Theme: Author Our Tomorrow

New ideas and innovations are the best tools to help us plan our future. Individuals from the St. Petersburg community have come together to promote ideas that can change the future of this community and so much more.

University Student Center Ballroom
200 6th Ave. South
St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701
United States

Arthur Wylie

Entrepreneur

Currently the Arthur Wylie brand is one of the hottest celebrity entrepreneur brands in the country. His ventures started out of his dorm room, and he gained millionaire status by the time he was 26. Wylie is the founder of the Arthur Wylie Enterprises brand, which has overseen 1,200 clients and $500 million in assets, transactions, insurance, intellectual properties and real estate over the past 15 years. He has several subsidiaries that are in film development, consulting, project financing, speaking engagements, celebrity events, book publishing, and real estate ventures internationally. Currently, Arthur also holds the title of CEO of Global Renaissance Advisory Services and manages the AW Enterprises Brands, where his duties range from capital raising, corporate branding for international clients, revenue maximization for corporations, film production, distribution, to working with some of Hollywood’s top producers and Studios.

Elizabeth Herrmann

Graphic Design Professor at USFSP

Launching from the Graphic Design MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth studied under Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips Photographer, type designer, installation guerrilla, arts promoter, printmaker, culture critic, writer, activist, and university faculty; she teaches design while slinging lo-fi messaging across the States. Some of her ongoing projects include Cards for Humanity (designing + letterpressing free calling cards for local artists), No Sirvice (a St. Pete–based underground arts collaborative that critiques the bankruptcy of American culture and provides a movement for non-commercial creative resistance), guerrilla screening hand-drawn animations projected from a circa 1987 Radio Flyer wagon, medium-format camera collecting and analog photographing broken culture, writing articles supporting evolutions in design education,creating monospaced typefaces for physical environments, and searching for a new punk design

Jessica Hurley

Non-Profit Organization Director of Partnership Development

essica Hurley is a currently the Director of Partnership Development for AMIkids, Inc. She is also the host of “The Stranded Podcast” created to share inspiring stories of vulnerable people who learned how to press play during their most stuck phase in life. She carries 10+ years of experience working with at-risk youth populations. She has an undergraduate degree from Florida State University and a Master’s degree in Non Profit Management from Springfield College. Jessica’s life work has been focused on improving the lives of troubled and re- entry youth. Once a troubled youth herself, she advocates for the power of mentoring and workforce readiness to keep our future generation on the path to success.

Lisa Rowan

Writer for the PennyHoarder

Lisa Rowan is a senior writer and on-air analyst at The Penny Hoarder, where she covers grocery, retail, and consumer affairs. She also cohosts Pop Fashion, a top-rated weekly podcast about the business of fashion and culture. A former full-time freelance writer and vintage shop owner, she is well versed in the gig economy and the small-business landscape. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University, and most recently lived in Washington, D.C. for 10 years before moving to St. Petersburg in 2016. Her financial advice for independent, ambitious women has been featured in Women’s Health, Family Circle, Refinery29, Real Simple, The New York Times, and NBC News.

Max Houck

Director of the Forensic Studies & Justice program at University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Dr. Max M. Houck is an international forensic expert with over 25 years of experience. Houck has experience in the private sector, academia, local government, and worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory Division. He has worked as a forensic anthropologist, a trace evidence analyst, a researcher, and has managed millions of dollars in grants and awards. He was the inaugural Director of the Department of Forensic Sciences in Washington, D.C., overseeing 150 employees and managing the forensic science laboratory, the public health laboratory, and crime scene sciences for the nation’s capital. Houck has worked on a number of mass casualty scenes, including the Branch Davidian Investigation and the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon.

Nichole Mullen

Student

Nichole is a mom, wife, yoga teacher, writer, advocate, student and life strategist who is driven by a passion to heal the mind. She takes a panoptic approach to help people create a thriving future for themselves. She has been challenged and blessed with an abundance of painful, yet healing experiences along her journey. It is her life’s purpose to help those with a chaotic mind find peace and obtain bliss. Through yoga and writing, Nichole teaches others how to move through life in a positive light.

Patricia Rossi

Etiquette Coach

Patricia Rossi is the host of NBC Daytime’s weekly Manners Minute which airs in 165 syndicated television markets. Her best-selling debut book Everyday Etiquette: How to Navigate 101 Common and Uncommon Social Situations (St. Martin’s Press 2011) is currently in its eighth printing. Patricia is a nationally acclaimed business etiquette coach, spokesperson, author, and columnist. She has been featured in Bloomberg, Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Real Simple, HGTV, and many other publications. Professional sports teams, universities, corporations, and other audiences love her fun, interactive seminars on business etiquette and social influence. She lives in Florida with her husband Bobby and their two sons Jackson and Harrison.

Trace Taylor

Student

In 2003, with a 9th-grade education, became the Founding Director of a multimillion dollar emergent reader press. By 2007, I achieved national recognition as an author of exceptional emergent reader literature, with 200 plus titles specializing in Earth and Life Sciences and used in classrooms across the country. I founded my educational nonprofit, Community Leveraged Learning (CLL), in 2011 with the mission of teaching critical analysis of language (critical thinking) via UDL fashioned thematic study within a framework of fundamental applied writing instruction. I entered into and near completion of the interdisciplinary MLA program at USFSP, encompassing Sociolinguistics, Global Literacy, Creative Writing, and Mass Communication. In 2017, I authored a writer’s guide used in classrooms by students and teachers and was recognized by USFSP for 360 video production.