In November the city of Sarasota honored Loreda Williams, Manager of House Operations at the Van Wezel, as employee of the month, Williams began her career with the City of Sarasota on April 9, 1980 in the personnel office at City Hall.
Sally A. Trout Interior Design has been selected by U.S. Assets Group to design a model at Orchid Beach Club, luxury condominium residen-ces located on Lido Beach. A graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and a native Floridian, Trout has called Sarasota home base for her creative career since 1974. She has been designing interiors in Sarasota, Longboat Key and Casey Key as well as projects in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Stockholm, Sweden. Trout has a design office on Coconut Avenue and a retail showroom at 1272 N. Palm. She specializes in up-scale residential design, offering services from furnishings and architectural details to accessories and art selection. Trout is a member of A.S.I.D., and has received the Aurora Award for her work.


Baskerville, Swirles & Ward Advertising/Marketing has relocated to new offices, 1740 Main St., Sarasota. The agency also announced the addition of two new employees. Wren Ammend has been named VP Creative Marketing. Carol Lisciandro is the agency’s new Client Services Manager. BSW, the longest operating advertising agency in the area, is a continuation of Baskerville Advertising, founded in 1982. The agency changed to its current name in 1998. Ammend, originally from Bethlehem, PA, has 15 years of design, production and marketing experience in healthcare, printing and related advertising industries. Lisciandro came to Sarasota from Flemington, NJ. She served as the Downtown New York editor of the national retail art gallery publication, Gallery Guide, for five years prior to joining B/S/W. Lisciandro also has several years of marketing related experience in the medical and engineering fields.
SOULSPEAK recently named Program Director, Scylla Liscombe, as its new Executive Director. Lis-combe has been with SOULSPEAK since its inception and has partnered with Justin Spring, Artistic Director, (formerly doubling as Executive Director) in making SOULSPEAK an ongoing community resource. She received a B.S. in Dance from Radford University and has just recently added the SOULMOVES program to the organization’s many activities. Liscombe is also the editor of the organizations’ Sarasota Poetry Theat re Press, which has produced over 45 titles of poetry from its at-risk programs and the prestigious Edda Poetry Chapbook Competition for Women.
SOULSPEAK, founded in 1992 is best known for its innovative spontaneous poetry programs that have found their way into the at-risk community to help these populations express their fears, conflicts and joys through this ancient healing art. For further information on SOULSPEAK programs call 941-366-6468.
Beatty Cohan, psychotherapist and AuthorHouse writer, has been appointed by Florida’s Governor Jeb Bush to his State’s Commission on Marriage and Family Support Initiatives. Beatty and co-author husband, Elliot, collaborated on a groundbreaking relationship book, “For Better, For Worse, Forever-Discover The Path To Lasting Love”. The book outlines a 10-step “foolproof” formula (already tested on thousands of men and women in the United States) for evaluating a mate’s potential for a lifetime relationship before you say, “I do”. One of Beatty’s goals is to implement a “Rate Your Mate Before It’s Too Late” relationship course (based on her book) in all of the Florida High Schools. Beatty Cohan, MSW, LCSW is a psychotherapist with over 30 years of clinical experience. She has a private practice in Sarasota, is the resident on-air psychotherapist for WFTS, Tampa's ABC television affiliate and writes advice columns for the Longboat Observer and the Doctor’s Health Journal.

The Downtown Partnership announced the appointment of Lori Rodgers to its Board of Directors. Rodgers, whose business - Bert Rodgers Schools of Real Estate - provides education to licensed professionals and consumers seeking to become licensed professionals, will serve a two-year term on the Board. The Downtown Partnership's mission is to be the voice of downtown, taking a leadership role in bringing stakeholders together to develop, advocate and implement policies that build an exciting, vibrant and diverse downtown.
Sarasota Business Center, located on Jacaranda Blvd. near I-75 welcomes Courtney Milligan as its new Director of Marketing. Milligan has over 5 years of experience in marketing, and was previously employed as Marketing Manager for Metecno Panel Systems Inc. in Daytona Beach. She has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. David Howell’s Miramar-based National Constructors Inc. is the owner and developer of Sarasota Business Center. The industrial business parks are designed to appeal to independent, mid-sized businesses that want to own their office/operations property. Sarasota Business Center, Phase II in Venice and Sarasota Business Center II located on Porter Road, near the I-75 and Fruitville Road area are under construction. They are now preselling and scheduled for completion in January 2005. For information on Sarasota Business Center visit or call 371-8440
Board certified civil trial attorney, Laurie S. Zimmerman, Esq., has spearheaded the mock trials at the University of South Florida for three years in a row. On November 8 Zimmerman led the mock Civil Jury Trial on Wrongful Death. Participating attorneys are members of the Judge John M. Scheb American Inn of Court: Honorable David L. Denkin, as Presiding Judge, Nancy E. Cason, Charles W. Denny, Andrew Froman, and Damian Mallard. Zimmerman is a Master at the Inn of Court.


Michael Saunders & Company announced that Shanna Brower has joined the Braden ton office as a Broker/CRB. She specializes in single-family residences, golf course communities and investment properties. Brower became a licensed real estate agent in Houston for Coldwell Banker in 1998. During her first year she was named Top Producer and Best Rookie of the Year. Before moving to Houston, Brower represented Bristol Myers & Squibb for pharmaceutical drugs sales in Seattle where she won Top Sales in District and the Go-Getter Award.
Mandy Elmore, has joined the Main Street office. She brings over 10 years’ professional sales experience to the company. Previous experience—in which she increased sales an average of 20 percent a year at each— include store management and sales of FACE Stockholm cosmetics in New York, N.Y. and sales of Chanel make-up in Ft. Lauderdale.
Maripat Flood has joined the Venice Island office as a Realtor. Flood is an attorney and was a partner at one of Chicago’s largest law firms, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, where she worked for 18 years before joining Michael Saunders & Company. Maripat specializes in selling homes and condos in both Venice and Sarasota.
Michael Saunders & Company is proud to announce that Realtor Linda Roe Dickinson has sold 1255 Westway Drive, a waterfront estate on Lido Key, for the full asking price of $8,900,000. The closing date was November 19. Dickinson has been with the company for over 25 years. She is the top-producing Realtor for the St. Armand’s office, honored with the Chairman’s Circle Award in 2003, closing over $29 million in sales last year and over $32 million in 2002.

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