40 Under 40

Katherine Dougherty
Age: 39
Position: Vice president
Galloway Family of Dealerships

Why her:
The third generation of Galloways to help make the family of dealerships a household name, Dougherty’s corporate role includes expanding niche markets including the Hispanic market.
She’s a summa cum laude graduate of Northwood University in West Palm Beach with a bachelor’s in business administration in automotive marketing.

Dougherty was honorary chair of the inaugural Race for the Cure event this year, a 5K run/walk benefiting the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, in which 4,000 participated. She says her father, Sam Galloway Jr., president of the Family of Dealerships and Sam Galloway Ford, has always wanted the race here and that Ford Motor Co. is a national sponsor.

“[The race is] a wonderful addition to Southwest Florida because most of the money raised from the event stays locally and goes to aid women with breast cancer in our own community,” says Dougherty.

She also serves on the board of directors of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida and is a member of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates Foundation board of directors, for which she co-chairs Tom’s Caribbean Fling fundraiser, which took in about $50,000 for preservation efforts in 2006.

Off the clock:
She loves baseball and fishing, and she travels to New York every year to catch Broadway productions.

Pason Gaddis
Age: 31
Position: Publisher
Fort Myers Florida Weekly

Why him:
Since launching in April, Gaddis’ free weekly newspaper has gained a strong readership and raised eyebrows for taking on the Fort Myers News-Press, his former employer.

“It has always been a dream of mine to own my own newspaper,” he says. The tabloid-format paper presents a mix of regional news and entertainment stories. Gaddis claims it already reaches 15,000 readers, and he’s aiming for three times that.

Previously general manager of business development for The News-Press, Gaddis believes the weekly stands apart from the dailies by offering edgier stories (such as the guide to psychics in Fort Myers that ran in May), arts and entertainment coverage and a “hyper-local” focus.
A hands-on publisher, he des-cribes his duties at the paper as “everything from sales to taking out the trash.”

His community interest extends to his involvement with the American Heart Association of Lee County, the Rotary Club and the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce.

The neatest thing he’s seen in his paper thus far? “My son’s birth announcement,” Gaddis says.

Off the clock:
Boating with his wife and their two children.

Dr. Susan Cera
Age: 35
Position: Colorectal surgeon
Medical Surgical Specialists

Why her:
Dr. Cera is known nationally for her expertise, having written for newspapers and medical publications, contributed chapters to prominent books in her field and appeared on TV shows to talk about colon cancer. “I had very good training at the Cleveland Clinic,” she says. “I developed the ability to do academic studies and research, [and] I became interested in publishing.” She now has dozens of papers, abstracts, book chapters, presentations and more to her publishing credit.
Cera is working to take the embarrassment and fear out of colonoscopies. When she talks about cancer to community groups, she senses they don’t understand the time the procedure takes—typically 10 minutes—and are fearful of the screening because of the possibility they could have cancer. “They’re just scared to have it done, and they honestly don’t want to talk about it,” she says.

Even with increased media attention to the second-deadliest form of cancer, it’s a touchy subject, but Cera tackles it with folks at retirement communities, country clubs, churches and events organized by the Collier County Health Department. “I think a lot of people know that it’s a very common cancer, and I think that they know they need to get the colonoscopy, but it’s one of those things where people are embarrassed to talk about it.”

Cera graduated in 1998 from Georgetown University’s School of Medicine. She headed to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., for her residency and then to the Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston. In 2005, she arrived in Naples, where her father chose to spend his retirement. “It’s a wonderful place to live,” she says. “It’s an exciting area.”

She originally wanted to follow her father’s footsteps into pathology, but her surgery rotation showed her the impact she could have improving people’s quality of life. “It’s very gratifying to be able to help somebody and actually see them get better,” she says.

Off the clock:
Cera is an avid runner who competes in races, including the Marine Corps Marathon.

Alanna Gluhm
Age: 28
Position: Marketing director
Gates

Why her:
She’s headed a complete corporate re-branding campaign for Gates and helped make a billion-dollar merger with a commercial realty company successful.

This past spring, Gluhm was promoted to her current position and handles all of Gates’ marketing and public relations. She also volunteers with organizations including the American Heart Association, Collier County Humane Society, United Way and Lee County public schools.

The Fort Myers native left to attend Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, but was quick to return to her roots and her family, whom she credits as being the driving force in her life.

It was also a job opening at the development and construction firm then known as Gates-McVey that drew her back about two years ago.

The self-proclaimed “perpetual learner and perfectionist” is used to being busy. She started working for marketing firms as an undergraduate and completed her M.B.A. in marketing and finance—while working full-time—by taking night classes.

“For many years now I have had numerous things going on at once, and I have come to enjoy the challenge,” she says. “I’m just wired to always want to learn more and do the best I can with what I’m involved in at the time.”

Off the clock:
She is writing a biography about her grandmother, who earned a master’s degree in the early 1970s and had a career in school administration.

Stacey L. Herring
Age: 37
Position: Senior mortgage loan officer
Fifth Third Bank

Why her:
Out of some 900 residential loan officers with Fifth Third Bancorp, parent of Fifth Third Bank South Florida, Herring has claimed the No. 1 spot in dollar volume three times and has consistently ranked among the Bancorp’s top five loan officers nationwide. Her secret? “A lot of it is service. It’s very important to always make the client feel special [and] really connect with them,” she says.

She listens carefully and knows her products. Plus, she’s been around a while.

A Fort Myers native and graduate of Florida State University, Herring took a job in 1996 with Fifth Third Bank, when it was just expanding into the area, as its first loan officer in Southwest Florida. “I would make 100 cold calls a month. Most people hadn’t heard of us,” says Herring. Fifth Third now ranks among the region’s biggest banks, and she takes pride in being “that first person to step in and bring the bank along.”

Herring is heading up this year’s Sand Dollar Awards, the Collier Building Industry Association’s biggest annual event, and next year will chair the CBIA’s Sales and Marketing Council. She also plans to start volunteering with the Education Foundation of Collier County in the fall.

Off the clock:
“I love interior design work. If I could, I would redo my house all the time.”

Jadira Hoptry
Age: 39
Position: Vice president,
commercial relationship manager
First American Bank

Why her:
Hoptry, a small-business banking specialist, volunteers countless hours lecturing would-be entrepreneurs. Through the Council for Hispanic Business Professionals (part of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce), she provides Spanish-language business seminars on everything from understanding small business loans to business ethics and networking.

“Coming here to school [with] my own struggles in knowing how to get things done, there were so many wonderful people willing to take me under their wings,” says Hoptry, who grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and first came to Florida as a college student at the University of Florida. It was there that a few professors and friends went out of their way to help her navigate formal and informal cultural differences—everything from filling out paperwork to understanding how American college students interact. “If I can help people the same way that I was helped, it’s definitely something I will do,” she says.

She offers similar counseling specifically to women through the International Women’s Committee within the Southwest Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“More women are starting businesses and there is a need for them to learn the steps,” says Hoptry, who has also mentored young girls for years. She was recognized as a 2007 Woman of Achievement by the Greater Naples American Association of University Women.
“Everything comes back to education,” she says.

But she isn’t always in the educator’s position. She is currently pursuing her M.B.A. at Hodges University. “I take one or two classes at a time,” she says. “My goal is by the end of 2008 to have my degree.”

Hoptry sees her work developing Hispanic businesses as a movement toward a more generally diverse business community, not a separate sector. “I envision one day not to say, ‘Hispanic,’ ‘Latino,’ or ‘American’ business,” she says. “Just ‘business.’”