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Introducing the final four participants in the 2008 Leadership Marco Program. Since 2002 it has attracted future leaders and community-minded volunteers to take part in a 12-week series of seminars and tours covering many aspects of the island, including government, history, education, healthcare and schools. As usual, a diverse group of people — ranging from business owners to bankers, to a police officer and an educator — are part of this year’s line-up

Jackie Prosser

A career-long educator, Jackie Prosser is assistant principal at Tommie Barfield Elementary on Marco Island.

She has four grown sons and three grandchildren, one of whom is a sophomore at Naples High School.

Prosser notes with pride that she was the starting second baseman when they won the state championship last spring.

Educated at Ohio State University and later completing a masters degree at the University of South Florida, Prosser has along the way taught at middle schools as well as elementary schools, and was a program specialist and fifth grade teacher at TBE before rising to her present post.

She has lived in the area for the past six years, and is an unabashed sports fan due to her husband having been a football coach.

Prosser who enjoys spending time with her family, cooking and reading, believes the Leadership Marco experience will benefit the school because it will expose her to business leaders whom she says could be valuable in the school’s ongoing quest for support and volunteers.

Prosser’s Marco-of-the-future rules out a toll bridge for fear of scaring away traveling teachers.

“Additional costs of a toll along with the expense of gas would make it even more difficult for us to recruit excellent teachers,” Prosser says.

Cindy McCue

A six-year Marco resident, shelling and fishing enthusiast Cindy McCue is executive director of the Greater Marco Island Unit for the American Cancer Society.

Married to Gary McCue with daughter Rosalen Moran and son-in-law Chad Moran, stepson Brent, and stepdaughter Mandy, McCue has a degree from Indiana State University as well as having attended the Western College of Real Estate.

Her background in non-profit management fits with her present position, and like many other participants cites giving back to the community as one of her motivations for joining up with Leadership Marco.

“By participating ... I look forward learning more about Marco’s history and opportunities to play a bigger role in our community,” she says.

McCue sees Marco down the road as a pleasant residential community that also sustains and maintains a healthy business co-existence.

Jennifer Lofy

“Office Jen,” as she is affectionately known by hundreds of Marco Island school students as well as residents, Lofy is a Marco Island Police Officer.

She holds an appropriate qualification, an associate’s degree in police science, and started her career as a 911 call handler.

Later, she moved to dispatching more than 500 officers on their shifts, but hankered to be on the other side of the radio.

This required more education, and in 2002 Lofy graduated from the Milwaukee Police Academy.

At the outset, working bitterly cold nights wasn’t exactly what she’d bargain for, so Lofy made the move to Marco (in 2004 on the day Hurricane Charley blew through the area and later devastated parts of nearby Fort Myers and Cape Coral).

Listing her main hobby as enjoying the beach, Lofy says Leadership Marco will connect her even more with the public as well as inform her about the island’s history and its community.

Lofy’s hopes for a future Marco: “I see Marco in the future as a progressive island. We will still have the best of paradise and a great place to live and raise a family.”

David Klein

A senior vice president with Marco Community Bank, David Klein is a family man with degrees in the behavioral and social sciences, and also in economics.

He has a daughter, Amanda, who lives in the area, and sisters Judy and Donna, who live in Pennsylvania and Maryland respectively.

Klein first lived on Marco Island from 1997 to 2005, returning in late 2007.

A golfer and skier who enjoys traveling, reading, personal investing and involvement with a local Rotary Club, Klein linked up with the Leadership Marco program to learn more about the inner workings of the island.

In that sense, he says, knowledge is “ever more valuable.”

His island future view: “I’d like to see Marco continue its evolution as a full time, year-round residential community, with families of all ages, backgrounds descriptions.

“Marco’s a gem that requires continued upkeeping due to a great extent by its uniqueness. Based on the age of the existing infrastructure, the reality is that more and more bridges, etc., will require significant funding for repair/replacement; a fiscal necessity all need to accept.

“I also believe we (all residents) need to strive to continue making a concerted effort towards maintaining this wonderful place,” Klein says.