Changes on Flagler Board of Trustees

Flagler College reported to Historic City News that they have recently added four new members to their Board of Trustees; including two alumni and a former U.S. ambassador.

Long-serving members Judge Howell Melton and W.W. Gay also resigned from the board and were named Trustees Emeriti.

Melton served on the Board since 1971, and was chairman from 1988 to 2000. He is a former St. Johns County Circuit Court Judge and a U.S. District Court Judge. Gay has been a member of the Board since 1999, and he is the founder and chief executive officer of W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor in Jacksonville.

New members of the Board include:

• Viki West Freeman, a 1974 graduate who has spent the last 30 years in community service and fundraising activities in the Atlanta area. She serves as a vice chair on the Executive Board of the Atlanta Jewish Federation, where she co-chaired the first Federation Campaign for young adults, served as Women’s Division chair and then president of the Women’s Division. She also served as president of the Atlanta Chapter of the Brandeis National Women’s Committee, and during her presidency earned the Chapter of the Year Award. With her husband, she received the prestigious Selig Community Service Award from the Atlanta American Jewish Committee.

• Dr. Doris Guidi, who recently retired as provost of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Guidi also served as assistant dean in the School of Health Professions at Long Island University and as chairperson of the LIU Health Sciences Department School of Health and Public Service. Guidi has been honored as Professor Emeritus at Long Island University. In the St. Augustine community she served as a trustee for the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, a research institution of the University of Florida. She also served as a member of the Flagler Hospital Ethics Committee from 2008-2010.

• Ambassador John D. Rood is the chairman of The Vestcor Companies Inc. and JDR Companies Inc. He began his real estate career in 1983 as founder of The Vestcor Companies. In September of 2004, President George W. Bush appointed him as United States Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas where he served until 2007. He returned to Jacksonville as chairman of The Vestcor Companies, and formed The JDR Companies upon his return to develop multifamily properties in Florida, the Carolinas and Texas. Rood has served as a commissioner and chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is a founding board member of the First Coast Family and Housing Foundation and was appointed in 2009 as the Republican Party of Florida Finance Chairman.

• Bob Strang, a 1979 graduate who is the CEO of Investigative Management Group in New York City, one of the world’s leading corporate investigative specialists serving major financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, large law firms and high net-worth individuals and families. After graduating from Flagler, Strange began his law enforcement career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then as a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He currently serves as a board director for the following entities: New York City’s Economic Development Corporation; The Brink’s Company (NYSE: BCO); Chairman of the New York City Civil Service Screening Committee; D.A.R.E. America; and the University of Florida’s Psychiatry & Addiction Advisory Board. He formerly was a co-chair of the Anti Terrorism Task Force, an independent entity established by the New York State legislature.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer