Barbara Zdravecky currently serves as the interim CEO of Ruth’s List Florida. Prior to her appointment to CEO she helped lead the organization as a member of the Executive Committee. She is the Principal and Founder of Fern Consulting of Southwest Florida. Lending her extensive knowledge and experience advising not for profits executives and their boards. 

Zdravecky served as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida for nearly 25 years. In 2015, Barbara led the successful regional merger of the affiliate, resulting in a 22-county service area with a team of 160 professionals, 25-member regional board of directors and a $17 million dollar budget. This visionary consolidation has enabled Planned Parenthood to serve more than 39,000 patients annually at its twelve health centers in Southwest and Central Florida, extending from Orlando to Sarasota to Naples. In addition, she served as the President of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, President of the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates and led numerous committees of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

As a registered nurse and social worker, Prior to joining Planned Parenthood, Barbara worked at Manatee Memorial for 10 years as the Head Nurse for inpatient psychiatric services and as Director of Women’s Health Programs. Barbara also worked as the Patient Care Coordinator of the First Hospice Program in Key West, primarily caring for AIDS patients; coordinating research and care with local physicians and Jackson Memorial Hospital staff in Miami.  She spent 5 years at the Manatee Community Mental Health Center as a crisis counselor specializing in emergency inpatient treatment in the Baker Act Receiving and Addiction detox units.

Barbara’s service to her community extends well beyond her professional achievements bringing expertise to numerous civic and not for profit boards including the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Florida and The League of Women Voters, of which she was the co-chair of Manatee County and served on the state board of Florida. She currently sits on the board for the Selby Foundation in Sarasota. 

Barbara has received numerous awards, honors and recognitions, including the “Ruth Green Award”, as the top Planned Parenthood CEO in the country by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the “Voice for Equality Award” from Equality Florida, “A Woman of Power Award” from the National Council of Jewish Women in Sarasota, the AAUW (American Association of University Women) annual leadership award, “A Wonder Woman Award” from the Women’s Resource Center of Manatee County and ”The Distinguished Alumni Award” from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 

Kate Coyne-McCoy is the principal of KCM Consulting.  Started in 2012, the firm provides training technical assistance, and on-going support to candidates, not for profits and organizations across the country.   In the 2014 election cycle, Coyne-McCoy’s efforts contributed significantly to two historic victories:  the election of Rhode Island’s first female Governor, and first Latina Secretary of State.

KCM Consulting has assisted incumbent and challenger mayors, legislative candidates, school board candidates, Governors, Congressional and US Senate candidates.  Kate is widely recognized as an accomplished fundraiser and campaign tactician. Participants in trainings led by Coyne-McCoy routinely rate her at the highest level- and note her engaging style, energy, and enthusiasm.

For nearly a decade, Coyne-McCoy was the Regional Director of the Political Opportunity Program (POP) at EMILY’s List, the largest political action network in the United States. Based out of Rhode Island, Kate recruited, trained and supported potential and elected pro-choice Democratic women candidates at the federal, state and local level.

Since designing and developing the POP training program and all of its related materials, Kate has trained over 9000 women and men in 32 states, and directly assisted with the campaigns and successful elections of hundreds of progressive candidates.   In 2005 Kate traveled to Bangladesh to train women from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.

In addition to her work at EMILY’s List, Kate has served as a Fellow in the Women’s Public Policy Program at Harvard University since 2005.  Kate teaches and mentors graduate students in the Harvard Square to the Oval Office program at the University, in addition to developing training materials.

Kate has spent most of her career advocating for progressive social change. Trained and educated as a social worker, Kate has worked as a clinician in a nursing home, in a skilled facility for special needs children, and in an inner-city hospital serving primarily poor women and children.

Kate has been involved in electoral politics since working on her first campaign at age 12.  After holding numerous roles on US Senate, Governors, statewide and legislative campaigns, in 2000 Kate sought the Democratic nomination for Congress in Rhode Island’s second congressional district.  Her campaign raised nearly one million dollars and was endorsed by more than 30 national groups, including EMILY’s List, numerous labor unions and environmental organizations.  Her campaign was featured in national press venues, including The Nation and The National Journal.

Kate has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Providence College and a Masters in Social Work from Rhode Island College.

Bessie Skoures is the Chief Operations Officer for Ruth’s List Florida. She recently managed the globa #FreeNseRamon campaign for EG Justice and prior to that was a program management and strategic outreach consultant for EG Justice and for the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County. Previously she was associate director of outreach for the University of South Florida’s Patel College of Global Sustainability where she supervised marketing, communications and outreach activities, including special global and education outreach initiatives. She began her tenure at USF as special assistant to the Honorable Betty Castor, former executive director of the Patel Center for Global Solutions. Prior that, she was deputy director of the Term Member Program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and before that, she worked at Human Rights Watch in New York and Brussels. She has also served as an adjunct instructor at USF. She is a member of the Tampa Bay Area Committee on Foreign Relations and Co-chair of its Host Committee and former Executive Chair of the Praxis Haiti Board of Directors. Ms. Skoures received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her M.A. from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is fluent in French and Greek with basic Spanish knowledge.

Sierra Fareed is a 3rd generation Floridian. Born and raised in Tampa just like her mother. She went on to become a 3rd generation Florida A & M University graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and a Juris Doctorate. While in Tallahassee, Sierra was an executive board member of the College Democrats and worked with the 2012 Obama re-election campaign. While in law school, she was the vice-president of the Black Law Students Association. And After graduating in  2016 was a field organizer for the Florida Democratic Party working mainly to elect Hillary Clinton. She has been working in the finance department of the Florida Democratic Party since June 2018, where she focused on fundraising efforts, mainly through corporate donors.  

Kaitlyn Jones was born and raised in Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Political Science and is currently pursuing her Master’s at the Patel College of Sustainability with a concentration in water sustainability. She started as a fellow at Ruth’s List and is excited for the next chapter here as membership and finance coordinator.