Gerry Ash
Gerry was born and raised in north central Alabama and along with his wife, Natalee, and two boys, moved to Central Florida in 1989. In 2007, Gerry put away his automotive tools and became a home-based travel agent. In 2008, he created Ash Travel, and has been serving the Clermont area as a travel consultant on all types of travel ever since. Gerry and Natalee have been married 34 years, and have 5 grandchildren in Alabama and Georgia.
After opening Ash Travel, Gerry joined the South Lake Chamber of Commerce and the South Lake Business Leaders networking group, of which he is still a member. Shortly after joining the Chamber, he became a Chamber Ambassador and is still very active in that role. He enjoys networking with others and doing volunteer work, so being an ambassador is a great fit. Gerry was awarded the Ambassador Choice award in 2011 for his work in the community, and was named Ambassador of the Year for 2011-2012.
Regina Cruz-Morales
Regina was born and raised in Beaver Dam, WI. She attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where she studied Recreation Management and Spanish. Regina was hired by the City of Boulder Parks & Recreation as a Recreation Management Intern and ended up living in Colorado for 5 years. She loved living in Boulder! There was so much to see and do in Colorado, it was an incredible time in her life.
Regina was hired by the Peace Corps in 2008 and served as a Youth Volunteer in the Dominican Republic for 2 years and a year in Ecuador. She was very grateful to have had the opportunity to work and live in both countries and learned so many wonderful things about both cultures.
Regina returned to the United States in January 2012. She decided to live in Clermont to be close to her family. In 2013 she joined forces with her mother as a residential realtor with Keller Williams Realty. Regina enjoys all aspects of real estate. She loves making the American Dream come true through selling, buying and investing in real estate. Regina is not focused on one transaction, but rather, she is focused on becoming your friend and realtor for life.
Mrs. Cruz-Morales was blessed to marry a wonderful man named Joey Morales in 2018. She now has beautiful twin stepchildren. When Regina is not working, you can find her at one of these fantastic non-profit organizations: Kiwanis Club of South Lake, Clermont Toastmasters, Women’s Giving Alliance and South Lake Junior Woman’s Club. Regina has been an ambassador for the South Lake Chamber of Commerce since 2018 and thoroughly enjoys networking with all the wonderful people in South Lake County.
Debbie Flinn
Debbie was born in Orlando, Florida and is a true Florida native! She moved to Minneola in 1993 and calls Minneola her “forever home.”
Debbie has been with the Ambassadors since 2014 and enjoys helping businesses connect with the community and all South Lake has to offer. She is a Daughter of the American Revolution, a member of the Clermont Elk’s Lodge, a former Commissioner on Minneola’s City Council and currently serves as Chairwoman of Minneola’s Planning and Zoning board.
She holds an Associate of Arts degree from Valencia Community College and attends Lake Sumter State College part-time to finish her degree in Organizational Management. Debbie and her husband, John have three grown children and twin granddaughters. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends and enjoying the outdoors!!
Amanda Hansen
Amanda is a Florida native born in Orlando. She has work in the Credit Union industry since 1984.
She is an Associate Regional Manager for Addition Financial Credit Union leading her teams from the Clermont branch. Addition Financial provides a full suite of financial products and services. Amanda takes pride in assisting and educating individuals on their path to financial success.
Amanda has three grown child and three granddaughters. She loves spending time with her family and friends boating on the beautiful waters throughout Lake County.
Anessa Jones
Anessa relocated from Stockholm Sweden here to Central Florida and has been an active resident for over 20 years. She comes with 20 plus years of leadership, promotional, and professional sales background. Anessa currently serves in the role of Campaign Director with the United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties; she heads up major campaigns with Corporations, local community organizations, works with event planning and volunteerism.
Her educational background is in Human Services with an emphasis on non-profit. Anessa continues to educate herself by actively pursuing the Executive Coaching program under the mentorship of Mrs. Marilyn Donnellan who has over thirty years of experience as a nonprofit CEO, and consultant. Anessa is actively participating in the Harvard Mentorship program, developing stronger leadership and community skill sets. Anessa is not a fundraiser. She is a catalyst for change!
Shaina Keough
Shaina was born and raised in Lake County and graduated from Tavares High School. She went to Lake-Sumter State College where she received her Associate’s degree and finished her Bachelor’s degree at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Shaina majored in Communication with a focus in Public Relations and minored in Marketing.
Since getting her degree, she started working for Community Health Centers as a Community Event Specialist, and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, has become very active in the South Lake Chamber. As things started opening back up, Shaina became an ambassador with the chamber and became part of the South Lake Business Leaders group.
Shaina’s favorite part of her role at Community Health Centers is building relationships with people in the community. She has found relationships are one of the key aspects to success in a professional career. Community Health Centers’ mission is to provide quality and compassionate primary healthcare services to Central Florida’s diverse communities. Shaina said, “it’s so fulfilling to promote a necessity of life such as medical care to our community in need.”
Keith Mullins
Raised in the dry Texas Panhandle, Keith’s first introduction to wine was at the ripe old age of 17 at a northern uncle’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner (Italian Swiss Colony Muscatel).
He began a more traditional appreciation of the grape while attending Western Michigan University, eventually graduating with a Bachelors degree in marketing (1982), and a job at Michigan’s largest winery, Warner Vineyards (1972). After climbing through the ranks to middle management, and pressing a few thousand tons of grapes in cold weather, an opportunity arose to return to the sunny south.
In 1985 the Mullins family loaded up a rental truck and headed for Tallahassee and Lafayette Vineyards & Winery, where he soon was helping to press grapes in the sunshine. After a couple of good years in the capital city, the family once again headed south to head up what was to be an expansion project in Clermont, Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards.
After the millennium, with the kids out of college, and retirement only a couple of decades away, it was time for some new adventure. In the spring of 2004 Keith & his wife Karen opened Bacchus Vino Etcetera, a retail wine shop in downtown Clermont to supply the residents of South Lake County with quality wines from around the world.
Keith is a member of the South Lake Kiwanis, Clermont Downtown Partnership, South Lake Animal League, and the South Chamber of Commerce.
Jacquie Peterson
Jacquie has an eclectic background in counseling, journalism, and management/marketing which she combined with her husband’s background in business, digital marketing, and sales when they opened Splash Social Marketing in 2010. They’ve combined their strengths to help local business owners maximize the marketing opportunities available in the digital realm. Jacquie is proud to have taken their business international by bringing on clients located in Australia, the UK, and Canada over the past 4 years, but the focus of business remains on the small, local business community.
Upon joining the Chamber, Jacquie immediately asked how she can become more involved. A number of members suggested the Ambassador program and she found it was a great fit. One common theme along all of her past positions is relationships. She is a strong believer in building strong relationships which will be beneficial to everyone involved. That’s what the Chamber is all about and that is how the Ambassador program helps the Chamber and the members.
Jacquie is also known as the Business Engagement Expert and speaks to companies and organizations on the importance of developing strong relationships to improve business.
Susan Saunders
Susan is a Florida licensed Orthotic Fitter, as well as an American Board for Certification credentialed Certified Fitter for Orthotics and Mastectomy. She has a dual role as both a clinical care provider and as the office administrator for the practice. Susan is also on several boards of charitable organizations and County/community organizations.
Otis Taylor
Otis has been a resident of Clermont since 2011, relocating from Orlando. He was born and raised in Chicago but moved to Orlando in 1989. He was in the automotive industry for over 35 years. Otis operated his own automotive repair shop and later in his career working for Chrysler Dodge dealerships as service manager and parts manager. He retired from automotive in 2011 as he and his wife made the decision to take care of his disabled mother-in-law in their home for the last five years of her life, until her passing in 2016.
During those five years of caregiving Otis gained a great awareness of compassion, patience and selflessness. His eyes were opened to the realization that there were needs in the community and his heart wanted to fill those needs. As a result, Otis founded Give A Day Foundation. His purpose in doing so was to help bridge the gap with people that were in need and also help non-profit organizations whose mission was to help people in the community.
With the Foundation’s many volunteer opportunities and youth empowerment programs, they are very busy out in the community working to make a difference. Currently, Give A Day Foundation has provided over 30,000 volunteer hours in the community.
Deena Thurmond
Deena is an experienced Real Estate Broker and sales & marketing professional specializing in New Home Sales, marketing exclusively for Regal Park Homes, a Luxury Semi-Custom Builder in Central FL. She grew up in south Florida, traveled abroad in her early career and finally settled in Clermont in 2002 where she and her husband Rick plan to remain as they love the beautiful rolling hills and are avid boaters who enjoy the Clermont chain of lakes. Deena joined the South Lake Chamber and quickly decided to give back to the community by becoming an ambassador. Being a Chamber ambassador allows her to meet and network with other community residents and business professionals while volunteering her time in the local community.
Lori Wuchevich
Lori was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and lived there until she met and married her husband Mike, who had just finished Naval boot camp and training at Great Lakes Naval Station. She accompanied him to Virginia for the remainder of his Naval career and then moved back to Illinois. They have three children Steven, Elizabeth & Allison and four grandchildren Adam, Shane, Damon & Adelaide all of whom still live in Illinois.
Lori has had several types of jobs over the years but found her passion in bookkeeping. Lori has been in the accounting field for 18 years solving problems and helping people with their businesses. Lori & Mike decided to make the move to Florida in 2017 and settled in Minneola. There she decided to start her own bookkeeping firm in 2018, utilizing the skills she learned in the 18 years working for the accounting firms up north
One of the first things she did after starting her business was to join the South Lake Chamber. She has met a variety of people in different businesses and has built some solid relationships. She believes that the best way to grow your own business is to help others grow theirs and building relationships is key and as an ambassador, she hopes to encourage that with the newcomers.
Lori was the treasurer of the Chicagoland QuickBooks ProAdvisor Group for 8 years, is a current member of Bookkeeping Buds and serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of her BNI Chapter.