{"id":71007,"date":"2026-06-16T21:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71007"},"modified":"2026-06-16T21:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:13:00","slug":"kris-hallstrand-moves-from-lakeland-linder-to-aerospace-center-for-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/16\/kris-hallstrand-moves-from-lakeland-linder-to-aerospace-center-for-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Kris Hallstrand Moves from Lakeland Linder to Aerospace Center for Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a major leadership shift for Lakeland\u2019s aviation community. After a highly successful tenure guiding Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) through a period of historic growth, Kris Hallstrand<\/strong> is stepping down as Airport Director to become the Director of Operations<\/strong> for the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE)<\/strong> and the SUN ‘n FUN campus.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Given that ACE enters a major period of expansion and construction, Hallstrand will be taking over day-to-day operations, development, and facilities management on the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Takeaways of the Transition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Her Legacy at LAL:<\/strong> Hallstrand leaves LAL at an all-time high. Under her leadership, the airport skyrocketed to a $1.5 billion economic impact<\/strong>, surpassed Tampa in cargo tonnage (now ranking 3rd in Florida thanks to partnerships with Amazon Air and NOAA), and successfully brought scheduled commercial passenger service back to Polk County via Avelo Airlines.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The New Role at ACE:<\/strong> Moving over to ACE is a natural extension of her work. She has always been a vocal proponent of workforce development and youth aviation education. At ACE, she will help steer the nonprofit\u2019s growth, managing the physical infrastructure that hosts both the annual SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo and year-round STEM programs for over 50,000 students annually.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • LAL’s Interim Leadership:<\/strong> Following her departure, Lakeland City Manager Shawn Sherrouse appointed Adam Lunn<\/strong> as the Interim Director of Lakeland Linder International Airport. Lunn has been with LAL since 2011 and most recently served as the Assistant Airport Director, making him a seamless fit to handle the airport’s ongoing terminal master plan updates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This move keeps one of Polk County’s most impactful aviation leaders right here on the airfield, shifting her focus from commercial and cargo development directly into the future of aerospace education and the SUN ‘n FUN campus footprint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is a major leadership shift for Lakeland\u2019s aviation community. After a highly successful tenure guiding Lakeland Linder International Airport (LAL) through a period of historic growth, Kris Hallstrand is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71008,"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":"","_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":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2ltYWdlcy0xLTUud2VicD9maXQ9MzMzJTJDNTAwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiS3JpcyBIYWxsc3RyYW5kIE1vdmVzIGZyb20gTGFrZWxhbmQgTGluZGVyIHRvIEFlcm9zcGFjZSBDZW50ZXIgZm9yIEV4Y2VsbGVuY2UiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.H3YIHNv6SZYdIKE9AI6t5dLlgdhdY4c-9nSVyMGNdbAMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9pbWFnZXMtMS01LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJLcmlzIEhhbGxzdHJhbmQgTW92ZXMgZnJvbSBMYWtlbGFuZCBMaW5kZXIgdG8gQWVyb3NwYWNlIENlbnRlciBmb3IgRXhjZWxsZW5jZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.1UzamUZ2HOQAvCOgC2g8PdGY-43R33QwXgpLp9kVtDYMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14884],"class_list":["post-71007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-kris-hallstrand-moves-from-lakeland-linder-to-aerospace-center-for-excellence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007","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=71007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71009,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions\/71009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}