{"id":54388,"date":"2025-03-04T18:24:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=54388"},"modified":"2025-03-04T18:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:25:23","slug":"kelli-stargel-promoted-to-vp-for-strategic-initiatives-at-florida-poly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/03\/04\/kelli-stargel-promoted-to-vp-for-strategic-initiatives-at-florida-poly\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelli Stargel promoted to VP for strategic initiatives at Florida Poly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Kelli Stargel<\/strong>&nbsp;will serve as the new Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Development, and External Relations at Florida Polytechnic University, the Lakeland-based STEM school announced.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"7f5351\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/download-1.webp?resize=300%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54389 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7f5351; width:471px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stargel previously served as the university\u2019s Associate Vice President for Strategic Relationships. She\u2019s been with Florida Poly&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/586979-kelli-stargel-joins-florida-polytechnic-to-expand-statewide-impact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">since early 2023<\/a><\/strong>, a role she assumed after serving 10 years in the Senate and two terms in the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI love this University \u2014 it\u2019s one of the reasons I chose to work here,\u201d Stargel said. \u201cI\u2019ve been on board with the Florida Poly vision since the beginning, so it\u2019s exciting to continue to further that in a different role. I enjoy working with businesses to get their involvement and I\u2019m looking forward to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In her new role, Stargel will continue managing strategic relationships and initiatives, focusing on partnerships at the local, state and federal levels. She will add to her responsibilities by managing the Florida Polytechnic University Foundation, which supports the school\u2019s mission through community engagement, new investments and the management of financial resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKelli Stargel\u2019s deep understanding of Florida\u2019s legislative and business landscape, combined with her strong commitment to higher education, makes her ideal to lead Florida Poly\u2019s strategic initiatives and development,\u201d Florida Poly President&nbsp;<strong>Devin<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Stephenson<\/strong>&nbsp;said. \u201cHer experience and vision will strengthen our external partnerships and enhance the University\u2019s ability to secure vital resources for continued growth and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stargel plans to prioritize boosting investments into Florida Poly with the goal of helping the school build new essential facilities, including the already planned Student Achievement Center and additional residential space for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re working with the state legislature to secure funds to help with that, but we also need to have the local support as well,\u201d she said. \u201cMy goal is to tell the Florida Poly story to everyone I can, bringing in all the resources we can so our students can have a great education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stargel has long been an advocate for Florida\u2019s youngest state university. As a Senator, she worked to secure more than $20 million in state funding for the school\u2019s state-of-the-art Applied Research Center, which opened in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stargel has lived in Lakeland, where Florida Poly is located, for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Sen.&nbsp;Kelli Stargel&nbsp;will serve as the new Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Development, and External Relations at Florida Polytechnic University, the Lakeland-based STEM school announced. Stargel previously served as the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEud2VicD9maXQ9MzAwJTJDMTY4JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiS2VsbGkgU3RhcmdlbCBwcm9tb3RlZCB0byBWUCBmb3Igc3RyYXRlZ2ljIGluaXRpYXRpdmVzIGF0IEZsb3JpZGEgUG9seSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.O7mFGDqyjgv3wevIyYQBoSi3ht7mp0ekZOnzbj7s28kMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":54389,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/download-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[11038],"class_list":["post-54388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-kelli-stargel-promoted-to-vp-for-strategic-initiatives-at-florida-poly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54390,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54388\/revisions\/54390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}