President Saunders earns prestigious award for career achievements

University of West Florida President Martha D. Saunders has joined exclusive company as a Pinnacle Award recipient. Presented by 850 – The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida, the award is reserved for outstanding Northwest Florida women who have emerged over the course of their distinguished careers as accomplished professionals and community assets.

The Business Magazine recognized its seventh class of Pinnacle Award winners in its December issue and at a virtual ceremony held earlier this year. The magazine selected the 12 women based on nominations from an 18-county region of Northwest Florida.

“Each of the women selected for this prestigious award have positively impacted Northwest Florida throughout their distinguished careers,” Saunders said. “I am honored to be part of a group that has experienced a lot of firsts. We’ve shattered our share of glass ceilings and smoothed out the edges for the next generation of women.”

Saunders took office as the sixth president of UWF in January 2017. UWF has ranked among the three top-performing public universities in the BOG’s performance-based funding metrics for three of the last four years and ranked among the best public regional universities in the South on the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges list for 2020 and 2021. The University has also earned the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT into Diversity magazine three times during her presidency and been named a “Great College to Work For” in 2019 and 2020.

Under her leadership, UWF established the first doctoral program in intelligent systems and robotics in the state through a partnership with the Florida Institute of Human Machine Cognition. Saunders also oversaw the development of Florida’s first bachelor’s in cybersecurity degree program designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In a message delivered at the virtual Pinnacle Awards Ceremony, Saunders cited partnerships with IHMC, the Department of Homeland Security and military and industry, among others, for distinguishing UWF from other state universities.
“We have focused on leveraging regional resources through partnerships to build something bigger than the sum of its parts,” Saunders said.

In her 30-plus years in higher education, Saunders has served in academic and leadership roles at universities in Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin and Mississippi. Her area of academic expertise is in public relations and crisis communication. She has won numerous awards including two coveted Silver Anvils from the Public Relations Society of America.

2020 Pinnacle Award recipients include:

• Tracy Andrews, Gulf Power manager and mayor of Chipley, Florida
• Brigette Brooks, realtor and president of Pensacola Bay Area IMPACT 100
• Erica Grancagnolo, assistant director, Santa Rosa Economic Development
• Dana Kerigan, president and principal, Kerigan Marketing Associates
• Kellie Jo Kilberg, chairwoman, Florida Defense Alliance
• Adrienne Maygarden, women’s and children’s service line director, Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital
• Kay Phelan, marketer and owner of Phelan & Lowry, Ltd.
• Elizabeth Ricci, immigration attorney, managing partner at Rambana & Ricci, PLLC
• Martha Saunders, president of the University of West Florida
• Marjorie Turnbull, former state representative and Leon County commissioner
• Cindy Wilker, president, LGBTQ Center of Bay County
• Melissa Medley, posthumously awarded, served as chief marketing officer for Enterprise Florida and later joined in establishing VisionFirst Advisors

To learn more about the Pinnacle Awards, visit 850businessmagazine.com/pinnacle-awards-2020. To learn more about President Saunders, visit uwf.edu/president.