It’s time again to recognize Winter Park’s Most Influential People. The program, in its 11th year, recognizes those who— sometimes quietly—make a difference through their professions, their volunteerism, their philanthropy, their talents or their community engagement. Now, on the following pages, please meet the Class of 2026—which is every bit as deep and impressive as previous classes and includes some younger Influentials who’ll fill the shoes of the veterans we have saluted in years past. The inductees come from all walks of life but share a love for Winter Park—and a desire to keep it as special as the founding visionaries intended.
Brooke Barnett & Tom Mould
President, Rollins College; Professor of Anthropology, Rollins College
THE TAR TANDEM
Brooke Barnett, who succeeded Grant Cornwell last summer to become just the 16th president of Rollins College in more than 140 years, joins an eclectic roster of leaders that have, most recently, included an editor, a couple of business executives, a painter, a magician, a fundraiser, an astrophysicist and a philosopher. All, of course, were much more than those sometimes whimsical one-word descriptors indicate—but their differences prove that the picture-postcard liberal-arts college, whose history is so thoroughly entwined with that of Winter Park, casts a wide net when hiring presidents best suited to meet the moment. This time it was the charismatic Barnett, who came from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs (and previously dean of the college of communication). She had come to Butler from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, where she had held various academic and administrative roles. The historic but resurgent institution had (surprisingly, at least here) emerged as the most formidable challenger to Rollins’s seemingly unassailable No. 1 ranking among Regional Universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report. So Barnett’s academic and administrative chops were already evident—but the native of small-town Harrodsburg, Kentucky (population then about 7,000), also brought with her an inclusive, empathetic, approachable persona that instantly demolished any preconceptions about stuffy elitism in higher education. Her 17-minute inaugural address at Warden Arena, delivered in her signature chatty style, endorsed the value of liberal-arts education while leavening her remarks with amusing anecdotes and eclectic pop-culture references (Spider-Man and Ted Lasso). She joked: “My grandfather said I must have been vaccinated by a Victrola needle.” Barnett, who describes herself as an academically unremarkable but inquisitive and opinionated high school student, attended Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, where she majored in English and communications (with an emphasis in theater) and edited the campus newspaper—in which she penned a controversial editorial in support of gay rights. After graduation, she enrolled at Indiana University-Bloomington, where, in 1995, she earned a master’s degree in journalism and became the news manager for WTIU—the university-owned affiliate of PBS—and taught at the renowned Indiana School of Journalism (now The Media School). During Barnett’s station-management stint, she met Tom Mould, then a graduate student, and the pair of kindred spirits produced several intriguing documentaries that tackled subjects ranging from quilting to covered bridges to morel mushroom hunting for the WTIU television series Indiana Folklife. In 2001, Barnett completed her doctoral degree in mass communication with concentration in law and visual communication, also from Indiana University (and funded by a fellowship from the Knight Foundation). She and Mould—who had married in 1998—were then lured to Elon and began a journey that would eventually lead them to Rollins. Ultimately, the Tars got a twofer with Barnett and Mould—who was director of the Department of History, Anthropology and Classics at Butler. He specializes in folklore, ethnography and storytelling traditions of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Latter-day Saints and is now teaching undergraduate classes and becoming increasingly involved in off-campus community projects. Barnett and Mould, who have an adult daughter and son who live out of state, enjoy hiking, swimming and travel as well as visiting museums and attending theatrical performances. Most of those activities can be enjoyed just steps away from Barker House, the president’s residence on Lake Virgina. “Our expectations were already high based on what we’d heard and seen,” says Barnett. “I guess you could say that the only real surprise after a year here is that it’s even nicer than we thought it would be.”
Stephanie Carmany
Founder, Carmany Foundation
THE COMMUNITY CATALYST
She had raised six children (three daughters and three sons) when, in 2024, Stephanie Carmany decided that it was time to pursue her own interests and enrolled in the Hamilton Holt School at Rollins College to study psychology. Inspired by the college’s ethos of engagement—and determined to make an impact—she was drawn to literacy, learning and leadership. Consequently, she started an intergenerational book club (Pages for the Ages), joined the board of a program that gifts books to students who attend Title I schools (Facilitating Learning for Youth, or FLY) and became secretary of a nonprofit that brings visionaries and innovators to the city for lectures and discussions about pressing social issues (the Winter Park Institute). Pages for the Ages was created directly as the result of a Holt School class: Introduction to Liberal Arts: Leading the Way, taught by Edythe McNickle. Activities in that class, Carmany says, helped her “to rediscover who I was beyond the roles of wife, mother, daughter, sister and caregiver.” One consequential team assignment from McNickle was to implement an initiative that bridged generations. So Carmany and Erin Andress, a classmate, came up with Pages for the Ages, a now-thriving program through which residents of Westminster Winter Park, a local life-care community, collaborate with participating students to read and discuss books that explore such themes as health and well-being, community resilience and civic engagement. (Book choices are based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which are collectively a global call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for everyone by 2030.) The pilot was so successful that Pages for the Ages became an official student organization at the college and, as of earlier this year, is also an outreach program of the Winter Park Institute. Carmany’s goal is to scale the operation up with chapters across the country. Already, the Winter Park Library has signed on, with plans afoot at the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. Earlier this year Carmany also joined the board of FLY, founded by retired attorney Sally McArthur, to help the two-person nonprofit—which has given away more than 60,000 books—expand its footprint. Of course, Carmany was a philanthropist well before she went back to school. She and her husband, David, an entrepreneur, formed the Carmany Foundation in 2020 to “empower individuals and strengthen communities by partnering with local nonprofits and educational programs that create lasting change.”
Ashley Fraebel
Executive Director, Mead Botanical Garden Inc.
THE GARDEN GUARDIAN
For Ashley Fraebel, there are few places that are as personally significant as Mead Botanical Garden, which she describes as always having been “my happy place.” So many memories over the years! For example it was to this 48-acre urban sanctuary that the new executive director of Mead Botanical Garden Inc. (MBG) brought her children—Penny, now 9, and Oliver, now 6—for hikes prior to visiting the farmer’s market nearly every Saturday. A native of Winter Park, Fraebel was tapped to lead MBG last August, replacing Cynthia Hasenau, who had retired after 13 years at the helm. A former MBG board member, she ascends to the position at a pivotal time for the garden, which celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2025. The independent nonprofit that operates the lush city-owned expanse—which attracts some 300,000 visitors annually—has adopted a new five-year strategic plan that calls for expanding education programs, diversifying revenue sources and building public awareness. Currently, Fraebel is overseeing the installation of demonstration gardens that will include native plants, edibles and a new greenhouse to display orchids, bromeliads and other plants of the sort studied and propagated by renowned horticulturist Theodore Mead, the garden’s namesake. Fraebel—who has a degree in recreation and event management from the University of Florida—brings to her role 15 years of marketing and fundraising experience, including stints at Fannie Hillman + Associates, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and the digital marketing agency Carlisle and Co. “I always had a passion for events and bringing people together,” says Fraebel, who was president of the Student Government Association at Winter Park High School. In her first job out of college, at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Georgia and Florida, she raised $2.4 million as an event marketing representative. MBG’s 2026 budget is a modest $785,000, which encompasses city funding, state environmental grants, individual donations and venue rental revenue. Volunteers, who contribute thousands of hours annually, are crucial to the operation. Fraebel
—a one-time yoga instructor who is certified in holistic health counseling—has already upped Mead’s visibility through social media and with monthly e-newsletters and event sponsorship opportunities. In 2022, her husband, Alan, a photographer, took a job in Asheville, North Carolina. But the devastation of Hurricane Helene in 2024 prompted them to seek a way back home. Mead’s need for new leadership seemed providential. Adds Fraebel: “This role feels like a true homecoming.”
Stephanie Hill
Philanthropist, Activist
THE DIALOGUE DYNAMO
Growing up in Florence, Kentucky,
Stephanie Hill—whose mom owned a floral shop and whose dad worked in transportation logistics—routinely dreamed up big ideas. She still does. But the difference between Hill and other dreamers is that she is “willing to put my head down and turn those ideas into something real.” Hill, an entrepreneurial social-media influencer turned philanthropist and community leader, is at the vanguard of an emerging cadre of younger locals who love the city and have the vision (and the energy) to keep it flourishing. Says Hill: “I believe Winter Park’s very best days are ahead.” She serves on the boards of trustees of both the Winter Park Library and the Winter Park Institute, whose mission is “to bring world-class thought-leaders to our community, creating opportunities for lifelong learning and encouraging meaningful conversation among our neighbors.” Hill, though, always seemed destined to stand out. In Florence, her self-made video won the “Fashion Informant” competition held by the Los Angeles-based Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She then attended the private college, relocating from Northern Kentucky to Southern California, where she met North Carolina-born Gregg Hill—a tennis pro whose promising career had been cut short by an automobile accident. As Southerners, she says, they “spoke the same language.” When Gregg moved to Central Florida to join the family real estate and development business, Stephanie finished her associate’s degree in apparel and textile marketing management and followed in 2003. (The couple married in 2009 and now have three young children: Louden, Meta and Palmer.) Gregg and his two brothers thrived with Hill Gray Seven, nationwide builders of commercial and residential projects, while Gregg also founded Parkway Venture Capital with offices on Park Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York. Stephanie, meanwhile, opened Stalhi, a popular boutique in Waterford Lakes near UCF, and used her fashion savvy and storytelling skills to become a popular social-media influencer as “mrsstephaniehill.” From 2016 to 2020, she garnered more than 300,000 followers across platforms, and negotiated collaborations with, among others, Gucci, Burberry, Four Seasons, Sephora, Target, Amazon, Maserati and Revolve. In 2017, the Hills moved to Winter Park, where Stephanie has made it her mission to help the city thrive. “I don’t believe any one person creates meaningful change alone,” she says. “The best things happen when you bring good people together around a great idea and give them an opportunity to contribute.”
Bob Jimenez
Founder & Gallerist, Solana Fine Art
THE ARTISTS’ ADVOCATE
Bob Jimenez is using everything he
learned during his 35-year career in marketing and public relations to connect you to art—the passion of his life. Two years ago, Jimenez, born in Puerto Rico and raised in Orlando, retired from his job as senior vice president of corporate affairs for Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises and returned home to found Solana Fine Art, a gallery in Winter Park. He knows a thing or two about targeting an audience. “I knew it had to be here because it aligns so beautifully with the city’s ethos,” he says. Jimenez has certainly employed his skills as a consummate networker and connector. Given his natural charm and big-time kudos (listed among the most influential Hispanics in the state by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber in 2018 and in the nation by Hispanic Business magazine in 2007), he has quickly become a major player in the close-knit local business community. Jimenez currently serves on the board of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College—where he earned an MBA in 1989—as well as on the boards of United Arts of Central Florida and the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. The chamber named Solana Fine Art the New Business of the Year in 2025 and recruited Jimenez to chair the Autumn Art Festival Committee in 2026. The gallery, in a sleek building just north of Winter Park Village, opened representing 12 artists; today there are 34 on the roster, and expansion plans are in the works. Jimenez’s PR path began locally—including a stint at Disney—and culminated in Atlanta, where he served on the board of the Woodruff Arts Center, home of the High Museum of Art, The Alliance Theatre and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. All along, Jimenez and his wife, Julia, a retired OBGYN, had been collecting art and befriending artists. Jimenez was, after all, the sole artistically inclined member of a family filled with physicians, nurses and healthcare execs. He had initially trained as a classical pianist but, for practical reasons, majored in business at Southern Adventist University. As retirement approached, however, he began to prepare himself for a second career as a gallerist by attending major art shows and finishing a gallery-management certification program at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Says Jimenez: “If our efforts help inspire curiosity, attract new visitors, support local artists and enrich the cultural fabric of the city, then I’ll feel fortunate to have played a small role in that journey.”
Anda Lucia Ariail
Senior Advisor, Winter Park Arts & Culture
THE CREATIVE CONNECTOR
Anda Lucia Ariail has spent plenty of time in front of a camera as a fashion model and an actress. So the new (and first) senior adviser of Winter Park Arts & Culture knows exactly how to focus the lens on her own subjects: the 24 local arts organizations that make up the city’s Arts & Culture Alliance, which was founded in 2017 to unify, enhance and increase the visibility of local arts-related nonprofits. In 2024, Ariail came into her part-time role under a one-year grant provided by the Edyth Bush Foundation. Her first task was to reintroduce and expand the city’s Arts Weekend, an annual celebration hosted by the alliance members that had been dormant since the pandemic. Ariail’s four-day “Tapestry of Experiences” comeback celebration—as well as her ongoing advertising and public relations initiatives—proved so impressive that the city decided to fund the position permanently last year. “I enjoy making an impact,” she says. “I want the art scene in Winter Park to flourish.” Ariail, who began modeling and acting at age 14, has put her advertising and public relations degree from UCF to good use. She worked seven years in the Orlando Sentinel’s marketing department, taking a break in 2003 to spend time with her growing family. (She and her husband, Scott Ariail, a former UCF football player who works in commercial construction sales, have three daughters.) In 2008, Ariail returned to the job market to help collage artist Nick Hanzlik with his stationery company, R. Nichols. Today she’s the company’s president, having added popular lines of greeting cards, luggage tags, notepads and more. All the while, she kept modeling and acting. Over 30-plus years, she worked with such retailers as Dillard’s and Nordstrom and with brands that ranged from RayBan to Vermont Teddy Bears. She even played a cheerleader in The Waterboy, a 1998 comedy film that starred Adam Sandler. Ariail expresses her own creativity through fashion and is known for making statements through stilettos, big hoop earrings, scarves and color. She has been a lifelong member of Winter Park’s First Church of Christ, Scientist, where she took modeling classes and walked her first runway show for legacy retailer Tuni. She is a member of Orlando’s Public Art Advisory Board and has deepened her relationships with such groups as United Arts of Central Florida and Orange County Arts and Cultural Affairs. She says: “There is definitely a greater awareness that Winter Park is a player.”
Wade Neal
Executive Director, Enzian
THE MOVIE-HOUSE MAESTRO
Before the first showing of The Odyssey at Enzian in July, Wade Neal addressed a packed house: “I’m Wade Neal, the executive director, but that’s not that important.” Yet, after a year on the job, it’s clear that it is important. Neal—who was previously assistant executive director of both the Tacoma Grand Cinema and the well-regarded Tacoma Film Festival—arrived as the beloved nonprofit art-house cinema was about to launch a 40th anniversary, $150,000 capital campaign needed for installation of a state-of-the-art projection system capable of screening both 35mm and 70mm films. Enzian, which also runs the prestigious (and Oscar-qualifying) Florida Film Festival, is now one of just a few indie outfits in the country with such advanced technology. “It was a leap of faith because of how fast we had to raise the money, to make sure all the shipments were on time,” says the eclectic Neal, who in the ’90s was a guitarist with the punk band Seaweed before he settled in to earn a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law. “But I like to make things happen. I want to keep the ball rolling.” Enzian, which had previously remodeled its lobby (now dubbed “Keen’s Purgatory”), also installed a next-generation screen and a 7.1 sound system—an eight-channel surround-sound setup that wraps you in audio using eight distinct speakers. Neal credits the upgrades to support from Enzian’s loyal cinephile legions. “This is a place where people pack a house at noon for a 50-year-old experimental film,” he says. “This area has one of the premiere film cultures that I have encountered in the country, if not the world.” Yet, when Neal began considering career options after a decade with the venue in Tacoma, he was at first wary of highly respected Enzian because of tropes about untamed Florida. “I thought Enzian was probably surrounded by alligators and a moat,” he says, chuckling. “When I was invited to interview, I walked around Park Avenue and thought, ‘You know, this is the kind of place [he and his wife, Kathlyn] would move across the country for.’’’ To Neal—a fan of films by David Lynch, the Cohen brothers and Martin Scorsese—good movie houses are important cultural hubs: “I think it’s really important to have places like that in our world where we can gather and that can glue us together over something as beautiful as film.”
Sheila Rankin
CEO, AdventHealth Winter Park
THE HEALTHCARE HEADLINER
The CEO of a city’s local hospital is, by default, a very important and influential person. But in most cities, residents have no idea who that person is. Not so in Winter Park, where more than 70 years ago Winter Park Memorial Hospital (as it was then known) debuted thanks to white elephant sales, fundraising balls and hundreds of donations, small and large, from individuals and foundations. That grassroots approach, noted the Winter Park Herald, would allow the community to “enjoy the fruits of their labor with the joy of freedom, action and decision” that come with doing it yourself. Not surprisingly, community members felt a personal connection to their hospital and to the people who staffed it—and, indeed, they still do. For the past year, the CEO has been Sheila Rankin—originally from San Andres Island, Colombia—a leader who radiates positivity, knows the hospital’s history and understands why that proprietary feeling endured even after the institution was acquired in 2000 by mega-
provider Adventist Health Systems (later AdventHealth). “There is an amazing story here,” says Rankin, who holds an MBA from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and began her healthcare career more than 20 years ago as a financial analyst at Florida Hospital (now AdventHealth Orlando). “People feel that they have a stake here. It’s still one of the truest expressions of what a community hospital is.” Rankin, who worked her way up the ladder in finance and operational roles at Florida Hospital, was named CEO of
AdventHealth Kissimmee in 2017. She became a civic dynamo in Osceola County, serving as a trustee of the Chamber of Commerce and a board member of the Education Foundation. She was featured in Orlando Business Journal’s “People on the Move” and was named by Becker’s Hospital Review as an “Influential Hispanic and Latino Healthcare Leader to Know.” Today she is on the board of both the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando. A resident of Winter Park, Rankin is married to Elario Coombs, an IT executive at AdventHealth. The couple loves to travel—they’ve visited more than 70 countries—because “every single time I travel I grow and have a better understanding of humanity,” says Rankin. In her new role, she plans “to lead authentically, with integrity, compassion and courage while building strong relationships and earning the trust of those they save.”
Laura Walda
Shareholder, Lowndes
THE CIVIC CHAMPION
In 2021, Laura Walda was in a group of under-40 leaders dubbed by Winter Park Magazine as “People to Watch.” For anyone taking the designation literally, watching Walda is a full-time job. You might find the on-the-go Lowndes attorney and shareholder anywhere in her many leadership roles, from Central Florida Vocal Arts (board member) to Mead Botanical Garden (board vice chair), to the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens (past president and trustee emeritus) to the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce (immediate past president). And she’s done it all even after she and husband David Meek (also an attorney), had kids: Julie and Annie, now ages 5 and 4. But how? “Lots of coffee!” she exclaims. “I love everything I get to do. If I don’t love it, I’m not going to do it.” Seeing the world through her daughters’ eyes, says Walda, has sharpened her focus on the future. That’s why she’s so excited about yet another addition to her civic portfolio: She’s a board member of the Winter Park Ideas Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the chamber that plans to bring compelling innovators to town for a multiday Winter Ideas Festival in 2027. “The encompassing theme is belonging,” says Walda. “We have a crisis in belonging that has an impact on economics—on everything, really.” That message, she notes, resonates most strongly when she watches reruns of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with Julie and Annie, and considers what kind of world they’ll inherit. Walda, a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose degrees—including her master’s degree in public affairs and her J.D—come from Indiana University (“Go, Hoosiers!”)—has numerous professional recognitions to her credit and has appeared on several other lists of movers and shakers, including “40 Under 40” in 2021 and “Women Who Mean Business” in 2025, both compiled by the Orlando Business Journal. Walda—driven by the notion that this already special place could become even more special—says that her goal is “to help make Winter Park a place where people of all ages can thrive; where we have a healthy, attractive business community; and where everyone feels a sense of belonging.” Making that happen, however, will require those who share the same goals to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Says Walda: “It’s important to be your own genuine self and not to be transactional—in life and in our community.”
Doug Woodman
Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Elizabeth Morse Genius and Charles Hosmer Morse Foundations
THE HERITAGE HELMSMAN
The Winter Park Chain of Lakes was Doug Woodman’s Mississippi River when he was coming of age. “Not sure it was legal, but we used to go digging for gar fish, the big alligator gar,” recalls Woodman, trustee and executive vice president and treasurer of the Elizabeth Morse Genius and Charles Hosmer Morse foundations. From Lake Mizell, Woodman could see the property that would one day be home to the Genius Preserve, never imaging that half a century later he would be entrusted with the property’s care and operation of the two historically significant nonprofits that own it. A banker by profession, his appointment in 2023 culminated a lifetime of contributions to the community through schools, church, service clubs, alumni groups and Little League. His proudest accomplish: “Along with my wife, Ann, raising two happy, successful sons who married intelligent, beautiful young ladies and decided to raise their families within short walking distance of our home.” In his official role, Woodman oversees the philanthropic mission of the twin foundations, which since 1992 have given more than $150 million to a panoply of local nonprofits engaged in scientific, religious, educational and literary work—in addition to providing major funding for the Charles Hosmer Museum of American Art, one of the major legacies of Hugh F. and Jeannette Genius McKean. Woodman’s favorite achievement so far may be returning honeybees to the 48-acre Genius Preserve, which abuts upscale Windsong. “We had a guy out there who kept bees several decades ago when the groves were a lot more active,” says Woodman, a graduate of Winter Park schools (including Trinity Prep, from which he received a Distinguished Alumni Award) and later the University of Alabama. “I’ve always wanted to bring them back.” A new colony, established in April, is now humming. By the end of the year, perhaps, there’ll be homegrown honey for sale in the museum store. You could say that Woodman’s current position was somehow meant to be. A published history of the Hosmer-Morse families shows that, coincidentally, a Woodman ancestor lived next door to a Morse ancestor in Newberry, Massachusetts, as early as 1635. They even came over on the same ship from England. “I guess it all worked out,” says Woodman, who adds that he does his best “to treat everyone with respect and be a servant leader who takes on roles and projects that God puts in front of me.”