People Archive

Wasting No Time

3/7/2023
About 30% of a typical city's food waste comes from restaurants. Aneshai Smith wants to do something about that while helping restaurants thrive. Her Orlando-based startup, Go See The City, offers digital coupons for deep discounts on unsold food before restaurants close for the day.
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Florida Icon: Jenson Van Emburgh

3/7/2023
My injury happened during birth. I came out the wrong way. The doctor put too much pressure on my spinal cord and it severed. My parents were told that I had no sensation or motor function from my armpits down and that I would be in a wheelchair for life.
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A Really Big Deal

3/1/2023
Jorge and Julio Brea were just little boys when their family immigrated from the Dominican Republic to Tampa in the early 1990s. As teenagers growing up at the dawn of digital age, they loved both music and technology, and they figured out a way to bring the two together.
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Beacons of Hope

3/1/2023
Access to trusted, quality health care is important to all of us — regardless of background or economic standing — especially when it comes to our children.
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A Life Raft for Women

2/12/2023
Sipra Laddha and Shama Rathi are psychiatrists, but when each of them struggled with mental health issues during or after their pregnancies, even they had trouble finding the professional help they needed.
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Florida Icon: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

2/8/2023
Dancing was definitely a hallmark of my childhood. My sister and I danced at our local dance studio, and we started performing fairly young as part of a revue. These revues in the Black community usually had a comic MC, a flash act like the Nicholas Brothers, a tap dancer, an exotic dancer or a stripper, which was kind of like post-vaudeville burlesque. My sister and I, we were part of the kiddie act. I did that probably from age 7 or 8 until about 16 or 17.
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Lessons Shared

2/1/2023
This past December, I had the distinct honor of delivering the commencement address at Florida Southern College in Lakeland.
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A Side of Success

2/1/2023
Sixty years ago, a 15-year-old boy named George Guito was headed down the path to trouble when he asked for a job at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. César Gonzmart, then the third generation of his family to lead the iconic restaurant, hired George as a busboy and later sent him to school to become a butcher — along the way making him part of the family and a de facto brother to sons Richard and Casey.
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Florida Icon: Mallory Lykes Dimmitt

1/11/2023
Both of my parents are native Floridians, which is unusual. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time outdoors, visiting state parks and paddling along rivers. My family is part of a ranching family, and we'd go to the ranch on certain weekends. We tried to be outside as much as possible. That definitely helped to shape my career interests and shaped what I do today.
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Delivering for Florida

1/1/2023
As you know from my past columns, education is an important topic to me. My parents instilled in me at a very young age the value of a good education. They emphasized that education is the key that unlocks so many doors. Both of my parents were the first in their families to get college degrees. My siblings and I heeded their advice, though we took different paths. My sister earned her master's degree, my older brother and I graduated from a four-year university, one of my younger brothers received an associate's degree and another pursued a technical degree. It didn't matter which route we took, we all understood the importance of a post-secondary education.
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World of Wonder

1/1/2023
As a young man growing up in a small town in Arizona, Jeff Hoffman had a goal of visiting 50 countries. He reminded himself daily of that life's ambition by taping a note to his mirror. The now-Florida based entrepreneur, humanitarian and mentor did indeed make it out of that small town — in a very big way.
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From Rags to Pitches

12/28/2022
Cesar Hernandez is a first-generation American of Mayan immigrants from Guatemala's K'iche Tribe. He grew up poor in Brooklyn. He was arrested at age 13 and put in a program aimed at helping inner-city youth stay out of prison. “I wish I could say my life turned around and it was great, but it was a journey,” he says. By his early 20s, he had been arrested five more times.
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David Denor at the 2022 Florida Southern College Winter Commencement

12/22/2022
David Denor, the publisher of Florida Trend Magazine, was the keynote speaker during Florida Southern's Winter graduation.
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Fashion tech startup Fit:Match makes shopping experience more efficient with 3-D body twin avatars

12/8/2022
Fit:Match's technology can find a customer's body twin in its digital database, accommodate for shape differences and give recommendations on what will fit and what the customer will like — in about a minute. The Backs
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Florida Icon: Craig Waters

12/7/2022
When the internet came along, just as a personal hobby, I decided I was going to figure out how to create web pages. Later, I set up the first set of web pages for the Florida Supreme Court, and I continued to expand these web pages, which was very novel at the time. I knew I was innovating but didn't really understand the full extent of where it was going. A lot of the judges and attorneys at the time took a very dim view of the web, but Bush v. Gore was an event that started to change people's minds.
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The Advocate: Yolanda Cash Jackson

12/1/2022
The first time Yolanda Cash Jackson saw the sculpture of Mary McLeod Bethune was in 2021 in Pietrasanta, a small town along the Tuscan coast where master sculptor Nilda Comas had carved the three-ton figure out of marble from the same quarry Michelangelo used to create David and other masterpieces. Bethune is known as the “First Lady of the Struggle” for her efforts to pave the way for Blacks in education and civil rights; the towering stone figure depicts Bethune in academic regalia adorned with a simple pearl necklace and holding a single black rose.
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65 years and counting

12/1/2022
As the end of the year approaches, I like to look back at the past 12 issues of FLORIDA TREND. It gives me a great sense of gratitude and appreciation for our entire staff and the work that they accomplish. Every department — from editorial, art, administration, circulation, marketing, production, digital publishing and advertising — plays a critical role in keeping FLORIDA TREND moving in the right direction.
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Fight Night

12/1/2022
The stage was set: Vivid red, white and blue images sparkled on tall screens behind two metal and glass podiums on the stage at the Duncan Theatre on Palm Beach State College's Lake Worth campus. A low hum of anticipation rose from the audience.
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Standing Together

11/30/2022
We will not soon forget the devastation that Hurricane Ian brought to Florida. Our two youngest boys, both finishing their final year at Florida Gulf Coast University, saw firsthand the power of a Cat 4 hurricane as they remained in Fort Myers during the storm. Even though they were safe and well-secured, my wife and I were still naturally on edge. We were glad when they returned safely to our home near Indian Rocks Beach after the hurricane passed.
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Sightlines

11/30/2022
In the days after Queen Elizabeth II died, one of my favorite anecdotes shared involved a biographer who asked why the queen wore such brightly colored hats and coats. “I have to be seen to be believed,” the queen replied.
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Pet product company and Shark Tank winner SwiftPaws on track to hit $1.5 million this year

11/14/2022
Brevard County native Meghan Wolfgram graduated from high school with an associate's degree through a dual enrollment program and was been accepted into the University of Florida's veterinary program. “I was going to go into large-animal equine sciences.”
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Florida Icon: Jim Strickland

11/8/2022
I'm 67 years old, and at age 7, I wanted to be what I am now. I always just wanted to be on a horse.
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Johnny Crowder's startup Cope Notes helps others struggling with mental health issues

10/10/2022
Mental health advocate, metal musician and motivational speaker Johnny Crowder's peer-support startup finds a receptive audience around the world.
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Florida Icon: Penelope Bodry-Sanders

10/7/2022
My mom and dad were living in Chicago when my mom saw an ad that included someone wearing a polka dot bathing suit, and she decided that she needed to move to Florida.
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Hop to It

10/3/2022

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We've Got You Covered

10/1/2022
Every month, our editorial team impresses and amazes me with the quality of the content they produce.
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Florida Icon: Rhonda Shear

9/6/2022
You can find love after 40. You can start a new career after 40. It's never too late to start over.
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Miami-based Mind&Melody uses music to lift seniors' spirits

9/6/2022
Cristina Rodriguez moved with her family from Caracas, Venezuela, to Miami at age 7 and has been playing the cello since she was 10. In her freshman year of high school, she noticed that many kids in her advanced classes also played an instrument and wondered if there was something to that. She began reading about music and the brain, and one book, Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, helped chart her life course.
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Back to Florida's Future

9/1/2022
Like many children of the Cold War era, I have distinct memories of some of the Apollo missions. I grew up in Southern Oregon in the foothills of Siskiyou Mountains, a place so devoid of light pollution that on cloudless nights, it seemed we could step out our front door directly into a blue-black sea punctuated by the moon and stars.
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Engineer designs first smart cushion with sensors for better wheelchair user experience

8/25/2022
Tim Balz initially wasn't a good student in high school. He was told he wouldn't go to college. But he had one teacher who believed in him. That teacher introduced Balz to engineering through robotics, and Balz captained the team in his Plainville, Ind., high school. “Engineers have so much power to change so many lives. I knew then it was the best career I could think of to change the world,” he says.
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Florida Icon: Alicia Cervera

8/11/2022
I have done 48 major projects in Brickell. My daughter Veronica says: ‘Mother, when I see the skyline of Miami, I see your name.' Sometimes when I drive on the causeway and I look over at the city, I feel so much joy to see that we've been able to contribute to Miami becoming a global city.
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People & Profiles: Archive