The Tampa Bay Chamber presented Sandra Murman, the first Republican woman to serve as Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Florida House Chamber, the Dottie Berger MacKinnon Women of Influence Award March 30.

The award is bestowed annually to an exemplary woman who demonstrates “outstanding professional value” and the ability to go above and beyond the normal expectations of a leader, according to the Tampa Bay Chamber.

While Murman was recognized for her public service to Hillsborough County, her legacy extends throughout Florida politics. Even the award’s namesake was part of that legacy, long before Murman received the award.

“Dottie Berger MacKinnon and I started the journey to take care of foster kids many, many years ago,” Murman said.

“She went on her track. I went on the political track, because the legislature really makes a difference. And honestly, to get this award with her name on it means so much to me and it’s so heartfelt.”

In the late ’90s, shortly after Jeb Bush took office as Florida’s governor, Murman championed shifting the child welfare system away from Tallahassee’s grasp, specifically the Department of Children and Families, toward nonprofit organizations embedded in neighborhoods and communities.

“Too many kids were being removed from their homes,” Murman said. “Hillsborough County was one of highest in the state for child removal.”

While that legislation passed, she noted it was not without pushback. “Families didn’t want their kids being the test case. It was a three-year pilot project,” she said.

That work was part of a broader legislative career that spanned eight years in the Florida House, where Murman helped pass dozens of bills and secured funding for regional priorities, while working across policy areas that ranged from child welfare to healthcare and education.

“In politics it’s very difficult … there’s always a food fight,” she said, pointing to child welfare and transportation funding as some of the most contentious issues she worked through.

Her approach was identifying the key drivers on both sides of an issue and working from their priorities to build consensus and move legislation forward.

While she says nothing is a perfect system, that did not thwart her efforts. She continued to advocate for children, helping build the Children’s Network, while her longtime friend MacKinnon built A Kid’s Place of Tampa Bay.

“You cannot deliver a perfect solution to an imperfect situation,” Murman said, quoting Jeb Bush.

That same approach carried into another focus of her career: advancing women in leadership.

Murman said she worked intentionally to build pathways for women in government, particularly during her time in Tallahassee, where she navigated what she described as a male-dominated environment.

“When I first got elected, I didn’t know anything about politics,” she said. “I needed more women around me.”

Rather than forcing change from the top down, Murman focused on building networks in politics and mentoring women into positions difficult for women to traditionally enter.

“I worked hard to advise and mentor, worked hard to get women on committees, so they could rise up,” she said.

That work continues today through mentorship and initiatives like Women’s Exchange, a group aimed at helping women secure appointments to boards and leadership roles, which Murman manages through her firm, Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick, LLP.

“If we have the opportunity to tell our success stories, others will follow,” Murman closed.