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Michelle Turman, MA, CFRE is the founder and CEO of Catalyst Consulting Services, whose mission is to facilitate positive change in the areas of executive searches, organizational management and fundraising.  With over 28 years of nonprofit experience, Michelle established Catalyst Consulting Services and has been responsible for increasing the impact and best practices of nonprofit organizations she serves. She has raised over $87 million for the Tampa Bay community through her professional and personal philanthropic efforts.
 
In addition to facilitating change nationally and in the Tampa Bay area, Michelle’s community service has included leadership roles on the boards of the Arts Council and the Cultural Arts Commission of Hillsborough County, Suncoast Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Charitable Gift Planners of Tampa Bay, Donate Life America, the South Tampa Y, the USF Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Working Women of Tampa Bay Foundation.

Michelle has provided two gifts to USF: one for the Turman Study Abroad Scholarship to encourage field studies in Italy and Greece, and one as the first female donor for the new USF Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center for research.
 
She is the author of the best-selling book  "Jumping the Queue – Achieving Great Things Before You Are Ready," which focuses on how young professionals can seize personal and professional opportunities, achieve great things and get what they want and deserve. Michelle is an educational trainer for the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay and at the Edyth Bush Institute for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership at Rollins College. She is a certified fundraising executive and specializes in professional education in the areas of  executive search, change management, capital campaigns, volunteer management, board governance and fund development.

Ratna B. Dougherty is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Affairs at the University of South Florida. Her research primarily focuses on the interorganizational networks’ coordination in policy and practice during disaster response.

She is also interested in social networks, local government leadership, and emergency management issues that impact public policy. She has published in journals such as American Review of Public Administration, Public Administration Quarterly, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Journal of Public Affairs Education and Natural Hazards.

She is an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Senior Management Fellow (2016-2018), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Founders Fellow (2023), and an Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Equity and Inclusion Fellow (2024). Her work has been supported by the USF Humanities Institute, as well as the Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Research.

Christa Remington, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on the interaction between nonprofit organizations, NGOs, grassroots groups, and emergency response agencies.

Through her interdisciplinary research, she aims to improve the effectiveness of post-disaster response and recovery work and reduce the negative impacts of the job on those responding. Her research has been published in journals such as Public Administration Review, Natural Hazards, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

She has been funded by organizations such as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine's Gulf Research Program and the Natural Hazards Center.