Consolidation Task Force gets five more members, missing four

The Consolidation Task Force is responsible for coming up with a plan to bring the three USF campuses under a single accreditation. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN

The USF consolidation task force is filling out with the addition of five more members announced Monday. The committee is still short four members who will be appointed by the Florida speaker of the House and Senate president.

The majority of those now assigned to the committee are either USF alumni or work with one of the three USF campuses.

Anddrikk Frazier, who received a degree from the USF College of Engineering and played on the men’s basketball team, now works for Integral Energy as a managing partner. He was appointed by the chair of the USF Board of Trustees (BOT), Brian Lamb.

Lamb also appointed former Student Body President Mike Griffin. Griffin served two terms as student body president at USF Tampa and graduated with a degree in business administration. He now works as managing director for Savills Studley Occupier Services.

Melissa Seixas, who earned a master’s in history from USF, served as co-chair of the 50 year anniversary committee for USF St. Petersburg in 2015-16. She’s also currently serving as board chair of the St. Pete Downtown Partnership and is vice president of Duke Energy. She was appointed to the task force by USFSP Campus Board Chair Stephanie Goforth.

Rick Piccolo, president and CEO of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, will represent USF Sarasota-Manatee on the task force. He was recently appointed to serve on the USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus Board.

The final new appointee is current student Kayla Rykiel, appointed by the Alumni Association. Rykiel is majoring in biomedical science and serves as director for TEDxUSF. She also does research with infectious diseases, drug development to prevent malaria and food insecurity among teenagers.

They will be joining Board of Governors appointed chair Dr. Jonathan Ellen, president and vice dean of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg to create a plan for consolidation of the three USF campuses under a single accreditation. The plan is due to the BOT by Feb. 15. Also on the task force is USF System President Judy Genshaft, USFSP Interim Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock and USFSM Regional Chancellor Karen Holbook.

The first meeting of the task force will be April 25 at the USFSP Student Center. There is also a plan for town hall-style meetings in the fall.