For immediate release, August 20, 2002

Contact Hal Howland, 305-295-4369

The Florida Keys Council of the Arts announces new officers and board members, reflecting a continuing commitment to serving the cultural community throughout the Keys.

New chair and longtime board member June Girard lives on Sugarloaf Key, is on the board of the Lower Keys Medical Center, and is its representative to the Society of Arts and Healthcare. She coordinates the arts council's Art in the Hospital at LKMC, and she launched the Arts in the Afternoon lunch-and-conversation series. Ms. Girard hosted the TV show Countyline and was president of the Monroe County League of Women Voters and secretary for the Florida board. She was president of the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center Founders Society and of the Red Barn Theatre Band of Angels. Ms. Girard was elected to the arts council's advisory board in 1999.

Vice-chair Rocky Hubert is an account executive with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. An arts council board member since 1999, Mr. Hubert has served in a leadership capacity for a number of community organizations including the Upper Keys Jaycees (president), Saint James Episcopal Church (vestryman and treasurer), the Monroe County Housing Finance Authority (current chairman), the Guidance Clinic of the Upper Keys, and the Florida Keys Council of the Arts. He was also a graduate of Class One of Leadership Monroe County and has served as a director of the alumni association, including a term as president. Mr. Hubert lives in Key Largo.

Secretary David Cohn created Art Lovers Gallery in 1992 in Islamorada. Affiliations include the Islamorada and Key Largo chambers of commerce, the Chicago Art Institute, and the South Florida Center for the Arts. He is a board member of the Rural Health Network and is chair of the board of Key Players. Mr. Cohn is the District Advisory Committee IV board member of the Tourist Development Council and the DAC IV member of the Cultural Umbrella. He looks forward to the building of an auditorium in the Upper Keys. An arts council board member since 1998, Mr. Cohn lives in Tavernier.

Tax manager with Tolley & Zirilli, P.A., C.P.A.s, Key Largo, since January 2002, new treasurer Jack Elon Hildreth Jr. was the tax manager with Mull & Associates, C.P.A., P.A., Tavernier, from 1995 to 2001, finance director of Ocean Catamarans, Marathon, from 1996 to 1998, captain of the sixty-five-foot Gan Eden, Newport Beach, California, and Mexico, from 1993 to 1994, and president and owner of Jack Elon Hildreth, Jr., P.C., Newport Beach, from 1983 to 1993. He worked in auditing and taxation in California from 1979 to 1983 for a number of large accounting firms, including Coopers & Lybrand. In 1984 Mr. Hildreth taught graduate estate and trust taxation at the University of Southern California, where he received his Master of Business in taxation and his Bachelor of Arts in accounting. He received his Juris Doctorate at the California Western School of Law in 1975. Currently Mr. Hildreth represents the boating industry as a member of the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary Advisory Board, and he races sailboats in local, national, and international competitions.

New to the board of directors and a member of the advisory board since 2001, photographer Carol Ellis earned her B.A. from the University of Florida College of Journalism. For the past fifteen years she has performed a variety of photographic services for businesses, publications, and families at Ocean Reef and throughout the Upper Keys. Ms. Ellis has specialized in photographing at-risk natural areas, including Key Largo Hammocks Botanical Site and Fisheating Creek (the latter project recognized by Governor Jeb Bush). She worked on the national television documentary The Fragile Keys. Thirteen pieces of her photographic work are on display in Commissioner Murray Nelson's office, as part of the arts council's Art in Public Places program. Ms. Ellis has served as a site-management review team member for the Department of Environmental Protection in Monroe and Dade counties. She is a class IX graduate of Leadership Monroe County. Ms. Ellis lives in Key Largo.

New to the arts council advisory board are Key West school administrator Theresa Axford, Key Largo theater administrator Tom Butler, Big Pine Key curator and nurse Linda Douville, Key Largo museum and school administrator Judy Harris, Marathon choral singer and voice teacher Susan Hartney, Tavernier poet and teacher Vanna McDonough, Marathon visual artist Marianne Motches, Key West environmentalist and dancer Lucy Mularz, Key Largo art director and activist John Mullon, Islamorada artist and presenter Louise Orzel, and Key Largo graphic designer Cris Sandifer.

[Photo caption: Florida Keys Council of the Arts chair June Girard]

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