Cissy Proctor can blame her former coworkers for her interest in public service work. Having attended Florida State for her undergraduate and law degrees, Proctor went on to work at a local Tallahassee law firm called Bryant Miller Olive, where she said many of her colleagues “Had been inside state government, inside state agencies, inside the governor’s office, legislature, and really spoke so highly of their time inside stat government. So I kind of got bit by the bug to really go do more public service work.” This led to a series of public service jobs, including serving as Jesse Panuccio’s Deputy of Legislative Affairs Director, his Director of Strategic Business Development, his Chief of Staff, all culminating in her current role as the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s Executive Director.

In today’s volatile political climate, it can be hard to “cut through the noise,” as Dr. Bob McClure puts it. But Dr. McClure, as the CEO and President of the James Madison Institute, one of the oldest non-partisan think tanks in the country, makes it his (nonprofit) business to cut through the noise. The James Madison Institute focuses on “policy that advances opportunity and economic prosperity for all Floridians,” working with organizations such as the Republic Party, or the ACLU on issues such as criminal justice reform.

Described as “today’s seminal civil rights lawyer” by Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan, Ben Crump has represented some of the most high profile civil rights and discrimination cases of the 21st century, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Martin Lee Anderson, and the currently unfolding Chris Jones case.

For some college students, a hospitality job is nothing more than a necessity to pay for school. For Carol Dover, it was more than that; it was a stepping stone that led to her becoming the President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, a position she has held since 1995. Dover represents over the interests of over 10,000 members of the Florida hospitality industry in front of the state legislature.

Dominic Calabro has been with TaxWatch, a non-profit non-partisan research institute, so long that he sometimes jokes “There’s no life before or after TaxWatch.” While he hasn’t yet discovered what comes after, there was a before, during which time Calabro worked in a Catholic Seminary. It was here that he asked himself who he wanted to be, a question that led him on the path of citizen advocacy.