Coulter installed as 2021 president, staff win awards at AFC state conference
Ray Coulter, a Palm Beach State College alumnus and facilities manager at the Boca Raton campus, will take the helm Jan. 1 as president of the 6,400-member Association of Florida Colleges.
Coulter, the current president-elect, was installed at the closing session of the Virtual 71st AFC Annual Meeting and Conference, which was held Nov. 16-20. “l am very fortunate and very proud to serve as president because this association literally changed my life,’’ Coulter said.
As part of the conference, the College Relations and Marketing staff also received eight awards for excellence in communications. Sandi Barrett, program director for trade and industry continuing education, received a Region V Unsung Hero Award for going above and beyond to support the PBSC chapter, and Professor Tracy Ciucci garnered an Excellence in Teaching Award.
Coulter is among three from PBSC who will serve on the 2021 AFC Executive Board, including Ciucci, incoming Faculty Commission chair, and Eligio Marquez Veray, PBSC’s Transportation Service Technology program director, who is the incoming chair of the Workforce, Adult and Continuing Education Commission.
Coulter began working at PBSC in 2007 as a locksmith and served in that role until his promotion this year. Prior to then, he had been working in the locksmith industry for 26 years.
He attended his first AFC conference in Naples in 2011, and at a breakout session on the Certified College Professional Program, he was encouraged by then AFC President Evelyn Ward to get involved in leadership roles. Coulter took the advice to heart and became more involved at the chapter and state levels. He completed AFC’s CCP program and PBSC’s Emerging Leaders Program in 2015. He also returned to school.
In addition to serving as president-elect for 2020, he has served as PBSC chapter president (2015-16); AFC Service Project Committee chair (2016); chair of the Facilities Commission (2017), during which time it earned the Commission of the Year Award; vice president-elect for Regions and Chapters (2018), and vice president for Regions and Chapters (2019). He earned the Region V Lifesaver Award and the Distinguished Service Award (2015).
Coulter earned his Associate in Arts degree from PBSC in 1997 and his Bachelor of Science degree in Supervision and Management in 2017. He is currently pursuing an MBA with a concentration in Sustainability and Environmental Compliance at Southern New Hampshire University.
Through the “Be the Change” theme he has chosen for his administration, he hopes to encourage members to “get out of their comfort zone to grow, learn and embrace change.”
The eight awards College Relations and Marketing received from the AFC Communications and Marketing Commission include: first-place gold award for the 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration poster created by Graphic Designer Ferabilia Corbato-Harris; second-place silver awards for the 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration invitation also designed by Corbato-Harris and the PBSC Automotive Careers video, which is part of the social media recruitment video campaign “Be What You Want to Be,” created and edited by Karina Silva-Santisteban, media technology coordinator, and produced by Joyce Edelstein, College Relations and Marketing specialist. Third-place bronze awards were received for the Supply Chain Digital Advertising Campaign designed by Corbato-Harris and written by Edelstein; a Dual Enrollment postcard and a TRIO first generation event postcard both designed by Senior Graphic Designer Kara Bailey; the Honors College retractable banner developed by Corbato-Harris, and the Scholarship Transforms Lives video created and produced by Silva-Santisteban with Julia Somera, media technology specialist II, and Caroline Sheikhnia, multimedia specialist II.
The Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education at PBSC also received a first-place gold award for its Education Matters social media campaign and a second-place silver award for its annual report and its enrollment digital advertising campaign. The pieces were developed by the Palm Beach Post Studio.
