In
January 2006, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer
appointed Lisa Early to serve as
Director of the City’s Families, Parks
and Recreation Department. Prior
to this, Ms. Early worked as the
City’s first Director of Children
& Education, improving the well
being of Orlando’s children and
educational performance at City schools.
Ms.
Early established numerous initiatives,
including the Mayor’s preschool
initiative, Mayor’s Education Action
Council, Legacy Trust for Orlando
Children, and Parramore Kidz Zone.
According
to Ms. Early, “Our vision for the City
Beautiful includes lush green parks,
trees, flowers, playgrounds, ball fields
and open spaces, and positive programs
and opportunities for all our citizens
to enjoy.And especially, we want to invest
in efforts that help our City’s
children grow into healthy, independent,
compassionate adults.”
Ms.
Early brings to the City over 25 years
of experience in developing and
directing children’s programs in the
United States and abroad, as well as a
Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development
and Family Studies from Cornell
University.She lived and worked in the
Dominican Republic for ten years,
developing preschool education and
maternal-child health programs for
children living in urban slums and
impoverished rural villages.She also served as Director of
The Howard Phillips Center for Children
& Families for twelve years, helping
Orlando’s children overcome
developmental delays, protecting them
from abuse, providing healthcare to
uninsured children, and offering hope to
HIV-positive women, children and
families.
Ms.
Early is fully bilingual in English and
Spanish and also speaks some Swahili.
John
Perrone
JOHN
PERRONE
Staff
Manager, Parks Division As
manager of the Parks Division, John
oversees 155 full time employees that
are charged with the design, operation
and maintenance of 106 Parks plus over
160 other city properties.The Parks Division also cares for
over 108,000 trees in the City Rights-of
Ways and Parks; 27,000 square feet of
annual beds, and coordinates hundreds of
Green Up beautification projects on
public property and schools.
John has worked for the City of Orlando
for 20 years working as a Landscape
Architect and then as the Assistant
Manager prior to becoming the Division
Manager.He is a past recipient of the
City of Orlando McNamara Employee of the
Year Award, holds Certification as a
Parks and Recreation Professional and is
a Licensed Landscape Architect in
Florida and Louisiana.Prior to working for the City of
Orlando, John worked in Dallas, Houston
and Baton Rouge developing skills in
Design, Site Engineering and
Construction.
John Graduated from the LSU School of
Environmental Design in 1979.He has been teaching Landscape
Design and Landscape Construction at
Valencia Community College's West Campus
for 15 years.
John's passion is to provide safe
recreational opportunities that augment
organized recreation. He believes it is
important to provide safe spaces for
non-scheduled, spontaneous play and
interaction with the environment.He is committed to those whose
lives are enhanced by the existence of
quality public open space.
Staff Rodney Williams joined the City of Orlando
in February 2005 and is currently assigned to the
City’s Families, Parks and Recreation
Department as Division Manager. He
is responsible for the overall operations
of 19 community centers and over 150
recreational programs consisting of
Athletics, Aquatics, Senior Programs and
Cultural Arts. Mr. Williams is also
responsible for the supervision of 76
full-time and over 200 seasonal employees.
Prior to assuming his position with the
City of Orlando, Mr. Williams was the
Assistant Manager of the Orange County
Parks and Recreation Division. Prior to
his stint with Orange County, Mr. Williams
was a Superintendent over Recreation and
Parks with the City of Daytona Beach,
Florida. Mr.
Williams also worked as a Bank Manager for
six (6) years with two financial
institutions.
Mr. Williams competed as an intercollegiate
athlete with both the University
of Florida and Stetson University
Basketball teams.He received his Bachelor of Arts
degree in Business Administration from
Stetson University.
Staff David Evangelista is the new
General Manager of the Historic
Dubsdread Golf Club and is contracted
through Club Management Division of
Kitson & Partner, LLC to oversee and
manage the landmark course. In January
2004, the City of Orlando selected
Kitson & Partners, one of the
leading golf course operating companies,
to manage the golf course operations,
maintenance and marketing for the
80-year-old golf course.
Mr. Evangelista comes to Dubsdread most
recently from Celebration Golf Club, as
the Director of Sales and Marketing. He
was part of the winning team that helped
Celebration earn a 4 ˝ star rating from
"Golf Digest" as well as “Business of
the Year” honors for Osceola County.
Prior to Celebration, he served as the General
Manager at Dubsdread when it was
operated by American Golf Corporation.
Mr. Evangelista is excited to be back at
the historic Dubsdread GolfCourse.
Mr. Evangelista holds an A.A. in Hotel
Management from the State University of
New York at Cobleskill. In his role as
General Manager, he is responsible for
managing a staff of 18 full-time and 30
part-time employees.
