Kelly Astro

Senior Vice President, Community Impact

As senior vice president of Community Impact, Kelly leads efforts to develop the strategic direction and community impact initiatives that support Heart of Florida United Way’s mission and create positive changes in people’s lives.

With more than 25 years of experience, Kelly is a dedicated leader who excels in program development, teaching, and community engagement.



Prior to joining Heart of Florida United Way, she served as the Children’s Home Society of Florida’s Community Partnership School (CPS) Director serving Evans High School. In this role, she spearheaded the redesign of the CPS model at Evans, impacting more students through on-campus healthcare services, mentoring programs, college and career readiness programming, and a redesigned resource market. Kelly led the school’s recertification as a UCF-Certified Community Partnership School.

Kelly’s passion for education blossomed during her first teaching experience in the Parramore district.

After receiving her master’s degree from Drexel University, she developed the Drexel Experience, a first-year course that included a service-learning program for 2,100 first-year students in 110 Philadelphia Public Schools annually.

Returning to her alma mater, the University of Central Florida, she joined the Burnett Honors College (BHC) and redesigned the Honors Symposium, which included the largest Honors College service-learning program in the country, led a robust volunteer program, developed a study abroad program with the New York Mets and oversaw prestigious research initiatives. Her leadership resulted in national recognition and UCF receiving the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award four years in a row.

Derrick Chubbs

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Derrick Chubbs has been president and CEO of Second Harvest for the past three years. The food bank dispenses about 300,000 meals daily. Chubbs coordinates with more 40,000 volunteers annually, and his responsibilities include fostering collaborative relationships with corporations, individuals, foundations, elected officials at local, state, and national levels, as well as strategic partnerships with entities such as Feeding America, Feeding Florida and other nonprofit and hunger-relief organizations. 

Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Central Texas Food Bank in Austin, the largest hunger-relief agency in Central Texas, providing more than 64 million pounds of food and grocery items to over 300,000 residents across 21 counties. Chubbs also spent a decade with the American Red Cross where he held both regional and national executive roles. He began his professional career in the for-profit technology sector, holding senior leadership positions with companies such as IBM, Pervasive Software, and Dell before following his passion for community service.



He is a graduate of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

Skyler Swisher

Orlando Sentinel

Skyler is a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel who covered the 2025 session of the Florida Legislature. He has reported on many of the hot-button issues that affect Florida voters. Before he joined the Sentinel, he covered politics, elections, Mar-a-Lago, health and other topics at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Daytona Beach News-Journal. He also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal as a health and projects reporter and spent six years as an education and government reporter for The Columbia (TN) Daily Herald.

Dr. Maria F. Vazquez, Ed.D.

Superintendent, Orange County Public Schools

As the daughter of immigrants, Dr. Vazquez understands the power education has to transform lives. Her parents fled Cuba, leaving everything they owned behind to provide a better life for their family. They instilled in her that education was the most valuable currency she had, and she could not squander it.

Through the work of caring adults, school was a safe place where Dr. Vazquez thrived; she succeeded despite her language barrier. It is because of those experiences that she has made it her life’s work tocreate learning environments where students feel supported and successful. As a teacher, principal, and district administrator, Dr. Vazquez has dedicated her career to ensuring every student has a pathway to success.

Dr. Vazquez has served at every level of the education system and has extensive expertise in curriculum and instruction. In 2022, she became superintendent of OCPS, the 8th largest school district in the country. During her tenure, she has expanded access to advanced coursework for historically underserved students, recruited great teachers to the most vulnerable schools, and reprioritized the district’s budget to support teaching and learning. Under her leadership, OCPS earned an “A” grade from the Florida Department of Education for the 2023-24 school year.

MODERATOR: Steve Mort

Steve Mort is the host and executive producer of NewsNight on WUCF-TV, Central Florida’s PBS affiliate. He has lived in Orlando since 2005.

Before joining WUCF-TV in 2019, Steve regularly traveled on assignment with the PBS NewsHour. He also spent two years in Denver, where he covered issues including gun control and marijuana legalization for Rocky Mountain PBS.

Steve began his career in local radio in the United Kingdom in 1994 before becoming a national radio reporter and newscaster for Britain’s Independent Television News (ITN). He moved to Washington, D.C., in 2000, reporting for a wide variety of international news outlets.

From 2003, Steve spent two years covering the New York financial markets for Channel NewsAsia of Singapore and events at the United Nations for South Africa’s national broadcaster, SABC.