September 22, 2023
Changemakers
Beverly Raphael Altman and Robyn Raphael-Dynan
When RCC Associates, the Deerfield Beach construction company known for its high-end projects, recently took on the renovations of the iconic Mayfair Hotel in Coconut Grove, the $50-million job was something bigger and more complex than the firm had attempted before. But jumping into the unknown is something the mother-daughter duo of CEO and chairwoman Beverly Raphael Altman and President Robyn Raphael-Dynan have done plenty of times before.
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Published on 11/30/2022
Barbara Brown
Just a two-hour drive from where Barbara Brown grew up, the Space Coast seemed light-years away from the small, rural city of Palatka. But Brown could feel its gravitational pull.
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Published on 11/30/2022
Felecia Hatcher
When her high school guidance counselor said college wasn't in the picture because of academic reasons, Felecia Hatcher applied for and received more than $100,000 in scholarships, prompting her mother's friends, her church and high schools to ask her to help other students. So she created a company to do just that.
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Published on 11/22/2022
Michelle Abbs
Michelle Abbs' leadership journey started 16 years ago in a fifth-grade Miami classroom.
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Published on 11/17/2022
Cristie Besu
Nurse and sports nutritionist Cristie Besu started her Eat Me Guilt Free line of high-protein, low-carb baked goods in her kitchen a decade ago when her clients would confess to cheating on their diets. Besu, a Miami native, realized there was a business opportunity in making healthier treats.
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Published on 11/16/2022
Lissette Calderon
During a break in the closing for a $57.5-million construction loan for her latest residential tower, Miami's Lissette Calderon reflects on her past. In what other city, she asks, could a first-generation Cuban- American woman break ground on her first high-rise at age 28?
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Published on 11/10/2022
Jane Poynter
In 1991, Jane Poynter, then 29 years old, volunteered along with seven others to spend two years living inside an airtight dome in the Arizona desert. The purpose of the privately funded science project, known as Biosphere 2, was to create a ground-based test bed for a space settlement — an enclosed habitat where humans could live for extended periods by farming their own food and recycling their air, water and waste.
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Published on 11/9/2022
Jennifer Rominiecki
Jennifer Rominiecki knew she was in for a challenge when she became CEO of Sarasota's Selby Gardens seven years ago — but maybe not quite as big of a challenge as it turned out.
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Published on 11/8/2022
Constance Collins
Constance Collins is $6.1 million into a $20-million campaign to build a “children's village” across from the Lotus House women's shelter she founded in Overtown in Miami. The challenge of raising another $14 million doesn't seem to weigh on her.
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Published on 10/31/2022
