Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 5-1-18

Local
Frontier Executive Appointed To HART Board
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last week, Mayor Bob Buckhorn appointed the Senior Vice President of Frontier Communications, South Region to serve on the HART Board.
Ms. Melanie S. Williams leads an organiza- tion that has more than 2,400 employees in eight states.
Ms. Williams earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from Nova Southern Univer- sity Florida in Management. She continued her education at Dallas Baptist University, where she earned her Mas- ter’s Degree in Professional Development with a Concen- tration in Leadership.
Ms. Williams is married to Victor Williams. She is the mother of four adult chil-
MS. MELANIE S. WILLIAMS ... Appointed to HART Board
dren and 11-year-old twins. She enjoys spending time with her family and water sports.
Her team is top-ranked in Customer Experience and Broadband Growth through 2017.
A Tampa Bay Business
Journal’s “2017 Business- woman of the Year” finalist, Ms. Williams is active in the Tampa Bay business, aca- demic, and volunteer commu- nities. She is a member of the University of Tampa Board of Trustees; the Tampa Bay Greater Chamber of Com- merce; Board member of the Tampa-Hillsborough Eco- nomic Development Council; Cabinet member of the Amer- ican Heart Association; American Stroke Association and Go Red for Women.
While employed at Veri- zon, Ms. Williams was a three-time consecutive recip- ient of the National Telecom Leaders Award. She also served as President of the Verizon Affinity Group twice.
She served as Region Pres- ident of Verizon Florida prior to its acquisition by Frontier.
Four Graduating USF Students Earn Full Scholarships To Study At Oxford
Li. L-R is Alejandro Navas, Janine DeBlasi, Justin Doherty and Kayla
Four University of South Florida seniors will soon walk across the graduation stage and begin a new journey alongside a very select group of students from around the world.
Each of the four students has been awarded a full schol- arship for graduate study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The group will go from USF, founded in 1956, to attending an institution established more than 900 years ago.
Kayla Li, who is studying biomedical sciences, was awarded Oxford’s prestigious Medical Sciences Graduate School Studentship, which will fund her studies in clini- cal embryology. A graduate of Palm Harbor University High School, Li aspires to become a neonatologist.
In addition to Li, three USF Honors College students, Janine DeBlasi, Justin Doherty and Alejandro Navas, earned Frost Scholar- ships. This award, made pos- sible through the generosity of the Phillip and Patricia Frost Philanthropic Foundation, provides funding for top stu- dents from the State Univer- sity System of Florida (and the University of Miami) to study for a full year in mas- ter’s courses in STEM fields.
DeBlasi, from Wesley Chapel and a graduate of Wiregrass Ranch High School, will study radiation biology with an emphasis on cancer treatment. She plans
to pursue a Ph.D. in cancer bi- ology.
Doherty, from Ft. Laud- erdale and a graduate of Saint Thomas Aquinas High School, will study integrated im- munology at Oxford. He plans to become a physician, and is interested in transplant sur- gery and emergency medi- cine.
Navas, from Tampa and a graduate of King High School, will study nature, society and environmental governance at Oxford. His goal is to develop and help implement climate change mitigation policies in the United States.
“Being consistently well represented in national and international scholarship pro- grams is a great honor for our institution,” Ralph Wilcox, USF Provost and Executive Vice President, said. “I wish Janine, Justin, Kayla, and Alejandro great success in their studies at Oxford and look forward to seeing many more USF students follow in their footsteps in the years to come.”
The three Frost Scholars will graduate from USF this week, while Li graduates in August. The addition of three new Frost Scholars brings USF’s total to 12 in the pro- gram’s five-year history.
Oxford was recently named the top university in the world by the Times Higher Education Global Rankings for the second con- secutive year.
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