USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy
Fall Symposium
2026 Featured Speaker
Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Kimberly Williams-Paisley is an actress, New York Times Best Selling author, Alzheimer’s advocate, and co-founder of a non-profit called The Store, an organization in Nashville which aims to address food insecurity.
Over the course of her career, she has appeared in many film, television and theater productions, including the Father of the Bride movies, co-starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short. More recently, she co-starred in the Lionsgate release, Jesus Revolution, with Kelsey Grammar, Johnathan Roumie, and Joel Courtney, and in the Netflix film, Dog Gone, opposite Rob Lowe. She also starred in Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles and its sequel, The Christmas Chronicles 2, with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Her television credits include the long-running ABC comedy series According to Jim (of which she also directed three episodes), and the critically acclaimed Netflix Heartstrings movie Jolene, opposite Dolly Parton and Julianne Hough. In Christmas 2021, she produced and starred in, alongside her sister Ashley Williams, a pair of movies for Hallmark Channel entitled Sister Swap.
Kimberly’s memoir Where The Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again, chronicling her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease (Crown imprint, Penguin Random House), was published in 2016 and hit the New York Times best seller list. She’s been honored with a Champion Award from the Alzheimer’s Association for her advocacy work dedicated to sharing her family’s story, funding research and supporting caregivers. Her annual Dance Party to End Alz in Nashville raised close to two million dollars in its first five years.
In 2020, Kimberly and her husband Brad Paisley opened a free, referral-based grocery called The Store. In partnership with Belmont University, the non-profit aims to empower and dignify individuals and families seeking self-sufficiency by providing choices for their food needs. After the Nashville tornadoes in March 2020, and once the pandemic began, they incorporated disaster relief into their mission, surpassing well over a million meals donated in their first year, and serving five times more people than they’d anticipated. Most recently, The Store doubled its customer base and served 2455 households in 2024. They also announced plans for a second location to open in 2025. Kimberly has been a global ambassador for CARE International for almost a decade, including traveling to Haiti, Guatemala and Honduras, to follow U.S. funding for programs that support women and children. She’s shared her story back home, engaging with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and in Tennessee to help preserve global health funding.
In December 2024, she appeared on the cover of People Magazine, in which she shared how she faced a health challenge in the last couple of years regaining strength in her voice after she mysteriously lost it. Currently Kimberly is featured on two network programs: She is the Host for the third and fourth seasons of the popular Fox series Farmer Wants a Wife and she co-stars on the hit Disney/ABC Franchise 9-1-1:Nashville for creator Ryan Murphy.
2026 Honorees
Sylvia Campbell, MD - Community Leadership Award
After completing her residency in general surgery and graduating from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, Dr. Sylvia Campbell became the first female surgeon in Hillsborough County, a pioneering milestone in local medical history. She went on to build a distinguished career as a board-certified general surgeon, serving the Tampa Bay community in private practice for more than 45 years.
Since 1980, she has volunteered at Tampa’s Judeo Christian Health Clinic, which provides care to tens of thousands of uninsured and working-poor residents who otherwise lack access to essential health services. She has served as president of the clinic’s board of directors since 1993 and as medical director since 2006.
A leader in public health and safety, Sylvia was instrumental in establishing the Hillsborough County Trauma Agency. She also served as chair of the Florida Committee on Trauma and the Injury Prevention Subcommittee of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, contributing to a nationwide effort to help establish firearm safety regulations and domestic violence awareness and prevention.
Sylvia is the cofounder and president of Village Partners International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building sustainable health care partnerships in underserved communities in Haiti and Uganda. Since 2000, she has traveled to both countries dozens of times, providing care, hope and dignity to those she serves. Her humanitarian work in Haiti began even earlier, with her first trip in 1996 through the Medical Benevolence Foundation of the Presbyterian Church.
Closer to home, Sylvia is dedicated to supporting Tampa’s homeless population. During the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walks, she and fellow participants witnessed firsthand the urgent needs on the streets they traveled. In response, she founded Kindness Matters, a volunteer group committed to providing compassionate care to individuals experiencing homelessness, delivering essential items such as clothing, food and blankets. She later incorporated it under the umbrella of Village Partners International.
She has received numerous honors for her humanitarian work, most recently being named International Person of the Year by the Tampa Bay Organization of Women in International Trade. She was also inducted into the Hillsborough County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020 and the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida Woman of Distinction Hall of Fame in 2023.
Sylvia and her husband, Bob, have three grown children: Chelsey, Meaghan and Ross, along with two grandsons, Keith and Ross.
Moira Burke, MD - Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Moira Burke has built a five-decade career as one of Florida's most distinguished eye surgeons and medical educators. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and her MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo before completing her residency at the prestigious Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1975, she opened her private practice in Tampa and joined the clinical faculty at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, where she rose to clinical professor and trained generations of ophthalmology residents. USF Health consistently honored her work, awarding her the Surgical Teaching Award so many times that the recognition was renamed the Moira J. Burke Award for Excellence in Surgical Teaching.
In 1990, Moira became a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Medical Corps. During the Gulf War, she deployed to Andrews Air Force Base to care for service members returning with chemical exposure injuries to their eyes. She was awarded the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for her service.
Before retiring in 2020, Moira served as medical director of Premier Eye Care and as a staff surgeon at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, where she also trained ophthalmology residents. In 2015, she traveled to Honduras and provided ophthalmological care to 225 patients in five days in a community that had never seen an eye doctor.
Moira has received the American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award, the USF Women's Health Collaborative Remarkable Achievement Award, the Girl Scouts Distinguished Woman of the Year, the Champions for Children Cornelia Corbett Child Advocate Award, and the Centre for Women Local Waves of Change Award.
In retirement, Moira remains deeply embedded in Tampa civic life. She is a past president of the Athena Society and past chair of USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy, where she has two endowed scholarships — one in her name and another honoring her mother, Dorothy. She has served on and led the boards of many organizations and is a dedicated volunteer, teaching adults to read and mentoring numerous children and students. The founder of Woman in Ophthalmology, Moira is a member of The Chiselers, the Tampa Bay Ophthalmological Society, USF Town and Gown, and the Centre for Women.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Moira is the proud mother of two sons and grandmother of four grandchildren, whom she loves taking along on her many adventures around the world.
