Meet the Board

David Sietsma, CPA, is a partner with Carr Riggs & Ingram with over 20 years of experience in public accounting. Sietsma also spent more than a decade as the owner of a closely held retail sales business.

In addition to tax and opportunity planning for high net worth individuals, Sietsma now focuses on estate and trust planning providing a variety of tax and advisory services to business owners.

A graduate of the University of South Florida, Sietsma is also active in a variety of civic and professional organizations including serving as a volunteer planned giving advisor for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the Dunedin Fine Arts Center and the Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation.

Sietsma serves as a trustee to the board of directors of Directions for Living and is a member of both the Pinellas County and Suncoast Estate Planning Councils. He is also a proud member of the Clearwater Jazz Festival’s High Note Society.

Joseph W. “Jay” Fleece III, J.D., is an attorney with practices in estate and trust litigation with the firm of Baskin Fleece. Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Fleece began practicing law in 1980 focusing on estate, trust and fiduciary litigation.

Fleece sits on the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital having previously served as chairman. He is a past president of PARC and the Police Athletic League of St. Petersburg. In addition to serving on numerous boards in the St. Petersburg area, Fleece has also been commodore of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and is the former chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida.

Fleece is a graduate of Tulane University and Stetson University College of Law.

Rene Flowers is presently the Chairperson of the Pinellas County School Board. She has also served as a member of the City Council of St. Petersburg and as President of the League of Cities.Active in civic life, Flowers has held or currently holds service affiliations with PSTA, City of St. Petersburg Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, CDBG Committee, YMCA of Greater Tampa Bay, The National Council of Negro Women, and the MLK Day of Service Committee.

Flowers attended Howard University and the University of South Florida and is a graduate of Eckerd College.

Bill Horne serves as City Manager for the City of Clearwater. He is directly responsible for 1685 employees and accountable for the annual operating and capital budget of $385 million.

With a wealth of management experience in dynamic and fast paced environments, Bill came to Clearwater in 1998 as the General Support Services Administrator. Prior to that, he served as a Colonel in the United States Air Force. Bill earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Tulsa, a Masters in Human Resources Management from Pepperdine University, and a Masters in Political Science from Auburn University.

In September 2005, Bill was designated a Credentialed Manager by the International City County Manager Association (ICMA).

Sallie Parks has been a resident of Pinellas County for more than 50 years, and she is a recipient of the Governor’s Points of Light Award, which recognizes Florida residents who demonstrate exemplary service to the community.

Parks retired as a lobbyist for St. Petersburg College in 2003. From 1992 to 2000, she served as a commissioner for Pinellas County and spent two years serving on the board of directors of Tampa Bay Water.

As the first executive director of the Pinellas County Arts Council, Parks helped expand the arts council’s services and grow its operating budget. She also founded the PACE (Practical Academic Cultural Education) Center for Girls Pinellas, a nonprofit prevention program for at-risk girls in Pinellas County.

Judith Powers, M.A., brings a strong leadership background in arts and cultural education to the Pinellas Community Foundation. She was the executive director of the Pinellas County Arts Council and the Pinellas Cultural Affairs department for 21 years and served as a board member and president of the Florida Association of Local Arts Agencies.

Powers is active in several community organizations and holds board positions with the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and St. Petersburg Arts Advisory Committee. She also holds a seat on the Public Art & Design Board for the city of Clearwater and has served on the boards of the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin and the PACE Center for Girls.

Powers received her Bachelor of Arts in education and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of South Florida.

Virginia “Ginny” Rowell spent her career in social services, both with the State of Florida and the city of St. Petersburg. The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners appointed Rowell to the Pinellas Community Foundation Board of Governors.

Rowell is a graduate of Florida State University and has long been active in a wide variety of community affairs in the St. Petersburg area.

Today, Rowell is secretary of the board for Area Agency on Aging for both Pasco and Pinellas counties. She also serves as president of the board of trustees of Peterborough Apartments Inc., a senior retirement apartment building located in downtown St. Petersburg.

Byron Smith, CPA, is a shareholder and leader of the Wealth Strategies & Services Team at Gregory, Sharer & Stuart. He also serves as a managing member of the firm’s tax accounting practice where his primary areas of concentration include planning for wealth accumulation and preservation, tax and accounting issues regarding estates and trusts, and business valuations.

An expert in guiding nonprofit organizations, Smith is also widely recognized for his extensive knowledge in charitable giving and succession planning for closely held businesses.

In addition to being the recent past chair of the Board of Governors of the Pinellas Community Foundation, Smith’s history of leadership in Pinellas includes having the positions of past chair of both the Tampa Bay Estate Planning Council and the Salvation Army Tampa Area Command. Smith has provided pro bono assistance to the Pinellas Education Foundation Planned Gifts, National Christian Foundation and The Idlewild Foundation.

Smith holds a degree in accounting from the University of South Florida.

A St. Petersburg native and life-long resident, Erica K. Smith is a partner at Fisher & Sauls and Chair of the Wills, Trusts, and Estates Department. Prior to this, Erica served for three years as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of St. Petersburg and spent two years in a private law office practicing in the areas of wills, trusts and estates, real property, and corporate law.

In the community, Erica volunteers her time at the Community Law Program Elder Law and Probate Clinics, providing legal advice and services to low-income Pinellas residents. She also served as a Guardian ad Litem in the Sixth Judicial Circuit from 2008 to 2016 and had the distinction of being named a “Master Guardian ad Litem” for her dedication and skill in advocating for children in the dependency system in Pinellas County.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Stetson University College of Law, where she received a full merit scholarship and was selected for the Honors Program. She received her undergraduate degree from The College of William and Mary.

William “Bill” Sturtevant spent his entire business career in Atlanta, Georgia, including as Senior Vice President responsible for commercial real estate finance at Trust Company Bank.
Bill and his wife, Beverly, retired to Clearwater in 2003. Bill came out of retirement to form Bluewater Investments LLC – Florida, a global private equity fund focused on funding large-scale humanitarian projects, primarily in Tampa Bay. As Chairman of the Clearwater Downtown Partnership, a 501c3, Bill guided the growth of a small nonprofit into a significant, private sector partner to the City of Clearwater.

In 2015, Bill was elected President of Senior Citizens Services, Inc. (SCS). Incorporated in 1960 as a 501(c)(3). SCS was initially an activity agency for seniors. Funded by the sale of a senior-living facility, Bill and an outstanding Board of Directors transformed SCS into a donor-advised fund providing grants to area agencies focused on seniors. From April, 2016 to July, 2018 the Foundation awarded $1.7 Million to 43 agencies, affecting over 12,000 seniors.

In 2018, SCS moved its $11 million investment portfolio to the Pinellas Community Foundation (PCF). Bill currently sits on PCF’s Board of Governors and hopes to assist PCF in the area of affordable housing for seniors in Pinellas and Pasco counties, as well as other endeavors PCF undertakes.

Bill graduated from Memphis State University with a degree in Business Administration and majors in Finance and Real Estate.

Irene Sullivan, J.D., served as a juvenile and family court judge from 1999 to 2011 in St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Before serving on the bench, she was a general partner at Harris, Barrett, Mann & Dew, LLP, where she had a civil trial practice for 22 years and became an AV-rated trial lawyer.
Sullivan is a notable author of the books “Raised by the Courts: One Judge’s Insight into Juvenile Justice” and “Restorative Justice Evanston: Restoring Justice … One Circle at a Time.”

In addition, she sits on many boards and committees involving children’s issues. Sullivan received numerous national and local awards including her recent induction into the Stetson University College of Law Hall of Fame.

Sullivan received her law degree from Stetson University College of Law.

Sarah Williams, Ph.D., J.D., is an attorney practicing in the areas of estate planning, probate and trust administration. She also teaches estate planning as an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law.
Prior to earning her law degree, Williams was a clinical and research speech and language pathologist at Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Williams possesses an extensive educational background with a Master of Science degree in speech pathology from the University of South Florida, a Doctor of Philosophy in communicative sciences and disorders from Northwestern University, and a Doctor of Law degree from Stetson University College of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude. Williams is active in numerous local professional and civic organizations.