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Dick J. Batchelor is founder and president of the Dick Batchelor Management Group Inc., a consulting firm specializing in business development, strategic governmental affairs and public policy issues management. Batchelor is a former member of the Florida House of Representatives and has five decades of political experience.

 

Batchelor has been named one of “The 50 Most Powerful People” by Orlando Magazine (2004 to 2011), the 2002 “Central Floridian of the Year” (The Orlando Sentinel), the 2002 “Businessman of the Year” (Orlando Business Journal, November 2002) and the 2008 and 2009 “Best Corporate Citizen” (Orlando Magazine).

 

In the Florida House, he served as chairman of the Auditing Committee, the Health and Rehabilitative Services Committee and the House Energy Committee. He was also chairman of four subcommittees and is the recipient of more than 50 awards for his legislative service. Dick Batchelor is a longtime Orlando resident and received degrees from the University of Central Florida and Valencia Community College.

 

He currently serves on several boards, including the Florida Children's Hospital Board (Chair), Florida Hospital Foundation Board (Chair), the First Amendment Foundation, the Central Florida Urban League Board of Directors, Florida's Children First and the Florida Tuskegee Airmen Board. Since 1981, he has served as honorary chairman of the Dick Batchelor Run for the Children, an annual 5K race that raises funds (over $1 million to date) to treat abused children.

 

In 2010, Dick was awarded The Chiles Advocacy Award presented by United Way of Florida for his “Integrity, Dedication, and Commitment to Improving the Lives of Florida's Children and Families.

Dr. Joel C. Hunter is a nationally and internationally known advocate for the poor, the marginalized and those dealing with disabilities. He served a two-year term as the chairman of Central Florida’s Commission on Homelessness.

 

After 32 years as the senior pastor of Northland Church’s congregation of 20,000, he spent five years leading a nonprofit in networking with churches and local charities to locate available resources and benefit the struggling in our community. Orlando Magazine highlighted his efforts and named him as the No. 1 most powerful voice for philanthropy and community engagement and listed him among “Orlando’s 50 Most Powerful” six years in a row.

 

Approaching today’s challenges in a biblical and balanced manner, Dr. Hunter is neither partisan nor politically oriented, but often relates to public officials in a pastoral role; he served as a spiritual advisor to President Obama during his eight years in office.

 

Dr. Hunter has served in leadership roles of the World Evangelical Alliance, serving more than 600 million evangelicals, and the National Association of Evangelicals, serving more than 40 denominations and thousands of churches.

 

Currently, he is the pastor of community benefit at Action Church, a multi-site congregation based in Winter Park. His one-minute daily devotionals can be heard worldwide on Z88 radio. He is the chairman of The Pledge of Central Florida campaign, a call to action for residents of Central Florida who are tired of hateful discourse and want to create a safe and inclusive community for all. The pledge asks residents to commit to treating all people with kindness and respect, especially those with whom they disagree. To learn more: https://www.centralfloridapledge.com/

Stephanie Murphy served as the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 7th congressional district from 2017-2023. The Democrat defeated incumbent Republican John Mica in 2016 in an upset victory.

 

Murphy became the first Vietnamese-American woman and the first Vietnamese-American Democrat to be elected to Congress. In 2018, Murphy was named to the Ways and Means Committee.

A co-chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, Murphy announced in 2021 that she would not seek re-election the following year. Florida’s Republican governor and Legislature redrew the 7th district so that it leaned more conservative.

 

Murphy was one of seven Democrats that Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Murphy spent the last 18 months as a member of the

committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

 

She was born in 1978 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam before leaving the country with her family in 1979. She grew up in northern Virginia and attended the College of William & Mary and Georgetown

University.

 

Murphy also worked as a national security specialist at the U.S. Department of Defense, an executive at Sungate Capital and a business instructor at Rollins College.

Dr. Haley Winston is a dedicated educator and community leader with over 12 years of experience at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She currently serves as the Director of the offices of Civil Discourse and Engagement (CDE) and Public Policy Events (PPE) within the Ginsburg Center for Inclusion and Community Engagement.

 

Dr. Winston has a strong academic background, having conducted scholarly research on peer-to-peer civic discussions, and she has played a pivotal role in bringing National Issues Forums (NIFI) deliberative

dialogues to UCF. She also works with the Multicultural Student Center and LGBTQ+ Student Support Services.

 

She received both her bachelor’s degree in Art History and a master’s degree in Educational & Counseling Psychology with a focus in College Student Personnel from the University of Louisville. She received her doctorate in Education and Policy Studies at UCF.

 

Dr. Winston teaches student success and leadership courses. She has had experience working with volunteering, civic engagement, academic advising, new student orientation, homecoming programming,

fraternity and sorority affairs, parent engagement and first-generation college student retention.

A long-time Central Florida leader, Teresa Jacobs was elected chair of the Orange County School Board in November 2018. She previously served two terms as Orange County mayor (2010-2018) and two terms as an Orange County commissioner (2000-2008).

 

A native of South Florida, Jacobs graduated cum laude from Florida State University with a degree in economics and enjoyed a nine-year career in banking before entering public office.

 

She has served on the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Central Florida Expressway Authority, Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission, LYNX Board of Directors and MetroPlan Orlando.

 

A long-time community volunteer, Jacobs was actively involved in PTA and School Advisory Councils at her children's schools. She was also a member of the OCPS Impact Fee Committee and is a member of West Orange Chamber of Commerce, President of Orange County Homeowners Association Alliance and Florida Association of Counties and a member of the East Central Planning Council.

Civil Discourse — Not Civil War
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
By Judi Hayes
In these trying times, simply engaging in polite conversation with strangers can feel like navigating a minefield. “Fake news,” “woke narrative,” gaslighting and microaggressions: it can be tempting to simply stick one’s nose in a book or pop headphones on instead of engaging with our neighbors. But that’s no way to live, is it? Can’t we do better?

In August, Hot Topics challenged us to find common ground and encourage civility in discourse with our friends and neighbors. Moderator Teresa Jacobs, the current chair of the Orange County Public School Board and longtime Central Florida leader, former Orange County mayor and commissioner, shared a sweet anecdote about a previous League discussion led by Linda Chapin 30 years ago, and how the discussion at that time seems almost quaint by today’s standards.
 
Panelists included Dick Batchelor, a consultant in business development, strategic governmental affairs, and public policy issues management, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives with five decades of political experience, who has recently published a book, “Building Bridges in Toxic Political Times: A Roadmap for Community Leaders.”
Dr. Joel C. Hunter, a nationally and internationally known advocate for the poor, the marginalized and those dealing with disabilities, served a two-year term as the chairman of Central Florida’s Commission on Homelessness. After 32 years as the senior pastor of Northland Church, he spent five years leading a nonprofit that networks with churches and local charities to benefit those struggling in our community. Currently, he is the pastor of community benefit at Action Church, and he is the chairman of The Pledge
of Central Florida campaign.
Stephanie Murphy served as the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 7th congressional district from 2017-2023, becoming the first Vietnamese-American woman to be elected to Congress. Murphy was appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack. She is the founder of the Center Aisle Coalition, which champions commonsense solutions to problems.
Dr. Haley Winston is an educator and community leader with over 12 years of experience at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She currently serves as the Director of the offices of Civil Discourse and Engagement (CDE) and Public Policy Events (PPE) within the Ginsburg Center for Inclusion and Community Engagement.

Hunter discussed his work after Oct. 7 to establish a network of protection for Jewish people who faced increased antisemitism. The panelists all discussed the real cost of in civility: the erosion of society, according to Murphy, and the negative impact on education, according to Winston. Batchelor pointed to the Citizens United decision as one cause of incivility in politics. Thomas Jefferson warned of the dangers inherent in personifying corporations, he said.  Murphy discussed the “ideological cul-de-sacs” that result from people retreating to their social media silos where their opinions are echoed by like-minded friends and acquaintances, also pointing out that fake outrage is ginned up by bots to create disagreement.

Winston elaborated on how confirmation bias feeds on itself and implored people to go to the root of disinformation to clear it up. She had several suggestions: let go of winning, ask questions to understand, share your story and find shared ground.
Several of the panelists seemed to echo the advice of fictional soccer/football coach Ted Lasso: “be curious, not judgmental.” Ask questions. “What do you mean by that?” is often the most powerful rhetorical device in your toolbox. Hunter recalled something that President Obama told him when he was the White House spiritual adviser: The truth isn’t enough, sometimes you must frame it for the listener’s benefit. 

At the end of the day, the already rapt crowd probably didn’t need to be told to listen to one another, but we all learned a couple of things that we can do to make sure that everyone feels like they’re being heard.

• Disagree Better | An initiative of the National Governors Association.  View the governors’ association website here.

  • View the Disagree Better website here.

  • View the Disagree Better: It Starts With Me self-assessment here. 

• Bridge USA - is a multi-partisan student movement that champions viewpoint diversity, responsible discourse, and a solution-oriented political culture. We are developing a generation of leaders that value empathy and constructive engagement because our generation will bear the cost of polarization and tribalism for years to come. View the website here.

• Common Ground Committee – is a nonpartisan organization formed to bring healing to the national challenges of polarization and incivility. View the committee website here.

  • Common Ground Scorecard – is a tool for helping voters learn which elected officials and candidates seek common ground on important issues to move the country forward.  The scorecard helps citizens hold leaders accountable for progress and civil discourse. Access the scorecard here.

• Constructive Dialogue Institute - works with institutions across the education, for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors to help them communicate across differences and build inclusive cultures. View the website here. Access the resource library here.

Living Room Conversations – offer structured discussion guides to explore many topics. Visit their Trust in Elections project with discussion guide and tools to build trust in each other as we build trust in our elections.

• National Institute for Civil Discourse – supports a range of initiatives and programs that engage Americans across the country to do the work of citizens. View the website here. 

  • CommonSense American – is one program where over 50,000 people are actively engaged and weighing in on bills currently before Congress. Sign up to participate here.

• Starts with Us – is a movement to empower millions of Americans just like you who are tired of our culture of contempt and are energized to foster critical thinking and constructive communication across our lines of difference. View the website here.

  • Polarization Detox Challenge is their initiative to challenge yourself to break the cycle of toxic polarization in your life.  Complete one exercise per weekday for 4 weeks to break the blame cycle, repair strained relationships, and be a leader of constructive conflict. Visit the website here.

• The Dignity Index - is an eight-point scale that scores speech along a continuum from contempt to dignity in as unbiased a manner as possible. By focusing on the sound bites, not the people behind them, the Index attempts to stay true to its own animating spirit: that everyone deserves dignity. Access the website here.