.

Wells served 28 years in the private practice of law before his appointment to the Florida Supreme Court by Governor Lawton Chiles in 1994. From 2000 to 2002, he served as chief justice and is best known for presiding over court appeals disputing the 2000 presidential election. In March 2009, Wells retired from the high court and joined GrayRobinson.

To this day, Wells is an active member of The Florida Bar, and has served in various leadership capacities including president of the Orange County Bar Association, a member of the board of governors of The Florida Bar and board of trustees of the Orange County Legal Aid Society. He is past president of Florida Blue Key, is a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Florida and an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa.

He and his wife, attorney Linda, reside in Central Florida and have three children and
eight grandchildren

Wayne Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia, but moved to Orlando when he was young, where he was raised by his paternal grandmother. At an early age, he expressed an affinity for the arts, creating plays, commercials and songs inspired by 1950s and 60s music and television.

While a student at Dr. Phillips High School, Brady joined ROTC and planned to go into the military. But after receiving major acclaim for a performance in a high school play, he shifted his focus to theater.

After graduating in 1989, he quickly became involved in the Central Florida arts community. In addition to roles at Universal Studios, he also performed in a number of classic stage shows, including A Chorus Line, Jesus Christ Superstar, and A Raisin in the Sun. He was also a regular at Orlando’s SAK Comedy Lab, and in 1992, was named Rookie of the Year for Theatre/Sports Improv.

Brady moved to Las Vegas, where he became known for his impressions of rock ‘n’ roll celebrities like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. He also spent some time performing in a musical revue in Hawaii before moving to Los Angeles.

In California, he earned a number of guest-starring roles in television series, including, I’ll Fly Away, In the Heat of the Night and The Home Court. In 1998, Brady became a regular on the improv-based comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Three short years later, The Wayne Brady Show was launched on ABC.

In the early 2000s, Brady joined the Broadway revival of Chicago, and made several guest appearances on How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock, Everybody Hates Chris and a number of other television sitcoms.

In 2017, Brady joined the Chicago cast of Hamilton in the role of Aaron Burr. He will also return for his eighth season as host of Let’s Make a Deal and his fifth season of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Brady has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program (Whose Line Is It Anyway?); two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host (The Wayne Brady Show); a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song (“30,000 Reasons to Love Me” for Let’s Make a Deal); and a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

Most noted for his work on supersymmetry, supergravity and superstring theory, Sylvester James Gates, Jr. first became interested in science at just eight years old when his father bought him an Encyclopedia Britannica set. His father served in the U.S. Army and by the sixth grade, Gates had lived in six cities.

Through the years, the importance of education continued to be a major part of his upbringing. After graduating Jones High School in 1969, Gates earned both his B.S. degrees in mathematics and physics, and his Ph.D. degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

From 1977 to 1980, Gates attended Harvard University as a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. He later accepted teaching roles at various universities, including MIT and Howard University. At MIT, he served as an assistant professor of applied mathematics and director of the Office of Minority Education. At Howard, he served as a professor of physics and the director of the Center for the Study of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres. Gates joined the University of Maryland in 1984, and in 1998, was named the John S. Toll Professor of Physics – the first African-American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major research university in the country. Gates still holds this position.

Throughout his career, Gates has written or co-written more than 120 research papers about mathematics and theoretical physics, and has been regularly featured on NOVA, a long-running Public Broadcasting Service series on science. In addition to his research, he is an advocate for education and breaking down the complexities of physics so everyone can understand. For instance, in 2006, Gates completed a DVD series consisting of 24 half-hour lectures that explain the complexities of unification theory. Additional media appearances include the 2011 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate hosted by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the BBC Horizon documentary The Hunt for Higgs in 2012.

Gates has received many awards and honors, including being the first recipient of the 1994 American Physical Society’s Edward A. Bouchet Award, earning the 2013 National Medal of Science, being appointed to President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and being nominated by the Department of Energy as one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival’s “Nifty Fifty” speakers.

Among the most prominent figures in Florida’s history, Toni Jennings has dedicated nearly 30 years to public service. A product of Orange County Public Schools, Jennings attended Fern Creek Elementary School and Glenridge Middle School. After graduating from Winter Park High School in 1967, Jennings earned her bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan College.

She began her professional career as a fifth-grade teacher with Orange County Public Schools at Killarney Elementary. She later went on to become a member of the Florida House of Representatives. In 1976, when she took the oath of office, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida Legislature and the first female Republican leader of either house of the legislature.

Her career of “firsts” continued when she was appointed Florida’s first female lieutenant governor, a role she served in from 2003 through 2006. During her time in office, she focused on a number of key issues, including education policy, hurricane preparedness and disaster relief. Jennings was also a member of the Florida Senate from 1980 to 2000 and its two-term president, from 1996 to 2000.

During this time, she also worked at Jack Jennings & Sons, Inc., a general contractor and construction management business founded by her father in 1948. From 1982 to 2003, she served as the company’s president, and in 2007, returned to serve as chairman of the board to work alongside her brothers to maintain the family business. Jennings still serves in that position.

Her contribution to the Central Florida community also includes service on numerous community boards, including Brown & Brown, Inc., the Florida Council of 100, the Nemours Foundation, Next Era Energy, Post Properties, the Winter Park Health Foundation and more. She is also a past member of the board of trustees for Rollins College.

Jennings has earned countless awards throughout her career. In 2002, she was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, was recognized as the “2004 Central Floridian of the Year” by the Orlando Sentinel, and received the “Distinguished Women” award from the Florida League of Women Voters, as well as the “Friend of Education” award from the Florida School Boards Association, among countless other honors.

David “Deacon” Jones was born in Eatonville, Florida, where his parents ran a barbecue stand. He attended Hungerford High School and played football, baseball and basketball. Jones graduated in 1957 and began his college football career at South Carolina State University. However, after he became active in the civil rights movement, the school revoked his scholarship. In 1960, Jones was recruited by Mississippi Vocational College, now Mississippi Valley State University.

In 1961, the Los Angeles Rams selected Jones in the 14th round of the NFL draft. He quickly became a dominant defensive end and part of the Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line, along with Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier and Merlin Olsen.

Jones is known as one of the greatest pass rushers in NFL history and is credited with coining the term “sacking the quarterback,” which eventually became an official statistic in the NFL record books.

The Pro Football Hall of Famer played 14 seasons as a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams (1961- 1971), San Diego Chargers (1972-1973) and Washington Redskins (1974). Jones’ honors include earning eight Pro Bowl selections, being named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994 and being ranked in the top 20 of The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Football Players (1999). In the same year, Sports Illustrated named Jones the “Defensive End of the Century.” Jones was also named the “Secretary of Defense” by Los Angeles fans, the “Most Valuable Ram of All Time” by the Los Angeles Times, and the “Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football” by Coach George Allen. During his 14-year career, Jones missed only five games.

Off the field, Jones spent some time as an actor, making appearances in The Brady Bunch, Bewitched and other television shows. He released his autobiography, Headslap: The Life and Times of Deacon Jones in 1996. The following year, he and his wife established the Deacon Jones Foundation to assist young people and the communities in which they live. The Foundation was a way for Jones to pay homage to his upbringing, while also providing opportunities for inner-city youth that he wasn’t afforded while growing up. Jones served as the Foundation president and CEO until his passing in 2013.

James “Jim” Schott grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and graduated from Marian College in 1961. He began his career in Indianapolis where he taught Latin and English, and was an athletic coach. He continued his education, earning degrees from Butler University and Purdue University, and went on to serve as a high school principal in Tennessee, and assistant superintendent for Planning, Business Services and Community Relations in Ohio.

Schott moved to Central Florida in 1977, when he was hired as deputy superintendent for instruction at Orange County Public Schools. Three years later, he became superintendent, a position he held until 1992. Schott played an integral part in the development of many programs that have continued to make a profound and positive impact on the district, its students and the OCPS team.

During Schott’s tenure, the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools was established to connect the district with the community, while also providing financial and other resources for learning enhancement. Since 2005, the Foundation has helped secure and steward more than $25 million in community support for district schools, students and teachers. He also oversaw the introduction of magnet and International Baccalaureate programs in the district.

After serving as superintendent, Schott made the decision to “do something new and different every three to five years until age 100.” He has served as president and trustee of United Arts of Central Florida, Regional President of Voyager Expanded Learning and founder of an educational consulting company, Creative Education Solutions. He was also a volunteer with Junior Achievement of Central Florida and helped develop the JA Academy for Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Oak Ridge High School.

Since 2000, Schott has continued his passion for teaching at the Orlando campus of National-Louis University, where he was named Distinguished Professor of Practice, Educational Leadership. His professional accolades include the 2006 Donald A. Fleming Distinguished Alumni Award from Marian University and the 2007 Henry Cragg Volunteer Award from Junior Achievement of Central Florida.