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South Florida Advisory Council

Richard Candia

Teresita Garcia
With more than 25 years experience in land planning, governmental affairs, public participation and feasibility analysis, Teresita Garcia currently serves as the public involvement director for Bermello Ajamil and Partners, Inc. She has provided services on major residential, industrial, commercial and waterfront projects, such as the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority project and the Miami Intermodal Center. Garcia sits on a variety of committees, including the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Miami-Dade County Development and Planning Advisory, and the Miami Chamber of Commerce Executive Transportation Committee.

Kenneth Gordon
Kenneth Gordon is an attorney in Ft. Lauderdale, specializing in marital and family law. He also serves as special counsel for Adoption Source, Inc., which specializes in international adoptions. He is a member of the First American Family Law Inns of Court, Barrister, as well as the Family Law Section of The Florida Bar. Gordon is past chairman of the executive council of the family law section of the Broward Bar, where he served on the seminar committee in conjunction with Legal Aid Service of Broward County.

Marilyn Hett
Marilyn Hett coordinates economic and cultural development programs in Hillsborough County's tourism development section. Hett previously served as director of community development for Miami-Dade County's Office of Community and Economic Development, president of a private real estate consulting business, and manager of an international accounting firm. She is certified with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and the International Economic Development Council as a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), as a Counselor of Real Estate (CRE) and as an Associate Member of the Appraisal Institute.

Bruce Iden
Bruce Iden is a partner in the law firm Milledge & Iden, located in Miramar. Over the last 24 years, his practice has concentrated primarily in the areas of major real estate transactions, zoning and land use planning, general commercial transactions, and estate planning. Iden is a member of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys and an agent of Attorneys Title Insurance Fund, Inc. He is an adjunct professor at the Florida International University Legal Studies Program and at the Broward Community College School of Business Administration.

Sallye Jude
Sallye Jude is proprietor of the Miami River Inn, which is now part of the National Register of Historic Places. The four-cottage, 40-room inn sits along the Miami River in one of the city's neighborhoods, East Little Havana. Jude also is the Neighborhood Representative for the Miami River Commission.

Ernie Martin
Ernie Martin is the former director of Miami-Dade County's Community and Economic Development Department. He first joined the county's planning department after getting a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Oregon. Martin is past president of the Spring Garden Civic Association, an organization that fends off threats to its members' neighborhoods, such as misguided plans for transportation corridors. Martin has witnessed community growth from every perspective - as a neighborhood activist, an urban planner, a government administrator, a conservation volunteer and, recently, as a producer of a video documentary on the river and community he loves.

Jose Martin
Jose Martin is a partner in the firm Gerstman & Martin, a financial planning boutique that carefully crafts, plans, and designs financial strategies to achieve and protect a client's goals. Martin is a registered investment adviser representative, a general securities representative, and a licensed insurance agent.

Arsenio Milian
Arsenio Milian is president of Milian, Swain & Associates, Inc., a civil and environmental engineering firm in Miami. Milian is president and founder of Citizens for a Better South Florida, an organization that promotes the safeguarding of South Florida's natural resources. He is a member of Miami-Dade County's Environmental Advisory Council and chairs the Stormwater Subcommittee of the Miami River Commission. He has received several awards for his environmental activism and has been appointed by three different governors to work on statewide environmental concerns. One of those appointments was to the Florida Forever Advisory Council in 1999.

Jim Murley
Jim Murley became the director of the Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University in 1999. Previously, he served as secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs and as executive director of 1,000 Friends of Florida. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism and is secretary-treasurer of its Florida chapter. He serves on advisory boards for the Coastal States Stewardship Foundation, the Seaside Institute, the Dade County Land Trust, and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Les Pantin
Les Pantin is president of Pantin/Beber Silverstein Public Relations, one of Florida's largest public relations firms, and has represented companies such as McDonald's, American Airlines, and Merrill Lynch. The Miami Herald recognized Pantin as one of 18 private citizens who have shaped Miami, having helped create Carnaval Miami, Cuba Nostalgia, and many other top-rated Florida events. He currently is vice chairman of the board of Great Florida Bank, director of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, and has held leadership positions on a variety of boards and committees, including the Orange Bowl Committee, the Miami Business Forum, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Inter-American Business Association, and the Miami Business Forum. He also has served on the board of trustees of Florida State University, Barry University, and Miami-Dade Community College.

Bob Parks
Bob Parks has practiced law in South Florida for 40 years and is a past president of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. His conservation involvement goes back to 1979, when Governor Bob Graham appointed him to chair the state's Environmental Regulation Commission, an assignment that led to roles on the Environmental Land Management Study Committee and the Miami River Coordinating Committee.

Donald Slesnick
Donald Slesnick is serving his fourth term as mayor of the City of Coral Gables and continues to be a managing partner of the law firm of Slesnick & Casey. Slesnick serves on the board of directors of Great Florida Bank and also has served as chairman of the Coral Gables Community Foundation, president of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, president of the Dade Heritage Trust, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council, and chairman of the Dade Cultural Alliance. Slesnick has held management positions with the Dade County Public Schools and the Dade County Police Department.

Howard Tendrich
Howard Tendrich, of Miami, has been the owner of Heritage House, a young men's suit store, since 1968. Tendrich became involved in conservation issues almost 10 years ago, working alongside TPL and other state conservation organizations to preserve the Cutler Glade Rehydration Parcel, also known as the Powers Property. He has served on the Miami-Dade County Parks Committee and is a former member of the board of directors and the board of trustees for the Zoological Society of Florida and was president of its volunteers committee for two years. He is a past president of the Deering Estate Foundation and is now president emeritus.

Susan Vodicka
Susan Vodicka is executive vice president of Bendixen & Associates, a leading international market research, management and communications consulting firm that helps clients worldwide with public opinion research and analysis. Vodicka also has served as president of the Florida Partnership of the Americas, a network of international business leaders working to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

 

Updated 8/2007