Florida State Parks Foundation is privileged to have an amazingly dynamic and energetic board to guide its activities. Over the next few months we will introduce you to the Foundation’s Directors and we start with our newest Board Member, Representative Kristin Jacobs.

Kristin is the Executive Director of Resiliency Florida. A well-recognized and highly-regarded voice in the field of resiliency, sustainable growth and climate change policy, Jacobs also serves as the State Representative in Florida’s 96th House District. For 16 years, Kristin served as Broward County Commissioner and was twice chosen to serve as Mayor.  During her tenure, she chaired several initiatives focused on sustainability. Kristin was the visionary leading the creation of the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact uniting Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties and 109 cities behind a unified mega-regional climate action plan. Now entering its 10th year, the Compact has become the national and international model of bi-partisan collaboration. She was also the sponsor of the Broward Leaders Water Academy which has served to educate five generations of elected officials on the importance of water resource issues –- including water supply, conservation, reuse, and alternative supplies and Everglades restoration.

In 2011, Kristin was selected to serve as Chair of the White House National Ocean Council’s Governance Coordinating Committee, which advised President Obama on local government perspectives on ocean policy.  2013 found Jacobs chosen among a select few to join President Obama at Georgetown University as he unveiled the nation’s first Climate Action Plan, and that same year President Obama appointed her to the Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.  In 2014, she was the only elected official in the United States asked to speak at the White House unveiling of its third update of the National Climate Assessment, which featured her work in Southeast Florida.  Kristin has twice been invited to testify before Congress on the Clean Water Act and Climate Change issues.

After being elected to the Florida House of Representatives, Jacobs has continued her advocacy for building a more resilient and sustainable state and not only sponsored but passed significant changes to Florida law.  These changes include an extreme weather events law that established a new multi-agency cooperation and planning framework, the establishment of a conservation area that extends the National Marine Sanctuary of the Florida Keys from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie Inlet, and helped create the new entity known as the Florida Resilient Coastlines Program within DEP.