The Escambia Children's Trust board has narrowed down the search for its first executive director to five final candidates.

More than 65 people applied for the position, which will be responsible for overseeing the trust's day-to-day operations, long-term strategic planning and the hiring of program and contract managers.

The trust, which was approved by voters in 2020, is responsible for allocating more than $10 million in property taxes to fund initiatives and services to improve the lives of local youth and their families.

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The public can meet the final five candidates for the director position at a meet-and-greet from 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Voices of Pensacola Multicultural Center, 117 E. Government St. in Pensacola.

"We were looking for someone who, first of all, had energy and was excited about the trust, who had a passion for kids, who wants to see Escambia County do better, who wanted to see the children of Escambia County thrive," said Stephanie White, chairwoman of the trust's board.

According to the job description, the executive director's duties will include the development of benchmarks to track progress toward strategic goals, prepare and manage the trust's annual budget, bring funding recommendations to the board for approval and fiscally monitor the programs that the trust chooses to fund.

"We were looking for someone who had experience with finances. We were looking for someone who had strategic planning experience. We were looking for someone who had worked for a board before, someone who has employed people and hired people and fired people," White said. "So overall, we were looking for a business person who is passionate about kids and has worked with kids and really wants to see our community improve."

The board stopped accepting applications for the job in early November. The next step was to cut the list down to 10 candidates by the middle of the month.

After one of the finalists withdrew their application, the board interviewed the remaining nine candidates via Zoom between Nov. 15 and 17 and eventually cut the list down to the final five candidates.

Those five candidates will be put through another round of interviews with the board Jan. 11, the day after the meet-and-greet.

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The board hopes to either narrow down its list to a couple of candidates or make a final decision on who to hire by its Jan. 12 meeting.

Here is more information about the five candidates, based on their resumes and cover letters, as well as interviews with the News Journal.

Dasiely Cruz

Dasiely Cruz, of Miami, is the director of the Early Learning Career Center at The Children's Forum Inc., where she has worked since 2002.

She has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in early childhood education both from Nova Southeastern University.

"I am excited about this position because I get to implement and be part of a system for an entire county and make a difference in the lives of families and children," she said. "And because of my experience for the last 10 years, here in Miami-Dade, I think I could bring a lot of knowledge and skills and expertise to this community and children's trust in Escambia County and learn from all the challenges and successes that we've had here."

As part of her work as the director at The Children's Forum, Cruz oversees day-to-day operations of the organization's Career Center and field staff caseload, including the management of multiple contracts, collaboration with system partners and other agencies, and management of $10 million in scholarship grants.

Toby Fritz

Toby Fritz, of Charlottesville, Virginia, is currently the vice president and chief operations officer for Folium Inc., a nonprofit based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

He holds a master's degree in business administration from Frostburg State University, a master's in educational psychology from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Shippensburg University.

"I'm a mission-focused nonprofit executive," Fritz told the News Journal. "I just love the idea of being able to connect with all the stakeholders and listen to understand the needs and enact a variety of services in short order, and also those with a long-term view, to meet those needs. I'm just really impressed that the voters agreed that this is something of need, and I very much respect the need and the commitment to the children."

Fritiz said that as an executive at Folium, which he called a $20 million nonprofit, he is experienced with managing and distributing large sums of money.

Tammy Greer

Tammy Greer, of St. Petersburg, is the executive director and CEO of Gulfcoast Legal Services.

She holds a master's degree in public administration from United States International University and a bachelor's in interdisciplinary humanities from the University of West Florida.

"I'm originally from Pensacola, so I was a kid there, it's home. So it's near and dear to my heart," Greer said. "But I've spent 30 years of my career working in nonprofits, most of which was working with or for children, so it just seems like a natural fit for me."

Greer's current duties with Gulfcoast Legal Services include securing funding to maintain operations, ensuring grant deliverables are met in compliance with funding and within budget, increasing private donations and working with state and federally elected officials to advocate and develop policies around evictions in Florida, according to her resume.

She increased her organization's budget from $2.3 million in 2016 to more than $4.2 million in 2021.

Al Henderson

Al Henderson is one of two candidates from Pensacola.

He currently serves as the executive director of the Escambia Pensacola Human Relations committee and has a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of West Florida.

Henderson said he applied for the position after carefully studying the job requirements.

"One of the things I did, I really studied what it is and what it would take because it is such an enormous effort. I thought can I deliver on these things? Can I successfully partner with the board and be that liaison between those organizations providing services and the board?" he said. "And I just feel that I could serve my community in this particular role and partner with the board and come up with that clear and articulate solution to the challenges."

As the executive director of the Escambia Pensacola Human Relations committee, Henderson frequently works with the Escambia County Commission and the city of Pensacola and prepares budgets and manages funding agreements.

Leslie Mickles

Leslie Mickles, of Pensacola, is the vice president of financial advancement at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast.

In her current role, her duties include overseeing the finances of club sites in Escambia County, formulating strategic plans focusing on resource development across a three-county area, developing contracts and expanding fundraising activities to support program operations while managing branding, according to her resume.

She holds a master's in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management and a bachelor's in biology from the University of West Florida.

She served as the executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast – Pensacola Clubs between 2015 and 2020.

Mickles did not respond to the News Journal's request for comment Monday.

Colin Warren-Hicks can be reached at colinwarrenhicks@pnj.com or 850-435-8680.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia Children's Trust narrows director search to five candidates