The St. Augustine campus of St. Johns River State College. | St. Johns River State College
Published on January 6, 2025 at 2:40 pm
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Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that three new faces would join the board of trustees for a college that primarily serves Clay and St. Johns counties.
St. Johns River State College has campuses in Palatka, Orange Park and St. Augustine, and its board of trustees run the school’s operations.
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Members of university boards of trustees are selected by Gov. Ron DeSantis and confirmed by the state Senate.
If approved later this year, Nick Primrose, Tammy “Chereese” Stewart and Cyrus Zomorodian will join the board, and current board member Willard “Jud” Sapp Jr. will serve another term.
DeSantis’ picks are big names in Northeast Florida.
Primrose, who currently serves as the chief of regulatory compliance for the Jacksonville Port Authority, led an unsuccessful campaign for the state House of Representatives last year, losing to Kim Kendall, the candidate endorsed by the local Republican Party.
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But this isn’t the first time DeSantis has picked him to serve.
Primrose previously worked as a deputy general counsel for governors DeSantis and Rick Scott helped lead DeSantis’ Division of Emergency Management through the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also headed up the Florida Elections Commission.
DeSantis’ two other new picks for the board boast experience working in and around local government.
Stewart, a former Clay County commissioner, currently works as the Clay County Board of County Commissioners’ assistant county manager. She also serves on a number of other boards, including Clay County’s Development Authority, Cattlemen Association and Farm Bureau.
DeSantis’ last new pick, Zomorodian, is an assistant state attorney for the State Attorney’s Office that oversees Duval County.
In addition to the new picks for the board of trustees, DeSantis tapped current board member Sapp to serve another term on the board.
Sapp, a U.S. Navy veteran, owns W.J. Sapp & Son Inc., a railroad contracting company based in Baldwin, west of Jacksonville. His son Willard Judson Sapp III, who goes by Judson Sapp, was recently elected to represent parts of Putnam, Clay and St. Johns counties in the Florida House.
