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Officers - Executive Board
Wayne A. Wiegand
Wayne A. Wiegand is F. William Summers Professor-Emeritus, and Senior Scholar-In-Residence at the PALMM Center of Florida State University. He is working on a history of the American public library, a history of the American public school library, and with Shirley Wiegand a history of the desegregation of public libraries in the American South between 1954 and 1968. He is currently Director of the Florida Book Awards, and President of the FSU Friends of Libraries.
Gloria Colvin
Gloria Colvin is a librarian in Reference and Research Services at Florida State University. An active member of the Florida Library Association, she edits the semiannual journal Florida Libraries. She earned a B.A. in English and art history and an M.A.T. in English education at Duke University and an M.S.L.S. at the University of N.C.-Chapel Hill. An avid reader, she especially enjoys literary fiction and participates in several book discussion groups. She currently serves as Chair of the Florida Book Awards Executive Commitee.
Julia Zimmerman
Julia Zimmerman is Dean of University Libraries at Florida State University. Prior to her appointment at FSU in 2007, she was Dean of Libraries at Ohio University. She has also held positions at Georgia Institute of Technology, Penn State University, and Wake Forest University, and has been active in state, regional and national library organizations. Julia holds degrees from Florida State University and Emory University. A fifth-generation Floridian and an enthusiastic reader of Florida history and fiction, Julia is delighted that the Florida Book Awards are now headquartered at the FSU Libraries.
Lester Abberger
Lester Abberger, a member of the Florida Humanities Council Board of Directors, is managing partner of Florida Lobby Associates, a Tallahassee governmental affairs consulting concern. He is senior consultant to the investment banking firm of Kirkpatrick Pettis and Company and is a limited partner of Home Town Neighborhoods, Inc., a traditional neighborhood real estate development and investment company. Mr. Abberger is active in numerous statewide civic organizations involving land conservation, architecture and urban design, public policy, library systems, public health, and education. In addition, he is trustee of the National Trust for the Humanities, past chairman of the Florida Humanities Council, and past chairman of the national Federation of State Humanities Councils. A past chairman of Leadership Florida, he has also received the Leadership Florida Distinguished Alumnus Award. Mr. Abberger is a graduate of Davidson College, a Knight Fellow at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and has completed executive education programs at the Yale School of Management, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Stanford School of Business, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
John Fenstermaker
John Fenstermaker, Fred L. Standley Professor of English and University Distinguished Teacher at Florida State University. He specializes in Victorian and Modern American literature and culture. He recently retired as Director of the Program in American and Florida Studies, and now represents the FSU Friends of Libraries in his capacity as its President. Fenstermaker has been President of the Florida College English Association, the Florida Association of Departments of English, and the South Atlantic Association of Departments of English. He is a member of the Administrative Committee of the Southern American Studies Association. In 2005, he served as President of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association.
Terry Lewis
Terry Lewis has been a trial Judge in Tallahassee since 1989, where he presides over a variety of criminal and civil cases. He has been active over the years in a number of professional, educational and community service organizations, including: Inns of Court, Committee on Civil Jury instructions, Education Chair for County and Circuit Judge Conferences, Faculty for Florida Judicial College and College of Advanced Judicial Studies, Leadership Tallahassee, Leadership Florida, YMCA Board, Tallahassee Rotary Club President, Kids Voting, Teen Court, Justice Teaching Institute, Local, Statewide and National High School Mock Trial Competition. His professional awards include Judge of the Year, Florida Law Related Education Association - 1993, Judge Harvey Ford Leadership Award - 1996, Trial Judge of the Year Award, American Board of Trial Advocates - 2000.
The judge began work on a novel in 1990. Seven years, two writing courses, and many books and articles later, his first novel, Conflict of Interest, a Murder mystery set in Tallahassee, was published by Pineapple Press. His second novel, Privileged Information, was released in 2003. He is currently at work on a third.
Terry's wife, Fran, is a guidance counselor. They have one daughter, Angie. Terry likes to relax with a good game of tennis or basketball, a good book, or film.
Rick Campbell
His most recent book is The Traveler’s Companion (Black Bay Books, 2004). His first full-length book, Setting The World In Order (Texas Tech 2001) won the Walt McDonald Prize. His poems and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, The Tampa Review, The Florida Review, Southern Poetry Review, Puerto Del Sol, Prairie Schooner, and other journals. Campbell has won an NEA Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and two fellowships from the Florida Arts Council. He is the director of Anhinga Press and the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and he teaches English at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. He lives with his wife and daughter in Gadsden County, Florida.
Judith A. Ring
Judith Ring has overseen the programs and services administered by the Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services since January 2003. The Division of Library and Information Services is the information resource provider for the Florida Legislature and state agencies. It coordinates and funds public libraries; implements statewide reading, information, and literacy initiatives; provides records management services; and collects, preserves, and makes available the published and unpublished documentary history of the state. Judith attended college at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and received her Masters in Library Science at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
Roxann Campbell
Roxann Campbell has been employed in a variety of human service and education programs. She served as a family counselor, and program director for mental health care organizations in her home state of New Mexico, and Texas. Upon moving to Orlando in 1995, Roxann began her career in the field of adult literacy while serving the Florida Literacy Coalition.
In 2003, Roxann was selected as an Associate Director by the Volunteer Florida Foundation where she managed Governor Jeb Bush’s Family Literacy Initiative, now named the Florida Family Literacy Initiative. In this role, she has oversight of multiple literacy projects. Roxann is best known for her achievements in exemplary family literacy programming, and the implementation of the Florida Family Literacy Report Card.
Hobbies and special interest include reading for pleasure and learning, music, neighborhood improve projects, and interior decorating. She also enjoys fresh and salt water fishing, golf, and traveling to Florida’s natural attractions with her husband James Campbell. Roxann is a 1990 graduate of Angelo State University, and earned a BS in Clinical Psychology.
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is currently the secondary reading specialist with “Just Read, Florida!” in Office of the Department of Education. He was the reading coach at Seminole High School in Sanford from 2004 to 2006, when he was named Seminole High School “Teacher of the Year.” He was formerly the reading coach and an English teacher at Millennium Middle School, also in Sanford, FL, from 1994 to 2004, where he was the 2004 Millennium Middle School “Teacher of the Year.” Kevin earned a BS in English Education and a Master of Education in Open and Distance Learning from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
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Advisory Committee
Ben Brotemarkle
Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is Executive Director of the Florida Historical Society. He is author of four award-winning books on Florida history and culture, including "Beyond the Theme Parks: Exploring Central Florida" (1999), and most recently "Crossing Division Street: An Oral History of the African American Community in Orlando" (2005). Dr. Brotemarkle has been Professor of Humanities at Brevard Community College, where he was named Distinguished Educator and Barnes and Noble College Booksellers Endowed Faculty Chair of Academic Excellence.
Lissette Mendez
Ms. Lissette Mendez joined the Florida Center for the Literary Arts in August 2004 as Program Coordinator. Ms. Mendez is a writer who has published poetry and creative nonfiction in anthologies and national literary magazines, as well as a variety of articles for Miami-based magazines and newspapers. Most recently she worked in the Publications Department of Miami Dade College as Editorial Director, responsible for the content of all College publications and advertising. She has also taught creative writing and composition at Miami Dade College and Florida International University. Ms. Mendez is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Library and Information Studies at Florida State University.
Tara Zimmermann
Tara Zimmermann has been with Florida Center for the Book since 2001. She has developed and produced hundreds of author events, writer's workshops and literary events including Broward County Library's first One Book, One Community reading program and five National Endowment for the Arts Big Read initiatives. Prior to joining Florida Center for the Book she was a buyer for an independent book store in South Florida for six years. Florida Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the library of Congress, brings readers and writers together, promotes books, reading and libraries, and celebrates the literary heritage of Florida.
Faye Roberts
Faye Roberts is Executive Director of the Florida Library Association. As a child growing up in Virginia, her goal was to live next door to the library. A former social worker in Virginia and Kentucky, she entered librarianship as literacy coordinator for the Suwannee River Regional Library. Her library experience is with Florida public libraries and she served as director of the Columbia County Public Library in Lake City, FL from 1994 to 2004. Roberts holds a B. A. in Sociology from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA and an M.S.L.S. from Florida State University.
Cecelia Solomon
Cecelia Solomon has been a middle school library media specialist in Hernando County since 1986. She is an active memeber of FAME, and is presently serving as Incoming President on the annual conferene committe. Cecelia has an M.A. from the School of Library & Information Science College of Education at USF, a B.A. in Sociology with Socil Studies Education from SUNY College at Geneseo, and is a National Board Certified Teacher in Library Media Early Childhood through Young Adult. Cecelia's husband Alan is a hight school American History teacher and a high school wrestling official. They have one son, Bucky, an Army Ranger. The Solomons have had season ticket holders for the Tampa Bay Rays for many years.