The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida announced that U.S. District Judge Brian Davis of the Middle District of Florida is chair of the foundation’s board of trustees for the next two years.
He succeeds Martha Frye Baker, whose two-year term as chair ended in 2021, the foundation said in a Jan. 11 news release.
Davis joined the board in 2014 and also volunteered with Leadership Jacksonville, the National Conference for Community and Justice, Jacksonville Urban League, NAACP, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Jacksonville Community Council, Hubbard House, Help Center, PACE Center for Girls, OneJax and the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation.
He chaired the Mayor’s Domestic Violence Task Force in 1999. Davis is a former chair of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund and an advisory board member of the North Florida Council, Boy Scouts of America.
Two community leaders have joined the board for an initial three-year term: Lauren Rueger and R. Halsey Wise, replacing trustees Ryan Schwartz and Dori Walton, who rotated off the board at the end of 2021 after 10 and nine years, respectively.
Rueger is a communications consultant, an alumna of the foundation’s Weaver Philanthropic Initiative and a member of the Program and Initiatives Committee.
She is director of the Baptist Health Foundation, co-chair of the Communications Subcommittee of the Wolfson Children’s Hospital Advisory Council and an active member of the Parents’ Association at The Bolles School.
Wise is the founder, chairman and CEO of AfterNext HealthTech and founder and CEO of Lime Barrel Advisors, a private investment and advisory services firm.
He served on the board of directors of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia and is chair of the UVA Jefferson Scholarship Selection Committee for North Florida.
Wise will be a member of The Community Foundation’s Investment Committee.
The new trustees join board members Carol Alexander, Martha Baker, Dr. Solomon Brotman, Michael DuBow, George Egan, Barbara Harrell, Robert Hill Jr., Michael Meyers, Velma Monteiro-Tribble, Buddy Schulz, Richard Sisisky, Julia Taylor and Davis.
The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida is the state’s oldest and largest community foundation, working to foster philanthropy to build a better community.
The foundation helps donors invest their philanthropic gifts and helps nonprofits better serve the region.
Created in 1964, the foundation has assets of more than $600 million and since it was established has made about $640 million in grants.
