Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors

The Mease Life Board of Directors is a dedicated and widely experienced group of individuals who provide mission-based leadership and strategic governance to the organization and Executive Staff.

Mary Beth Caroll

Mary Beth Carroll
Board Chair

Mary Beth Carroll has been a member of the Mease Life Board since 2017 and has also served on the Board of the Mease Life Foundation. Ms. Carroll is a graduate of Dominican University (formerly Rosary College) in River Forest, Illinois, and holds certificates from Boston College in Corporate Community Relations and the University of Michigan through the Public Utilities graduate management program. In her role as FirstEnergy’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Community Involvement and President of the FirstEnergy Foundation, Ms. Carroll was the first woman to serve on the senior management team. Her responsibilities included investing more than $50 million in Foundation contributions to not-for-profit organizations located in the service areas of FirstEnergy’s 10 electric operating companies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia, and New York.

Ms. Carroll founded Leadership Sandusky and served as a City Commissioner in Sandusky, Ohio. Her board experience ranged from the Ohio Ballet to Cleveland Clinic Akron General’s Hospital Board, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Oversight Committee and many more. Her honors include being named Distinguished Alumni from the National Association of Community Leadership; Recognition from the Ohio House of Representatives, City of Akron and City of Cleveland; Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio Inaugural Woman of Influence; Erie County, Ohio Business Woman of the Year and being named one of Northern Ohio Live’s Most Influential Women. She is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Dunedin North.

Sallie Parks

Gerald T. Grant
Vice Chair

Gerald T. Grant serves as Chief Executive Officer of Acts Retirement-Life Communities and joins the Mease Life Board as Vice Chair. He has been with Acts since 1988 and previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer. He currently serves as an officer and member of the board of Acts Retirement-Life Communities and affiliate entities. Mr. Grant has been active in various healthcare industry and financial organizations, including currently serving as a member of LeadingAge CEOMO. He is a former surveyor for CARF International and was previously a member of its Financial Advisory Panel. Mr. Grant has a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s Degree in Finance from LaSalle University.

Sallie Parks

Michael D. Kelly
Treasurer

Michael D. Kelly joined the Acts Retirement-Life Communities Board of Directors in 2020 and the Mease Life Board of Directors in 2023. He serves as Treasurer for the Mease Life Board of Directors. He was the former Managing Director of B.C. Ziegler and Company, having retired from that position in 2019. Mr. Kelly is also currently the Vice Chairman of the Acts Retirement-Life Communities Board of Directors.

Mel Ora

Mel Ora
Secretary

Mel Ora joined the Mease Life Board in 2019. Before he retired in 2019, Mr. Ora specialized in bank automation and electronic funds transfer systems throughout his career.

Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1968, Mr. Ora entered Delta State University and concurrently began his career in banking at Second National Bank. He relocated to Wilmington, Delaware, where he developed and managed the first successful debit card system in the United States. In 1975, Mr. Ora was part of a team that developed a strategic business plan for the deployment of a national debit card system for American Express. A few years after that project, he traveled to Taiwan where he participated in developing a strategic plan for the implementation of a national debit card system. After relocating with his family to Clearwater in 1981, Mr. Ora traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally as a consultant overseeing projects for companies such as Citibank and AT&T, as well as other major financial services companies.  He started four separate companies that specialized in electronic banking services, and he was a Founding Board member of Patriot Bank.

Mr. Ora served as Co-Chairman of the Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation during its initial construction.  He has served on the boards of Florida Bank of Commerce, North Bay Hospital, Morton Plant Hospital and the Morton Plant Mease Foundation, where he chaired a capital campaign that raised over $13 million for Mease Countryside Hospital. Mr. Ora lives in Dunedin and currently serves as Vice Chair of the City of Dunedin Board of Finance.

Jeff Beck

Jeffrey M. Beck
Member

Jeffrey M. Beck joined the Board in 2018. He is a graduate of The University of Florida with a B.S. Degree in Business Economics and he currently serves as Executive Vice President of Assured Partners. Mr. Beck specializes in identifying and analyzing emerging risks and in implementing risk management programs ultimately designed to control the total cost of risk in both the short and long-term. His focus is within the healthcare industry, including senior living, developmental disability facilities and hospice.

Mr. Beck currently holds both the General Lines License and the Life, Health and Variable Annuities License. He has obtained the designation of Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI) and is an active partner in many associations including LeadingAge and the American Health Care Association. Mr. Beck lives in Tampa with his wife Lisa, daughter Kirstin, and son Carson.

Linda Chamberlane

Linda R. Chamberlain
Member

Linda Chamberlain joined the Mease Life Board in 2019. Ms. Chamberlain is a Board Certified Elder Law Attorney who has practiced in Clearwater and the surrounding area since 1991.

Ms. Chamberlain is a Past Chair of the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar and remains an active member.  She served as an Adjunct Professor at the Stetson College of Law 2011-2015.  She has also served on the Gulfcoast Legal Services Board, Board of the Clearwater Free Clinic, Board of the Clearwater Bar Foundation, Leadership Pinellas Board of Directors, St. Paul’s School Board of Directors and Partners in Self-Sufficiency.

A graduate of Oral Roberts University and the University Of Cincinnati College Of Law, Ms. Chamberlain  is a member of the Florida Bar, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Florida Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section of the Florida Bar, Clearwater Bar Association, Elder Law Committee and Probate Committee of the Clearwater Bar, St. Petersburg Bar Association, Aging Life Care Association and the Florida Council on Aging. Ms. Chamberlain lives in Belleair with her husband, Kerry, and their two Labradors Lucy and Ethel.

Sallie Parks

James T. Glynn
Member

James T. Glynn joined the Mease Life Board of Directors in 2023. Mr. Glynn is co-founder (retired) of GlynnDevins, one of the leading technology-enabled marketing agencies serving the senior living category. He is a recognized industry expert and frequent presenter at national and state trade associations. Mr. Glynn also serves on the Acts Retirement-Life Communities Board of Directors.

Deborah Kernes

Deborah Kynes
Member

Deborah Kynes joined the Mease Life Board in 2018. Ms. Kynes currently serves as Vice Mayor of the City of Dunedin and as the City Liaison to the Dunedin Fire Arts Center, the Dunedin History Museum, the North Pinellas Cultural Alliance, and the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee. She was appointed to the Florida Council of Arts and Culture and currently serves on the Leadership Florida West Central Region Council. Ms. Kynes is a voting member of the Cherokee Nation and a member of the Cherokees of Central Florida.

Ms. Kynes has served as a three-term Chairman of the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority; Chairman of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council; Chairman of the Environmental Quality Committee for the Florida League of Cities; Chairman of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Foundation; and Chairman of the Pinellas County Arts Council. She has served on numerous other committees and boards including the Utilities, Natural Resources and Public Works Legislative Committee of the Florida League of Cities; the Institute for Strategic Public Policy Solutions; the Florida Humanities Council; the Florida Chamber Water Task Force; the Pinellas County Charter Review Commission; the BayCare Medically Needy Task Force; the Morton Plant Mease Community Impact Committee; the PACE Pinellas Center for Girls; the Pinellas County Arts Council; and the Board of Leadership Pinellas. Ms. Kynes has also served as Honorary Co-Chairman of the Art Harvest as well as Co-Chairman of the Hospice of Pinellas Suncoast “Hospice Ball.”

Ms. Kynes has received recognition as the “Deborah Vincent” Distinguished Alumni of the Year from Leadership Pinellas and has received the “History Maker” Award presented by the Dunedin Historical Society. Other awards include “Rotarian of the Year” from the Dunedin Rotary Club and the “Women Honoring Women Award” from the Soroptimist Club.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas and the University of Tulsa College of Law, Ms. Kynes is a member of the Florida Bar. Ms. Kynes lives in Dunedin with her husband, Allen.

Sallie Parks

Daniel M. Wolf
Member

Daniel M. Wolf joined the Board in 2023. Mr. Wolf brings over 24 years of health care finance experience, primarily with senior living facilities and hospitals, to the Mease Life Board. He is currently the Signing Director of Health Care for CliftonLarsonAllen, a professional accountancy and advisory firm with a depth of knowledge of not-for-profit healthcare organizations. Mr. Wolfe previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of John Knox Village in Orange City, Florida, and of Asbury Heights in Pittsburgh, PA, among others.

A graduate of Washington & Jefferson College, Mr. Wolf is a member of the CLA National Assurance Internal Inspection Team, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Officers

Mary Beth Carroll, Chair

Gerald T. Grant, Vice Chair

Mel Ora, Secretary

Mike Kelly, Treasurer