Board of Directors, Member At Large, Sweet Friend Foundation
Samantha has spent the last 10 years advocating on behalf of employees who face discrimination in the federal government. She spent part of that time in a boutique law firm providing representation before founding Legal Lion Employment Law Firm, PLLC located in Brandon, FL with a close colleague and friend in 2018.
Prior to moving to St. Petersburg, FL, Samantha grew up and obtained her higher education in her home state of West Virginia, where she saw first-hand the positive impacts of the public school system in her hometown, as well as the impact that shortages of resources available to all children in her community can have on a child's development and future success.
After preparing for a career in public defense where she intended to represent and advocate for juveniles, her path directed her to St. Petersburg, Florida where she began to focus her advocacy on helping civil servants across the country fight back against illegal treatment based on disability, sex, race, national origin and other protected statuses.
Even more impactful was the birth of her two children in 2021 and 2022, which helped her to refocus on her passion of learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the resources afforded to the education of children in St. Petersburg and the school systems in the Pinellas County area.
Samantha brings her desire to provide every child in Pinellas County the safety of knowing they are part of a community that includes and cares about them regardless of socioeconomic status, color, ethnicity, gender, or disability, as well as her love for the unique and vibrant community of St. Petersburg to her work at Sweet Friend.
