This year's Voice of Sarasota is Jennifer Rominiecki, of Selby Gardens, The Living Museum
National Travel and Tourism Week is an annual hospitality and tourism industry tradition that celebrates the immense value travel brings to the nation. Visit Sarasota County’s event this year will also serve as the kickoff of Savor Sarasota Restaurant Week.
Each year, the Visit Sarasota County Board bestows the Voice of Sarasota award as part of the celebration. This award is presented to an individual whose exceptional efforts have significantly promoted and enhanced Sarasota County as a tourism destination.
This year the board will honor Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, as 2024 Voice of Sarasota.
Since February 2015, when Rominiecki arrived at Selby Gardens, she repositioned the institution as The Living Museum, securing a trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Enacting this new operating model has yielded increases of 128% in membership and 135% in overall earned revenues.
Rominiecki has also overseen the creation and execution of a five-year Strategic Plan and a new three-year Strategic Plan, as well as an innovative Master Site Plan that included the creation of the world’s first net-positive energy restaurant.
The award will be presented at the National Travel and Tourism Week celebration at the Bird Key Yacht Club on May 14, 4 to 6:30 p.m.
Visit Sarasota County would like to recognize the current sponsors of the event, which include Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, Herald-Tribune Media Group, Miles Partnership, Tiger Lily Flowers and Kokomo Charters.
DutchCrafters award goes to rookie
DutchCrafters, the leading retailer of Amish furniture at www.dutchcrafters.com, celebrates outstanding employees’ achievements all year long, and a special awards ceremony is set aside each year to recognize top performers.
The Rookie of the Year Award was presented by Vice President Linse Miller to Carter Wood, furniture specialist in the Alpharetta, Georgia, showroom.
The award recognizes an employee who joined the company within the last 16 months and is a fast learner and team player who embraces DutchCrafters’ core values and company culture with an ambitious, hardworking perspective.
Law firm adds associate
Meghan E. Griffin has joined Dunlap & Moran as an associate attorney.
Griffin received her J.D. degree along with her Master of Laws degree in Taxation (LLM) in 2023 from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Her areas of practice at the firm will be tax, estate planning, estate and trust administration, and business law.
Dunlap & Moran, PA, is an AV-rated multipractice law firm with offices in downtown Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch.
CEO joins Vistage advisory board
Michael Schwartz, president at Quality Enclosures, Inc., has joined the CEO Peer Advisory Board at Vistage Sarasota.
Quality Enclosures is a family owned and operated business in Sarasota and America’s leading wholesaler of shower enclosures since 1963.
At Vistage Sarasota, our mission is to enable our members to become better leaders who make better decisions and, in turn, get better results.
For more information, contact Kimberly Martinez by email at kMartinez@VistageFlorida.com or visit kimberlymartinez.com.
Project Pride hires first director
The Project Pride SRQ board has named Paul Lotierzo as its first-ever executive director. He took the helm officially May 1.
In this role, Lotierzo is poised to leverage his wide array of nonprofit networking and development experience to usher Project Pride into the next chapter of its ever-expanding presence while increasing its impact on the Sarasota community, the Gulf Coast region and beyond.Lotierzo recently left a position as chief development officer at Civic Influencers, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the voices of young voters. Prior to that, he worked three years as director of development with Athlete Ally, a New York City-based organization dedicated to ending homophobia and transphobia in sports.Lotierzo also spent six years at Immigration Equality, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free legal representation for LGBTQ and HIV+ refugees, where he supported successful fundraising initiatives that increased the organization’s operating budget into the multimillions through strategic corporate sponsorships and major donor support.
Originally from New York state, he attended the University of Tampa, worked in administration at the Florida Department of Transportation in Tampa and volunteered with Equality Florida for LGBTQ+ rights, as well as Clean Water Action to clean up the Hillsborough River.
New VP at Selby Gardens
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens has appointed Nancy Seijas-Kipnis as vice president for Strategic Communications and Marketing.
Since Kipnis’ arrival in this executive leadership role, her priorities have included implementing strategies for the future expansion of Selby Gardens, which encompass a three-phase Master Plan for its downtown Sarasota campus.
Kipnis led the marketing and communications strategies for Selby Gardens’ Phase One January inauguration, a $52 million expansion that will make Selby the first net-positive energy botanical complex in the world, creating more energy than it uses.
With more than two decades of experience as a leader of communications, marketing and public affairs, Kipnis emerged as the top choice from an impressive pool of prospects. Her experience spans a diversity of industries, including arts and culture, government, urban revitalization, culinary arts and lifestyle brands.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Visit Sarasota honors Selby Gardens CEO as Voice of Sarasota
