Who we are

Meet our team!

Kathleen Taylor

Kathleen Taylor has been an academic leader in the educational community of Florida for over 40 years. She has led the two best independent schools in Central Florida to academic excellence and success while serving on accreditation teams assisting Florida schools in school improvement and change of leadership. Kathleen’s role as school board member brought her expertise to the Catholic school community.

Midway in her career, Kathleen was tapped by the Walt Disney Company to be their Educational Consultant for their first cruise ship, the Disney Magic, designing and developing the children and family spaces, programming, activities, and personnel training. Her design and development plan became the initial blueprint for the Disney Cruise Line fleet of ships educational programing.

Kathleen’s most recent educational endeavor involved helping to open a Florida Charter School serving high school students in Indiantown.

With her love of education and awareness of what it can do for children and a democratic society, Kathleen has moved from the classroom to the broader community as an outspoken advocate for excellence and opportunity for all children and young people. Kathleen serves as one of the three initial Florida Friends Network Directors.

Kathleen earned her B.A. at the University of Florida, her M.Ed. at the University of Louisville and did her doctoral coursework at the University of Central Florida.

John Hart

John Hart has had a distinguished career in public service, serving two terms on the Broward County Commission and three terms as Mayor of the City of North Lauderdale. He also served as the president of the Florida Association of Counties, as well as Governor Bob Graham’s appointment to the Broward County Expressway Authority. In 2006, he led the campaign for the Broward County transportation sales tax initiative.

A Brooklyn native, John has been heavily involved with both the civic and business communities of South Florida, and is now celebrating his 43th year as a member of the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County.

John served on the Board of the Broward College Foundation for 12 years and has spearheaded numerous child advocacy and educational programs.

His professional background is in management, marketing and finance. Prior to launching his own consulting business, he led two major environmental and transportation engineering firms. John serves as one of the three initial Florida Friends Network Inc. Directors.

In 2002, John embarked upon the citizen-based discussion, Dialogues in Democracy. (See "Dialogues in Democracy: Would It Be Fair to Say?" at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dialogues-in-democracy-wo_b_908135/amp )

Tom Gustafson

Tom Gustafson served in the Florida House of Representatives for fourteen years (1976-1990) and served as the Speaker of the House during his last two years in the Florida House. He has always sought to undertake comprehensive initiatives to address significant problems facing Florida.

After 30 years practicing law and almost twenty years in academia, Tom retired in 2020 and is now the Chair of the Florida Friends Network.

Tom has spent the last three years reviewing the current status of governance in Florida and risks which all Floridians face and he has concluded that significant change in political leadership will be required if we are to enjoy a safe and prosperous future in a constitutionally-framed, majority vote-based, democratic republic. (See https://www.facebook.com/tom.gustafson.395?mibextid=LQQJ4d. ) Tom also serves as one of the three initial directors of the Florida Friends Network, Inc.

You can contact Tom by phone or text on his cell phone at 954 661-7848 or by email at: tomgustafson@ffninc.org.

Address:

P.O. Box 825

Loxahatchee Groves, FL 33470

Cell: 954 661 7847

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