Irene grew up in Tampa as a military brat and has lived in the Greater Tampa Bay area for the past 50+ years. She has worked all over the state of Florida in her previous career as Director of Public Relations for GTE/Verizon. This position gave her the ability to become extremely familiar with neighborhoods, school districts and businesses over a large area. She made her residents in North Tampa, Carrollwood and South Tampa…having personally bought, remodeled, sold and rented her own properties for many years. Because of Irene's business history, she is keenly aware of the importance of being honest, hard working, knowledgeable and focused on customer service. She has built an extensive personal and professional network. Irene has an impressive and diverse background, from working with cities and counties on zoning and right of way issues to being a professional lobbyist for the communication industry, and running a multi-million dollar charitable foundation. Irene has held leadership positions with many charitable and business organizations including Tampa Tigerbay, Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Children's Services Board, and the HCC Foundation, to name a few. She is still active with Leadership Tampa (class of 2003), Junior Achievement, The Florida Aquarium, Metropolitan Ministries, City of Tampa Citizens Review Board, Integrity Florida and many others. Irene currently resides in South Tampa with her dog Maxwell.