INDULGE presents the second installment of MOSAIC, highlighting South Florida’s top influencers at home

Community is at the heart of every city. Miami’s own multicultural landscape reflects the many ethnicities, traditions and hopes for a better future that represent our residents. The city wide anticipation for what is to come has never been more prevalent than at this moment, as we take the first steps to opening up our many local businesses. Leading the way to enacting positive change is a group of influential figures that have made meaningful contributions to South Florida though good times, as well as challenging ones. In the second installment of the MOSAIC series, INDULGE continues to highlight industry leaders that helped the community in a purposeful manner during the Covid-19 pandemic, shining a light on how these Miami ‘movers’ adapted to the county’s stay-at-home measures, while following through with their professional responsibilities and simultaneously lending a helping hand at a critical time.

Featured this week is Ana VeigaMilton, president of José Milton Foundation; Penny Shaffer, market president of Florida Blue (Blue Cross Blue Shield); Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; William Talbert, president & CEO of Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau; Crystal Wagar, mayor of Miami Shores; and Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president & CEO of Whitman Family Development, LLC,

Ana VeigaMilton, president of José Milton Foundation.

Tell us about your work as a local philanthropist.

I focus on steering our family’s community engagement, with emphasis on access to quality healthcare, STEM research, and education, especially looking to close the opportunity gap. I serve on several nonprofit (for-benefit) boards with fundraising, oversight, and governance responsibilities. Currently, I am most active on the University of Miami Board of Trustees, the Jackson Health Foundation, United Way, and Red Cross Miami Boards. I serve on the Executive Committees for Jackson Health Foundation and United Way.

Did you find it challenging to adapt to the stay-at-home measures?

I’ve cope by focusing on my blessings and radiating gratitude. Truth be told, as a born introvert, I am very comfortable in front of screens, emailing, and texting. I exercise in my home gym, trying out a plethora of online classes. My adult children and my parents live with my husband and me. Recently, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a BBQ fajita bar outside. We barbecued, made guacamole, and drank Margaritas!

How have you and your family helped the community during the Covid-19 outbreak?

My family owns and manages rental apartment communities, and housing, of course, is an essential business. Given our longstanding philanthropic commitment to this community, we provided 300 short-term apartments to Jackson frontline medical professionals, free of charge. The fully-furnished apartments include utilities, Wi-Fi, cable-tv, linens, towels, and a fully-equipped kitchen. I learned that many nurses, doctors, and other frontline personnel from Jackson Health System were afraid to go home in fear that they may infect family members. Many are living in their cars, offices, or tents/trailers set up in their yards. I am grateful that our family could offer them a refuge, a place to rest and recharge between their shifts battling coronavirus. Acts of kindness and philanthropy are the engine keeping our community hopeful and engaged.

Is there a particular organization that stands out to you in terms of their efforts during the pandemic?

Working with donors and those wanting to give back, the Jackson Health Foundation has not only made our donation of safe housing possible for frontline staff but has also provided tablets for patients to connect with their families and medical supplies and equipment, so critical in the fight against COVID-19, to frontline staff. Many in the community have also stepped up to donate food, flowers, socks, cards, and other items to show their support and gratitude for our healthcare heroes. For those interested in supporting please visit http://www.jacksonhealth.org/wearejacksonhealth

Do you think the way we do business will change due to our new normal of engaging via digital resources?

We are so fortunate to have the necessary level of digital interconnectivity that makes it possible for us to work from home and be productive. We can relieve traffic congestion and save resources by applying the best of this model to the new normal. Virtual meetings work!

Is there a mantra or quote that you find reflects your outlook?

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.” - Brené Brown, professor, lecturer, author, and podcast host.

Penny Shaffer, market president for Florida Blue (Blue Cross Blue Shield).

Has your work schedule become more manageable or less so since March?

The calendar has been a bit like a bucket of water, you take a cup out and it fills right back in. Establishing a routine has helped a lot - setting aside time for a break, some fresh air, walking the dog, and making lunch.

How have you helped your Florida Blue clients with health solution matters during the coronavirus outbreak in South Florida?

We have focused on helping our constituents in a variety of ways including waiving copays, adjusting delinquencies, making PPE supplies available, enabling telehealth capabilities, moving 10,000 employees from the offices to virtual, so no Blue Cross Blue Shield member or provider experiences any degradation of service.

In terms of the community, we immediately opened a 24/7 helpline, free to all in Spanish and English, that is still available (call 833 848-1762). The company has also invested in programs to help with food security, senior care and mental health – partnering with United Way, the Miami Marlins, the Area Agencies on Aging and Feeding South Florida.

What lessons that you have learned during this time will you carry with you moving forward?

Do not underestimate the value of connections and contact. While we can’t be physically close, there is no reason we cannot demonstrate our love, care and affection for others. There have been zoom calls, notes via snail mail, online gaming together, care packages of zucchini bread, hand sanitizer and paper towel.

What do you think the ‘new normal’ will look like in the future for your business?

More distance, more work life balance, stronger hugs (when we choose to hug).

If you could influence one positive ripple effect of the Covid-19 outbreak, what would it be?

Massive recognition for the things folks faced that most will never know about or understand. There is a form of “trauma” associated with major and minor things that have transpired during this time. Not all households were safe spaces to begin with. Add the challenges and stress associated with loss of jobs, food, etc. and the situation may have become even worse for our residents. Missing everything from birthdays to proms, to graduations to weddings to the isolation patients felt and the aching distance many at the end of life endured, these things should teach us to be gentler with each other. Choose to be kind.

What do you love most about Miami?

The city’s resilience. We have faced tough times and rebuilt every time. We will rebuild, again.

Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami.

How has Pérez Art Museum Miami continued to offer the public art-related inspiration since March?

We continue to do what we do best. The museum’s mission statement reads “Through our exhibitions and programs, we aim to encourage everyone to see art as an incentive for genuine human interaction, communication, and exchange,” and that hasn’t stopped. Our online offerings have in many cases given us a larger audience for certain programs than we could possibly fit into our auditorium, like my chat with the Pulitzer prize-winning critic Jerry Saltz.

How does the director of a museum spend a typical day at home now?

Luckily, I work with an incredible team of individuals, collectively. It’s been amazing to watch our staff pivot to a different working environment so seamlessly. My schedule has often looked exactly the same, filled with meetings, except now they are on zoom and team platforms. But all the changes can be a lot for us to handle, so I feel that it’s important to get away from it a bit while at home. I’m trying to write a little bit of fiction every day, which is in contrast to the realities of the day. I’ve jogged my neighborhood in every direction and really gotten to know it better. Just a little run to get away, I find so helpful. Otherwise, too much Netflix and great sports docs on figures like Maradona and Senn.

What do you think the ‘new normal’ will mean for the museum and the South Florida arts community as a whole?

Wow, it’s going to be very different! So much of what we believe in going to be tested. We are here to bring people together and now we will have to do that in a very different way, like everyone else. I believe that museums, alongside places of worship, libraries, schools, concert halls, and stadiums, are town halls for the people. As a museum, we are here for the healthy exchange of ideas paramount to citizens, promoting inclusivity across our communities. We will continue to do that and engagement will likely increase online. However, the experience of visiting a museum in a classic sense may become more like the time-based engagement found in other forms of culture, like concerts. The experience is likely to become more bespoke, where each visitor has a personal guide. Innovation will drive us to new ways of doing things.

William D. Talbert, III, president & CEO, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau is an invaluable resource to business owners that are suffering through the current crisis. Describe the GMCVB’s main goal as the city begins to slowly open up again.

Our goal is to keep Greater Miami a top destination in the highly competitive international travel market and to continue to gain critical support for our tourism-related businesses and the hundreds of thousands of jobs they support. With most travel remaining at a standstill due to COVID-19, the GMCVB is working to help the industry get through this difficult time and also keeping Greater Miami top-of-mind for visitors across the globe. Now, more than ever before, we need to support the tourism industry as it manages through this unparalleled crisis.

Describe some of the programs and initiatives the GMCVB has launched as a way to help restaurants and hotels?

We are doing everything possible to support travel and hospitality businesses at this time. Recently, the GMCVB launched Miami Eats, a program promoting over 1,000 restaurants offering delivery and/or take out, with an option to donate meals for hospital workers through a partnership with Meals for Heroes. Another program, Miami Salutes, provides a comprehensive list of restaurants and other businesses providing free or discounted items to frontline workers. In addition, we continue to keep a comprehensive and updated list of hotels on our website that remain open for Essential Lodgers like doctors, nurses, military personnel and more.

What would you like to see happen once restrictions are lifted?

To help us prepare for a gradual reopening and position Greater Miami for a quick recovery, the GMCVB created the Miami Shines campaign, a series of pre- and post-recovery initiatives to help drive businesses back to hotels, restaurants and museums. We are currently in the pre-recovery phase and we just released an inspirational video for folks who live here in our community and around the world.

Following all necessary laws and guidelines, we will first target local and in-state travelers to help drive money from leisure and business trips back to hotels, restaurants, museums, and attractions. As restrictions ease, we will target national and then international travelers.

What makes these initiatives essential to Miami’s economy?

“The tourism business is everyone’s business.” Tourism in Greater Miami and the Beaches has previously generated an average of $18 billion in annual economic impact, making this industry the backbone of our economy. By fundamentally helping one another navigate through this darkness, we know Miami will shine through.

Crystal Wagar, mayor of Miami Shores.

What would you say makes Miami special?

I love Miami because of the confluence of cultures. It is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. While it is a global city, it still maintains wonderful little unique communities for everyone to enjoy. I of course, am partial to Miami Shores, a small beautiful unique neighborhood where we can boast about having people from all backgrounds raising our families together.

Along with your responsibilities as a community leader and a practicing attorney, what other duties have you taken on since the stay-at-home measures were mandated?

I am a mother or two young children, so my work now includes homeschooling and planning meals and daily activities to keep the kids active and engaged in their learning process.

My husband Kirk and I have created a totally new routine for our household. This means creating a daily schedule for our children and ourselves, as we are both working from home and trying to balance attending to our children and finding the time to work on behalf of our clients and our community. We make sure that we get outside to get some fresh air and some exercise. Staying active has really helped us to stay focused and friendly towards each other.

As mayor, how have you helped the local residents in your community navigate though this crisis?

I make every effort to interact with as many people as I can. I have made myself available for my constituents and have been out in the community checking in on neighbors and ensuring that they have the things they need to get through this challenging time. Also, I have been feverishly posting updates and information on my social media sites trying to reach a broader audience by posting short videos of encouragement. It is my hope that getting information out to the community on a regular basis will give our neighbors a sense of calm and let them know that their elected officials are working hard on behalf of the community on a daily basis.

What recommendations would you make to South Floridians that are eager to get back to business as usual?

I am hopeful that people will proceed with an abundance of patience and caution. I realize that everyone is anxious to resume their normal routines, however, I hope that our community will continue to mindful of how fluid and uncertain COVID-19 actually is. Precautions still need to be taken to continue to protect ourselves and our neighbors across Miami-Dade County.

If you could send a message of gratitude to anyone that you feel went above and beyond during the past few months, who would that be?

One of my greatest inspiration’s during this time has been the absolute dedication of teachers and administrators, first responders and our medical community as a whole. Members of these professions have stepped into overdrive in ways we could not have imagined before COVID-19. I am so appreciative and impressed by their efforts and resolve.

Is there a mantra or meditation that you have found helpful recently?

Since this pandemic hit our country I have been meditating to the same mantra daily, which is “This too shall pass” written by the iconic poet Maya Angelou.

Matthew Whitman Lazenby, CEO of Whitman Family Development, LLC.

The future of retail is a hot topic in the media at the moment. Describe your role as head of a major retail and development brand.

My primary task is to hire, retain, and support the best people in the business. Beyond that, I need to be forward thinking and focused unrelentingly on the long term. This includes planning for the future in a rapidly changing retail landscape – especially during this crisis. My work involves overseeing our $550 million expansion of Bal Harbour Shops while maintaining the integrity of our brand. My view is through the three lenses of our constituents: community, customer (tenants and consumers) and employee, and I endeavor to operate with those priorities in mind.

What are you most proud of in terms of how Whitman Family Development has given back to the community, as well as your own employees?

Investing in the community has been the cornerstone of my family’s success for over 55 years and four generations. We are a family owned business and have preserved our workforce with no lay-offs or furloughs and we are working with our tenants to make the necessary adjustments to keep our business intact during this crisis. In partnership with Bal Harbour Village, we’ve donated 10,000 masks to first responders and to the medical workers whose selfless dedication to their communities has inspired us all. Most recently, we announced and implemented an additional partnership with Bal Harbour Village and the surrounding communities to open a COVID-19 drive-thru site to expand the availability of testing to our residents.

What would you say will change in the retail industry and what will remain the same?

The retail landscape will have to make adjustments and we believe that businesses in general will have to adapt to an uncharted environment in this uncertain time. Fostering that emotional connection with the customer has been at the heart of what we do for nearly six decades. The “new normal” will invariably require that we deliver that promise in new and different ways. But deliver it we will.

What is a lesson you have learned or realization that you have made during this time?

Harry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” While many in today’s political establishment have lost sight of that fact – which is especially unfortunate during a national public health emergency that has, in turn, triggered a national economic crisis – I am blessed to work with a team of professionals that live by that motto every day. By caring more about the work itself than about who gets credit for doing it, the team has been accomplishing one incredible thing after another.

What do you love most about Miami?

Don Shula was here.

For more on the MOSAIC series, please visit us on Instagram at @indulgemiami.

This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 7:00 AM.