United Way Suncoast Leadership

Office of the President

Jessica Muroff

Chief Executive Officer

Heather Navratil, Director, Governance & Strategic Initiatives

Jessica Muroff, one of the area’s most recognized and successful nonprofit and civic leaders, serves as United Way Suncoast’s chief executive officer.

Through her guidance, United Way Suncoast partners with more than 150 nonprofit organizations in its five-county footprint. In 2023, it engaged with a half a million community members in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties.

In establishing her leadership role, Muroff has created a legacy of change-making leadership, philanthropic goodwill and community care. She strives to be a model for other business and community leaders, as well as her as her family, including her four children. Her motto is “Be Present,” and that begins with her family, but also includes her civic engagement. She brings authentic energy to her work within and outside of United Way Suncoast. It’s not just her career, it’s her life’s purpose.

“I greet each day with joy at the challenges I get to tackle with my team,” Muroff says. “It is important to me to lead an impactful, supportive, and collaborative nonprofit to maximize our community benefit. This is why our work is critical because we are not just providing services at United Way Suncoast, we are having exponential community impact by bringing the best programs and services together in a collective impact model to serve our region.” 

Muroff joined United Way Suncoast in November 2019 after establishing a record of transformative change as the CEO of Girl Scouts of West Central Florida (2015-2019) and the CEO of Frameworks of Tampa Bay (2013-2015). She has extended her list of professional achievements since assuming the top role at UWS, an organization committed to creating lasting community change.

In her relatively short tenure at United Way Suncoast, Muroff continues to create impact. Her latest achievements include elevating United Way Suncoast’s education efforts, extending its ability to build the capacity of its nonprofit partners and helping the organization take on the emerging issues of the day, be it the housing crisis, disaster recovery or the pandemic.

Now she has United Way Suncoast focused on celebrating its Centennial. UWS traces its roots back to the formation of the Tampa Welfare League and Community Chest in 1924. In 2024, Muroff and her team will not only look back on the success of UWS’ first 100 years, but ahead to its second century of service.

Her leadership has proved a beacon in the community and within the organization. Muroff has played a pivotal role in reorganizing the UWS staff and reinvigorating its culture. Muroff and her leadership team drew high marks in a staff employee survey for creating a welcoming workplace environment that UWS employees would overwhelmingly recommend.

Her success has not gone unnoticed. Muroff recently added to her list of honors with her inaugural inclusion on Florida Trend’s Florida 500, a listing of the state’s most influential business leaders. In 2023, Tampa Bay Business and Wealth named her as one of its Tampa Bay Business Women Of The Year. In past years, she was awarded the Deanne Dewey Roberts Emerging Leader Award from the Greater Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (2014), USF’s Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications Outstanding Alumni (2018), and Business Professional Women’s Woman of the Year (2019). Jessica also has received several significant awards from the Tampa Bay Business Journal. In 2023, she was included on the journal’s Power 100 list for the second consecutive year. She’s also been honored by the journal as Young Business Woman of the Year of 2005, Up & Comers Hall of Fame in 2013 and Business Woman of the Year in 2018. 

Muroff’s latest list of UWS accomplishments points to a brighter future for the organization, but they don’t come as a surprise to those who have followed her ascension as a Suncoast leader. She’s utilizing the same skill set that has helped her enjoy success at other stops: nonprofit executive experience, business savvy, and community care.

In her four years at the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, Muroff led a nonprofit that served nearly 19,500 girls and nearly 8,500 adult members in Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Sumter counties. Her efforts included creating Camp CEO, a leadership seminar that allowed aspiring teenage girls to network with some of the region’s top women leaders. At Frameworks of Tampa Bay,  she helped the social and emotions learning advocacy group increase the number of youth served, developed new partnerships, and increased community recognition.

Muroff also has worked on the corporate side as a Raymond James Financial manager of account services, marketing director at Saks Fifth Avenue, and account executive at Roberts Communications.

Operations

Finance

Kelly Kavanaugh

Chief Financial and Investments Officer

Kativa Sullins, Specialist, Administrative

United Way Suncoast welcomes Kelly Kavanaugh as its Chief Financial and Investments Officer. Kavanaugh is responsible for the financial performance of the organization, oversight of community investments, and organizational data reporting. Kelly plans, implements, and directs all financially related activities. 

“Kelly has decades of experience as a finance leader in our sector,” said United Way Suncoast CEO Jessica Muroff. “Her leadership experience and background with such an impressive array of nonprofit organizations has only served to elevate our operations. I am thrilled that she is leading efforts to strengthen our partnership and support of our nonprofit strategic community partners.”

Kavanaugh previously served as BizOps Chief Financial Officer for CLA (CliftonLarsenAllen) serving the nonprofit industry sector. Kelly maintained a portfolio of up to a dozen non-profit organizations where she served in the capacity of CFO. Kelly is ideally suited to serve United Way Suncoast’s five-county region. She was born in Sarasota Memorial, grew up in Pinellas County and now resides in Tampa after earning a BS in accounting from Florida State.

Resource Development

Mike McCollum

Chief Philanthropy Officer

Daria Harrison, Specialist, Administrative

Mike McCollum serves as United Way Suncoast’s Chief Philanthropy Officer. In this role, McCollum oversees the Resource Development division, which includes the Corporate Philanthropy, Individual Philanthropy and Philanthropic Engagement (Volunteer) departments.

McCollum joins United Way Suncoast from the Hillsborough Education Foundation, where he served as Chief Advancement Officer for six years. In that role, Michael was credited with successfully soliciting and stewarding high-dollar funders and donors while maintaining key strategic partnerships with major entities.

“I’ve long admired Mike’s work with HEF, one of our strategic community partners,” said United Way Suncoast CEO Jessica Muroff said. “I know he’s the right person to extend our successful philanthropic efforts.”

Prior to his role at the education foundation, McCollum served as the Executive Director II at Bob Gilbertson Central City YMCA/Downtown Wellness Center from 2015-2017 and before that, as the Executive Director at Sulphur Springs YMCA from 2012-2014. He worked closely with United Way Suncoast team members during his tenure in Sulphur Springs.

Michael is also an active civic leader, currently serving as secretary on the Leadership Tampa Bay Board.

A graduate of the University of South Florida, McCollum is married to his college sweetheart Sarah and they have two sons.

Community Impact

Bronwyn Beightol

Chief Impact Officer

Dawn Stuart, Executive Assistant

As Chief Impact Officer for United Way Suncoast, serving Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Hillsborough and Pinellas, Bronwyn Beightol provides vision, thought leadership, direction and oversight for United Way Suncoast. In September 2022, Beightol’s Chief Impact Officer duties expanded to include oversight of United Way Suncoast’s community impact work throughout its five-county footprint, including education, financial stability and support services.

“Bronwyn shares the organization’s vision for fostering impact that improves the lives of community members,” said United Way Suncoast CEO Jessica Muroff. “She recognizes that connecting with neighborhoods and giving people the freedom to rise is at the heart of United Way Suncoast’s mission.”

Now in her 16th year with United Way, Beightol took over the organization’s regional efforts in early learning and youth success in early 2022. Under her leadership, United Way Suncoast rebranded its regional early learning approach as United We Learn and amplified its commitment to quality childcare and literacy.

Beightol’s work has enhanced the organization’s, placing 22 funded paraprofessionals in classroom across the region. She and her team have strengthened United Way Suncoast’s Quality Childcare Initiative to include 45 schools in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Many of the new advances involve replicating the initiatives Beightol helped craft in Manatee County, including the award-winning Big Plan and Campaign for Grade-Level Reading efforts.

A resident of Manatee County for more than 15 years, Bronwyn has spent more than two decades in the social impact sector leading innovative, community-level change initiatives to advance the common good. In the public sector, Bronwyn had a more than 10-year career working in publishing with Sterling Southeast, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the New York Times locally at the Herald-Tribune.

Marketing​ and Communications

Ernest Hooper

Chief Communications Officer

Daria Harrison, Specialist, Administrative

As the Chief Communications Officer, Hooper oversees all external and internal communications for United Way Suncoast including paid, earned, shared and owned media. He also supervises the marketing/communications team and guides United Way Suncoast’s marketing efforts. He stewards the organization’s brand reputation and awareness.

Hooper assumed his current position in September 2022 after joining United Way Suncoast in March 2021.

“Ernest has made an incredible impact on our organization,” United Way Suncoast CEO Jessica Muroff said at the time. “I am thrilled to have his leadership at the helm of our communications and marketing efforts as well as having him join our executive leadership team.”

Prior to joining United Way Suncoast in March 2021, Hooper spent 15 months as the director of communications for the American Cancer Society’s Southwest Florida region. He may be best known as a longtime community columnist and editor for the Tampa Bay Times, where he worked for 27 years, four months and 23 days (yes, he counted).

Talent

Jennifer McIntosh

Chief Talent Officer

Kativa Sullins, Specialist, Administrative

As Chief Talent Officer for United Way Suncoast, Jen leads the talent function and ensures strategic emphasis is placed on advancing the organization’s culture. This emphasis includes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, and a host of other policies to help United Way Suncoast meet the needs of our organization, our employees and the communities we serve.

“United Way Suncoast is fortunate to have the depth of experience and talent of Jen McIntosh on our team,” said United Way Suncoast CEO Jessica Muroff. “She is a transformative leader who has elevated our culture and support for our teammates, especially in such dynamic times. In addition to her tremendous support for the health, wellness and success of our teammates, she has improved our technology infrastructure, enabling us to be more efficient and effective.”

Jen began her career in the mental health field, contributing at a leadership level to several facets of operations including human resources, quality improvement, and risk management. Her experience also includes many years of providing global human resources leadership for a non-profit membership association in the higher education industry.

Leadership Team

Select a tab to filter your results.

Sign up to receive news and updates from United Way Suncoast.