Debbie Carson
 "Florida Studies is a unique program that allows me to chart my own course for both intellectual and professional pursuits. The breadth of my experience has been exponentially broadened in just one year of being in the program."
Debbie Carson, 30 years and 180 credits later, finally graduated from Eckerd College in 2007 with a BA in arts marketing and management after studying business and organizational communications at Emerson College in Boston, with other credits earned here and there from the University of Maryland and Towson State University.
Debbie has been a marketing professional for 25 years. She currently works part time at the great Palladium Theater in downtown St. Petersburg and runs a consulting business on the side. Between work and studies, Debbie makes the most of her days by being on, in or by the water, with good music, camera in hand, and family, friends and critters nearby.
Upon graduation, Debbie hopes to help expand and advance the profile of downtown St. Petersburg's arts and cultural community.
Theresa Collington
Award-winning journalist and Philadelphia native Theresa Collington graduated from Rutgers University in 1993 and also attended Journalism School at Temple University. Currently, she works for WTSP-TV in Tampa Bay as an Executive Producer, where she oversees all of the station's news and entertainment websites. She began her broadcasting career with the  ABC Television Network News in New York, has also worked for Florida's News Channel and Bay News Nine, and worked as a co-host onmorning radio.
As a self-proclaimed ‘info-junkie,’ Collington has a passion for the outdoors, Florida, journalism, investigative research, and loves the web and all things pop culture. Her pop-culture claim to fame is winning the grand prize on the MTV 80’s trivia game show “Remote Control” in 1988.
When she's not at work or in class, you can find Theresa combing the beach, camping and looking for fossils in one of Florida's spring-fed rivers, scuba diving, reflecting on how great the 80’s were, and laughing, a lot. She’s married to Roy, loves dogs, and lives in South Tampa.
Andy Fairbanks
AndyFairbanks graduated from the University of North Florida in 2002 and studied Environmental Science and Policy at USF before joining the Florida Studies Program in 2010. In 2011 he was honored to receive the Hope Black Fellowship in Florida Studies.
Andy was Pinellas County's recycling coordinator from 2004 through 2010, and got his start in as an intern for Duval County in 2001 while finishing his undergraduate degree. He worked his way through college, alternating between a variety of jobs during fall, winter and spring in Jacksonville, and every summer spent as a sailing instructor and outdoor educator at the Environmental Studies Center in his hometown of Jensen Beach, Florida.
After a decade spent in the waste industry Andy is still fascinated by garbage and passionate about waste reduction and recycling. He believes that what we throw away and how we do it says as much about us as what we keep. Andy is also a sucker for all things "old Florida." As a third-generation native Floridian, he loves to explore its storied places and engage their storytellers.
Andy is doing ethnographic research for his thesis on stakeholder involvement in the development of Florida's 75% recycling goal. He received an Honorable Mention for preliminary results of his research presented to the Florida Society of Geographers in 2011.
When he isn't studying, Andy enjoys exploring the world on a shoestring, whether close to home or far away. Preferred vehicles include canoe, sailboat and bicycle, but he's also happy behind the wheel on an old country road. He's currently writing a blog about life as a graduate student at USFSP.
Daun K. Fletcher
Daun Fletcher graduated from University of South Florida St. Petersburg in 2009 and also attended the University of Tampa.
Daun is currently the Program Assistant for the Florida Studies Program as well as the University Honors Program. She previously spent 20 years in the Student Loan industry working with Florida Federal, Chase, JP Morgan Chase and Sallie Mae.
Daun's primary passion is history. Her historical interests range from Florida and the South to Medieval Europe and the World War II era. She loves those crazy Koreshans in South Florida, kitschy Florida of the 1950s and 1960s and Pinellas County's Gulf Blvd.
When Daun is not studying, she indulges her other passions: international soccer and the National Hockey League. She follows the Tottenham Hotspur English Premier League team as well as the Tampa Bay Lightning. She also likes the outdoors, camping and traveling. She is a volunteer at Heritage Village and you can find her at the reception desk on the first and third Sunday of the month.
Daun would like to use the knowledge gained during her Florida Studies work to move into either a museum, archive or special collection situation.
Chris Klug
Chris is a Florida native, born in Panama City on the “Redneck Riviera”. He has lived in California, Colorado, rural Minnesota, Texas and Mississippi and has traveled extensively to the remaining States with the exception of Alaska, an omission he hopes to rectify in his current study of wetlands. Chris’ career choices evoke the classic Renaissance man, working as a carpenter, salesman, cook, soldier and roofer in his youth, eventually evolving to visual artist and successful professional photographer.
As an undergraduate in Savannah, GA, he studied art history, American history and printmaking and earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts. Entranced with the black and white photograph, Chris has pursued a 24-year regimen of independent study including large format cameras, American historical and contemporary portraiture, laser holography, antique optics and digital image making.
Returning to the Sunshine State in the 1990’s, the stark contrasts of sparsely populated and wild Panhandle Florida and booming, bustling, crowded Central Florida provided intrigue and fruit for research. Chris aspires to contribute to intelligent growth management, to promotion of the “Earthship”, an environmentally friendly home architecture, and to protect Florida’s rapidly diminishing natural resources and undeveloped beauty. Chris and his cat Hannah make their home in St. Petersburg and enjoy the numerous parks, beaches, family, bird watching (Hannah’s favorite) and the fascinating fellowship provided by the Florida Studies staff and students.
Samantha McHugh
"After finishing my undergraduate degree, I felt that there was much more to learn and pursuing a graduate degree would be a positive way to spend my time outside of work. As a transplant to Florida, I knew I had a lot to learn about my new surroundings. The Florida Studies Program was a perfect fit."
Samantha McHugh graduated from the University of South Florida, Sarasota campus. Currently she works for Universal Health Care in Sales and Marketing. She began her healthcare career over 10 years ago at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, NJ. Since relocating to Florida five years ago, she has worked in Provider offices and also as a physician contractor.
Samantha lives in Ruskin and works in downtown St. Pete. In her free time, she can most often be found in a state park exploring with her dog Sasha. She is also fond of reading by the water, dining on Beach Drive in St. Pete, and traveling the world. She also enjoys volunteer work, which has helped broaden her knowledge of the communities where she lives and works. Her most passionate projects involve Pet Pals Rescue and the Spring, which houses women and families involved in domestic violence.
Jono Miller
Jono is a New Jersey boy who came to Florida in 1970 to attend New College.
He graduated in 1974 with an area of concentration in Environmental Studies
and soon formed an environmental consulting partnership with his future
wife, Julie Morris. In 1981 they took a position coordinating the
Environmental Studies Program at New College. Julie has chaired both the
Florida's Wildlife Commission and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Council. Jono
has walked all of the beaches in Sarasota and Manatee Counties and has
canoed the length of Southwest Florida's coast from Tampa south to Flamingo.
He is a charter fellow of the Florida Natural Resource Leadership Institute and a 2002 graduate of Leadership Florida. Best known for his work in
Sarasota County on land protection, the Myakka River and water issues, Jono
is also an artist and writer.
He illustrated a Florida wildlife-themed calendar for First Florida banks
for seven years and his writing has appeared in Sarasota Magazine, the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and in "The Book of the Everglades", edited by
Susan Cerulean. In addition to writing half the Introduction, Jono
contributed a chapter on the Ten Thousand Islands and is featured in a chapter by ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan describing their successful search
for the "lost" Okeechobee gourd. His thesis topic is the natural and
cultural history of the cabbage palm, Florida's state tree and if you know
some intriguing fact about these palms he wants to hear from you.
Kyle Pierson
Kyle’s appreciation for Florida’s history and environment has evolved over a lifetime. She moved here in 1969 and remembers passionately resenting the sandspurs and fire ants that forced a barefoot-nature-loving girl to wear shoes. Eventually that very wilderness won her over and she became interested in a history chock full of tales about women and girls who endured in this harsh environment.
Kyle graduated from Eckerd College in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. Since then, she has combined freelance writing and teaching. In 2000, she partnered with a fellow middle school teacher to create a Florida-based geology and paleontology curriculum called "Kids Dig It!" with a kit containing real Florida fossils buried in geologically correct matrix. The curriculum was purchased by several school districts as far away as California and is still used by the Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR) in Polk County Schools. In 2008, Kyle wrote and produced an audio-tour covering 25 miles of Pinellas Beaches that is now available on iTunes, Amazon, and Visual Travel Tours.
Kyle’s love for the Florida environment grew into a passion for gardening – she is a member of two garden clubs. She was the first in her neighborhood to transform her yard into a certified “Florida friendly” landscape. Dave, her husband, can be cajoled into positioning pavers, building planters, and depositing loads of dirt where directed, but rarely planting flowers. Kyle and Dave have two college-aged daughters who have no interest whatsoever in gardening; however, both enjoy running.
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College of Arts and Sciences | Florida Studies Graduate Profiles 
