Our Columnists
Informed Personalities from Across the State, Across the Spectrum
Lloyd Brown
"Florida residents need to know the whole story if they are to make intelligent decisions when they choose elected officials and vote on public policy. Yet Florida newspapers don’t adequately reflect the level of conservative opinion in this state. If I can fill a niche in that regard by contributing to Florida Voices, it will be worth the effort."
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.
Angel Castillo Jr
“I am a bilingual and bicultural native of Cuba who is happy to live and vote in Miami-Dade County, where 70 percent of the 2.5-million population speak a language other than English at home, 65 percent are of Hispanic origin, and nearly 1.2-million were born in another country. Sometimes the rich human diversity of this environment produces a perspective on matters of concern to Floridians that is slightly different from that of -- and not always well understood by -- those living in other counties, and which I hope to reflect in my columns.”
Angel Castillo, Jr., a Cuban-American lawyer, is a former newspaper reporter and editor for the New York Times, The Miami Herald, and other publications, who practices employment law in Miami.
Susan Clary
"I fill my life with diversity in friendships and acquaintances of varying political, religious and cultural backgrounds. Their insights make me a better person and a better writer. I look to connect to the readers of Florida Voices to translate those differences and commonalities into lively discussion."
Formerly a reporter with the St. Petersburg Times and Orlando Sentinel, Susan Clary left journalism for the court system, law firms, nonprofits and progressive political campaigns. A second-generation Cuban-American, Susan is a freelance writer and runs a nonprofit animal rescue.
Bill Cotterell
Cotterell is mainly interested in political campaigns, but also focuses on state government operations.
Bill Cotterell, retired senior writer for the Tallahassee Democrat, has covered Florida government and politics since 1969.
Paula Dockery
"Much has changed in Tallahassee since I was first elected to the Legislature 15 years ago, so when asked to chronicle my final year in the Florida Senate, I jumped at the chance, believing that Floridians should learn how government really works."
Paula Dockery is a popular Republican state senator from Lakeland known for speaking truth to power, standing up for taxpayers and fighting against wasteful spending, corporate subsidies and sweetheart deals. She was the 2010 recipient of Florida's Friend of the First Amendment Award.
Martin Dyckman
Martin Dyckman writes about state and national issues from a progressive perspective.
He is a retired associate editor of the newspaper formerly known as the St. Petersburg Times.
John Heagney
"For most of my adult life, I was a political independent because I believed, and still believe, that my allegiance should be to strongly held personal beliefs and not to an intractable agenda set by politicians and party operatives. I'm a student of commonsense and compromise who learns something new every day. This has allowed me to embrace positions on the right and left of center, with an admitted tilt to the left. As a centrist, I'm pleased to have infuriated and delighted friends on both extremes of the political spectrum. I hope to do the same for those who read my column."
A former award-winning journalist, John Heagney is the founder and president of John Heagney Public Relations and on the faculty of USF's Corporate College.
Henry Kelley
"I hope readers get a different view of what is broadly labeled the "tea party" movement. Most pundits who claim to speak for us have never organized a tea party meeting or attended a city or county commission meeting to affect real change in government. It's time we do a better job of articulating our arguments."
Henry Kelley, a Fort Walton Beach business owner, is an active leader of the Florida tea party movement.
Steven Kurlander
"Too much political writing is done from strictly one dogmatic perspective or another. I try to analyze issues and topics strictly from a common sense point of view."
Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly's Kommentary, writes a weekly column for Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel and is a South Florida communications strategist.
Cary McMullen
"By training and inclination, I am drawn to questions of faith, and many of my columns will address religious beliefs, especially Christian beliefs, and how they are expressed in the public sphere. I’m a follower of politics, with sympathies toward the center and skepticism toward all sides. I’m keenly interested in education and an amateur critic of the fine arts. My goal is for readers to apply the label 'thought-provoking' to whatever I write."
Cary McMullen is a journalist and editor who lives in Lakeland.
Mary Jo Melone
"Somebody once said that journalism is the first rough draft of history; if there was ever a form of the trade that suited that definition, it’s the blog—meant to be insightful, provocative, brief, and right on the tail of breaking stories. That’s the way I see it, and that’s what I intend to do, through a liberal lens. I worry about the way Florida is headed, the country too. We suddenly live in a mean-spirited, you’re-on-your-own world. Whenever I see it, I’ll point it and wonder aloud why this has happened to us. I’ll suggest answers when I can. I’ll write about events big and small. I’ll wait to hear from you, and we’ll have a conversation."
Mary Jo Melone, former columnist with the St. Petersburg Times, is a writer in Tampa.
Tom O'Hara
"The United Arab Emirates is hot, diverse and odd -- a lot like Florida. I will share stories that give you the flavor of the place and the people. Drawing on my 28 years as a Florida journalist, I will explain that Miami is as weird as Abu Dhabi and Orlando is as surreal as Dubai. On occasion, I'll just tell you in water-cooler language what's going on here in the volatile Middle East and why."
Formerly managing editor of The Palm Beach Post and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Tom O'Hara is a senior foreign editor with The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi.
Rick Outzen
“I want to connect the dots, in a unique way that makes readers think."
The publisher/editor of Pensacola's Independent News, Rick Outzen is a political agnostic who challenges the status quo in the heart of the Bible Belt and still believes that words matter.
Andrew J. Skerritt
"As a columnist my role has always been to tell the stories of everyday people struggling against extraordinary odds to secure their place in our impressive democracy. I’ll be writing about poverty, politics, health, immigration, family, fatherhood and turning fifty."
Former St. Petersburg Times columnist Andrew J. Skerritt is an assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&M University and the author of “Ashamed to Die: Silence, Denial and the AIDS Epidemic in the South."
Florence Snyder
"Everybody talks about transparency and accountability, and for too many of our leaders, it's nothing but talk. I've seen everything that works in Florida and everything that doesn't, and I'm looking forward to sharing my views and comparing notes with Florida Voices' readers."
Florence Snyder is a Tallahassee-based corporate lawyer and writer who has spent most of her career in and around newspapers. She also speaks and consults on ethics and management.
Pierre Tristam
"As an immigrant I’m always abroad in my own home -- happily so: American politics and culture in their Florida dialects are eternal attractions rich in paradox. My columns are an attempt to decipher this continuing experiment in American nation-building."
Formerly a columnist and editorial writer at the Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Ledger in Lakeland, Pierre Tristam is the editor and publisher of FlaglerLive.com, a non-profit news service based in Palm Coast, Fla.
