Board Members | Financials

Honoring Cheryl Ambrose

Cheryl Ambrose was appointed to the Be Strong Governance Board shortly before her passing in July 2026. In recognition of her extraordinary leadership, compassionate service, and unwavering commitment to ensuring no one faces life’s challenges alone, the Be Strong Governance Board chose to uphold her appointment as a tribute to the lasting impact she made on our organization. Cheryl’s legacy continues to inspire our mission and all who had the privilege of serving alongside her.

Cheryl Ambrose | Board Member

Cheryl Ambrose served as Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management at the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), where she joined in 2021. With nearly 30 years of experience in construction safety and health, she held leadership roles ranging from project safety manager to corporate and national safety director. Prior to NRCA, she served as the National Health, Safety, and Environmental Administrator for the United Association, representing skilled plumbing and mechanical trades across the United States and Canada.

Cheryl earned a bachelor’s degree in Occupational Safety and Health and an associate degree in Business Management. She was certified as both a Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST) and Occupational Health and Safety Technician (OHST) through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. A longtime member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), Cheryl represented NRCA on national committees, including the NIOSH NORA Construction Sector Council and the ANSI A10 Construction Standards Committee.

A passionate advocate for mental health in the construction industry, Cheryl worked tirelessly to address substance use, suicide prevention, and overall worker well-being. She helped advance mental health initiatives at NRCA, served on the Education Committee of the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention, and was selected to serve on North America’s Building Trades Unions’ Opioid Task Force. Throughout her career, she collaborated with national organizations to integrate mental health awareness into workplace safety culture, leaving a lasting impact on both the industry and the countless lives she touched.

Those who knew Cheryl will remember her not only for her professional accomplishments, but for her extraordinary humility, kindness, unwavering faith, and steadfast belief that caring for people was life’s most important work

Dr. Francine Baugh-Stewart is a Teaching and Learning Director in the Broward County Public School’s Central Regional Office supporting middle schools. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology at Florida Atlantic University, where she also received her doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her research interests include teacher recruitment and retention, high-poverty and high-minority schools, leadership development, and school improvement. She is a contributing author of an educational leadership and school improvement book, Bridging Leadership and School Improvement. She actively participates in various work groups and committees for her school district. Dr. Baugh-Stewart is the 2014 City of Deerfield Beach Hometown Hero Honoree, 2018 Barbara Jackson Scholar Recipient, and the 2022 City of Tamarac Black History Month Honoree. Although Dr. Baugh-Stewart is committed to her work as an educator, she considers being a mother to fraternal twins Ricardo and Star the most paramount.

Durden is an accomplished marketing executive who has created commercial success across CPG products, led digital media and driven commercialization and sales expansion across industry sectors. Durden was most recently Head of Marketing at Walmart Business, leading a new business B2B venture incubated inside of Walmart to serve business, nonprofit and public sector customers via e-commerce and technology solutions. Durden led the effort from inception to $300M in annual revenue and built a team from 1 to 240+ full time associates.  HIs efforts focused Walmart into a new category and delivered step-change commercial and membership growth across small business, enterprises and fast-moving startups.

Durden’s previously held growth roles at Harrah’s & Caesars Entertainment, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) as well as dynamic series A & B funded ventures including a patient experience platform serving multi-state hospitals (Wellist.com), the national expansion of a CBD product line (Myaderm.com) and a venture that took on the global coronavirus testing and vaccination challenge (VaultHealth.com).

Durden’s experience includes corporate leadership roles at F500 leaders and across professional services, including stints at McKinsey & Company, NASA and The Coca-Cola Company.   Durden held strategy and GM leadership roles in retail and enterprise groups at Russell Athletic, Consolidated Container Company and ADP.  His primary focus included new product and channel growth marketing, including expanding revenue driving programs at the largest platform supporting doctor and patient interactions at Healthgrades.com and leading a $400M+ book of business at global payments provider Fleetcor.

Following his own passion for education, Durden currently serves on the Board of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Board of Advisors for the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl and held previous volunteer Board positions with The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation’s annual scholarship fund, the College Football Hall of Fame and KIPP Metro Atlanta Charter Schools.

Born in Adel, GA, Durden is a graduate of Morehouse College and Georgia Institute of Technology, earning dual undergraduate degrees in Applied Physics (BA) and Electrical Engineering (BSEE) and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (MSEE).  Durden holds an MBA from Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA.  He lives in Atlanta, GA and continues to hone his skills on the basketball court and kickball fields, while mostly chasing his two sons.

Elias is the founder and CEO of Squeeze.com, which is an InsureTech platform that allows consumers to comparison shop for insurance while protecting them from spam. Elias is also the managing partner of Abiding Ventures, a private investment company which invests in early stage technology companies, as well as real estate development.

Prior to Squeeze, Elias founded the disruptive healthcare technology company MobileHelp, which allowed seniors to get help nationwide, increasing the quality of life though peace-of-mind and independence. With its innovative gsm/gps technology, MobileHelp quickly became the service of choice for hundreds of thousands of seniors. Elias is also the Chairman of ReachLink, a talk therapy mental health platform.

Elias, who holds several communication patents and was the 2006 SBDC & Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners grand-prize winner of the Big Idea business plan contest for his Alzheimer’s tracking system concept. MobileHelp was a 2012, 2014, and 2018 Frost & Sullivan award winner; 2014 and 2015 INC.500 award winner; and, 2014 Grow Florida growth award and company to watch. MobileHelp was also #90 on Deloitte’s Fast 500, the 500 fastest growing technology companies in America.

Elias currently serves on the board of The George Snow Scholarship Fund, and resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

Michael is an innovative food entrepreneur and chef, dynamic in approach to food solutions, and is incredibly passionate about working with kids and millennials to fulfill a vision to drive healthy and sustainable change in the food industry.

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Michael is a two-time alumnus of Johnson & Wales University (JWU), having completed degrees in Culinary Arts & Food Service Management and Entrepreneurship. Currently holding over 20 different food safety certifications, he has continued honing his expertise through education in food safety and regulatory compliance, food sustainability, commercial food brand development and marketing, and enterprise software solutions for commercial food organizations.

While completing his education at JWU, Michael founded Global Food Solutions, which develops food products and brands for the foodservice and school foodservice industries, and LineCor Distribution Solutions, which provides scalable third-party logistics and distribution services.

Michael’s expertise in developing food products to meet and exceed rigorous United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation standards have led him to work with some of North America’s largest food manufacturers and agricultural providers. His work focuses on developing healthy, sustainable food products for the foodservice industry aimed at supporting local producers to maintain fresh, nutritious foods; while also remaining dedicated to community-building through local business and school support in regions his companies operate.

Through this work, Michael has developed and launched over seven category-specific brands and more than 400 products in the foodservice and school food service industries. Michael’s companies products span the fresh, frozen, shelf-stable, and packaged goods categories. The result is feeding tens of millions of students in schools per year while also providing meals to those in need through government assistance programs, healthcare operations, and the United States Military. 

Michael is an outspoken supporter of providing meals to school kids across the United States and is actively involved with various childhood hunger organizations, supporting No Kid Hungry and BE STRONG, a national nonprofit aimed at bullying resiliency.

Michael was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Food and Drink category and was also one of thirty distinguished chefs and food experts invited to the National Peanut Council’s Millennial Food Summit and the National Peanut Council’s Harvest Summit. His company, Global Food Solutions, was also named to the Inc 5000 list for fastest-growing private companies in America.

Nicole serves as Vice President of Programming for BrandStar. In this role she has brand oversight of national, original show properties including The Balancing Act, Military Makeover, Designing Spaces, Access Health and Inside The Blueprint.

Wanting to change people’s lives for the better, Nicole traded a career on Wall Street to pursue her passion in television. She followed her North Star, to create programming with a purpose that would help women to live their best and fullest lives. Nicole was a part of the creative development and launch team on our flagship series, The Balancing Act more than 20 years ago which gave her an outlet to drive the dialogue to help women balance their lives, to share stories and provide solutions that help make a positive impact in every facet of their lives.

Nicole is co-founder of BrandStar Cares C.A.R.E.S (Community, Action, Responsibility, Empathy and Service) our service committee formed to serve as the company’s citizenship and community engagement arm. As the nucleus of our BrandStar gem, BrandStar Cares mission is to positively impact people’s lives in the communities in which we live, work and play by playing an active role to support local non-profits by enhancing their respective impact in South Florida communities.

Nicole has spent the last 20+ years working with small-midsize, national and international brands to connect them with our audience through our unique, educational and entertaining show properties. She has been a driving force behind the branded entertainment industry, helping to build brands and creative cultures by working alongside Fortune 500 brand partners, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups and industry experts to educate and empower people.

Jenny Peluso grew up in New Jersey as the oldest of six children and attended college as a first-generation college student. After completing her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Emory University (Atlanta, GA), Jenny pursued an academic career studying the interplay between cognition and emotion. In addition to teaching, advising, and mentoring postsecondary students, she has developed curricula, guided institutional student success efforts, established programs to assess the effectiveness of teaching and learning strategies, co-authored successful grant proposals, and administered professional development programs for faculty and staff. Jenny has also served in key leadership roles to strengthen cross-divisional collaboration on university-wide initiatives, enhance institutional climate, and institutionalize community engagement (e.g., both university outreach and community “in-reach”). Jenny is a servant leader and works through relationship. As a “connector,” she enjoys using collective impact methods with diverse stakeholders to identify shared goals and strategies, build partnerships, and develop programs that are authentic, sustainable, mutually-beneficial, and impactful.

Jenny previously served on the faculty at Mercer University (Macon, GA) and as a faculty member and administrator at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL). She currently works as Chairperson for Psychology Programs in the Graduate School at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Outside of her teaching and scholarship, Jenny helped establish and continues to volunteer with Achieve Palm Beach County (a county-wide effort to establish a Local College Access Network), and the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. Jenny lives in Boynton Beach, FL with her husband, Paul Peluso, and their two daughters.

Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez is a Professor of Applied Psychology at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and an Affiliated Professor at the NYU School of Global Public Health.  An interdisciplinary scholar, Morris-Perez conducts research at the intersection of developmental psychology, suicidology, education, and policy. In her two-decades long career, she has secured more than $75M in funding and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and policy reports. Her current early childhood work includes a $4M IES-funded partnership with NYCs Department of Education to support their historic expansion of Universal Pre-k and a $10M NIH-funded randomized trial of a tiered primary/secondary parenting intervention within pediatric primary care. Morris-Perez’s newest research, borne from the loss of her 17-year-old daughter to suicide in 2019, addresses adolescent suicide from a developmentally-informed, population-health perspective as part of a newly launched center entitled ARCADIA (A Research Center for Adolescent Interconnected Approaches) for Suicide Prevention. A former William T. Grant scholar, Morris-Perez served as lead editor of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness and a member of the National Academy of Science’s Board on Children, Youth, and Families. She received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University.

For over 20 years, Dr. Mike Rozenblum has been committed to helping people find a better way.  As a speaker, consultant and leader in the Chiropractic profession, he has a passion for seeing people be better. He believes “everyone deserves to feel great”. His primary area of specialty is the health care sector but over the past decade he has focused on the well-being of people, families and communities.  Married to the love of his life and father to an amazing foursome, Mike now resides in South Florida, after spending more than 20 years in the Southwest.  He enjoys baseball and backyard barbecues.

Assistant Superintendent, Montgomery County Educational Service Center (retired)
Executive Director, Dayton Regional STEM Center (retired)

Margy has led numerous local, state, and national efforts, producing awards from the U.S. Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Education, the Alliance in Education, and others. To further awareness about critical issues affecting students, she has presented at numerous state and national conferences and published educational research focused on improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps.

She also served as an education liaison to Air Force Research Laboratories and STEM consultant/advocate for Pre-K through 12 teachers and school districts, higher education institutions throughout Ohio, and regional workforce development agencies. Currently, she is an educational consultant with schools in Kentucky, including Bellarmine University.

Margy splits her time between Kentucky and the Oregon Coast to be near family, which happily includes a grandson in each location!

William is a Michigan native who currently residing in South Florida.  He is a corporate and compliance counsel, with a history of representing digital media, ad tech and martech companies.  In a typical day he finds himself counseling clients on state and federal privacy statutes, data protection rules, and marketing standards (FTC Act, COPPA, CalOPPA, FCRA, CAN-SPAM, TCPA, ECPA).

William attended University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he earned his Bachelors of Science as well as his Masters in Business Administration in International Business / Marketing.  He attended law school and earned his J.D. from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida, and later earned an L.L.M. in taxation from Thomas Jefferson University in San Diego, California.

William lives with his wife and daughter in the small beach town of Surfside, Florida.  When not working, he enjoys working out, riding bikes, working on classic cars and traveling with his family.