2. Dr. Martha Saunders

President, University of West Florida

No one will ever accuse Dr. Martha Saunders of being complacent, but her body language and tone of voice reveal contentment as she smiles and sits comfortably in her University of West Florida presidential office for the interview.

Life is good for the president. She oversees a university with steadily increasing enrollment, that ranks first in the State University System in putting graduates in the workforce or graduate school and that generates over $1.1 billion in total annual sales for the regional economy.

"When you're working so hard, sometimes you don't take the time to just look around and say, 'This is just really good, and I like it,'" Saunders said. "Now, I'm at a point where I do appreciate the good things, and I don't take the hard days so hard."

"I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing," she said. "I do have frequent and earnest conversations with our board and the people who work directly with me. I don't want to ever be lulled into complacency and say things are great, so I don't need to work hard."

Workaholic accurately describes Saunders. She puts in countless hours to ensure UWF continues its upward trajectory. The university has increased enrollment for three consecutive years and set a record with 13,504 students in the 2022 fall semester. Other impressive accomplishments under her guidance include generating local incomes and wages of nearly $1.2 billion annually and about $703 million in gross domestic product to the Florida economy.

Saunders demands the best from herself and her employees, but not to the same level as in the past when the drive for perfection

"I'm softer," she said. "I don't mean that to sound like I don't get things done. I just roll with the punches a little better than I did when I started out and I'm able to see myriad opportunities today instead of this one goal and we're going to get there or die. I think that has made a difference."

Throughout her years in leadership, Saunders has evolved and adapted to her environment. She first led a university nearly 20 years ago when the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater named her its chancellor. She then served as president of her alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, before returning to UWF.

"Any leader who doesn't sort of get their sea legs and adapt with changing times is going to be very unhappy and also probably not very effective," she said.

Saunders is only the sixth president at a university with a history of stable and effective leadership. The reign of her five predecessors ranges from six to 14 years, and each left a legacy.

What will her legacy be? Record enrollment and graduates successfully transitioning into the workforce better than any state university stand out as benchmarks, but Saunders has a broader perspective.

"I guess If I were looking at anything that I'd like them to say about me," Saunders said, "it's that she put us on the map."