{"id":281900,"date":"2026-05-23T10:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281900\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T10:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:37:11","slug":"governor-taps-health-banking-business-leaders-for-northwest-florida-state-college-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281900\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor taps health, banking, business leaders for Northwest Florida State College board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gov. Ron DeSantis has named four people to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwfsc.edu\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Northwest Florida State College<\/a> District Board of Trustees, appointing Todd Jackson and Jonathan Ochs and reappointing Megan Harrison and Jon Ward.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All four already served on the college\u2019s presidential search committee.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jackson is CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hcafloridahealthcare.com\/locations\/twin-cities-hospital\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital<\/a> in Niceville, with more than 18 years at HCA Healthcare. Board certified in healthcare administration through the American College of Healthcare Executives, he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree and master\u2019s degrees in business and health administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ochs is Coastal Region President at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulfbank.com\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Company<\/a> and previously led Trustmark National Bank in Okaloosa and Walton counties. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from California Baptist University.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Harrison is President and CEO of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.waltonareachamber.com\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Walton Area Chamber of Commerce<\/a> and owner of TailGrayton Beach Outfitters. She sits on the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals Board of Directors and earned a hospitality management and tourism degree from the University of Florida.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/785509-florida-taps-icf-for-comprehensive-management-services-bringing-proven-expertise-to-statewide-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-795634 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/florida-campaign-florida-politics-display-ad-728x90px.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"97\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ward is a dermatologist at <a href=\"https:\/\/mydermspecialists.com\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Dermatology Specialists of Florida<\/a>, which he founded in 2006. He has served as Legislative Chair for the Emerald Coast Medical Society and was the Bay County Chamber of Commerce\u2019s 2014 Businessperson of the Year. He earned his bachelor\u2019s and medical degrees from the University of Florida.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">___<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis has named four people to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,120013,120014,120015,120016,412,120017],"class_list":["post-281900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jon-ward","tag-jonathan-ochs","tag-megan-harrison","tag-northwest-florida-state-college","tag-ron-desantis","tag-todd-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}