Bulletin:
Living Out East Magazine has been honored again as a finalist in the Manatee Chamber of Commerce Small Business
of the Year Awards for 2008.
No "carpetbagger" operation,
Living Out East Magazine (incorporating Living Healthy With Doctors
Health Journal) is a proudly-independent magazine produced by
a talented staff of people who live out east. We are not owned
by any land developer, government entity, community or media conglomerate..
We are members of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, Sarasota Chamber
of Commerce, the Lakewood Ranch Business Leaders, The Lakewood
Ranch Business Allliance and the Lakewood Ranch Business Club.
We also proudly support Meals on Wheels Plus, The Pines of Sarasota, the Florida Winefest
and ArtCenter Manatee.
Our co-publisher, Virginia Orenstein,
along with her husband Jeff, also our executive editor, has lived
in Lakewood Ranch since January, 1999. Virginia did a stint as
editor of Around the Ranch, served as president of the
Lakewood Ranch East Communities Charitable Fund (now called Lakewood
Ranch Charitable Fund), was one of the founders of the Out East
Gala, was a founder of the Lakewood Ranch Civic Action Forum,
started the Lakewood Ranch Gourmet Club and has been involved
in the out east community from the moment she moved in.
Dr. Jeff Orenstein, co-publisher and Executive
Editor, is a retired college professor. He was executive editor
of the Gulf Coast Business Review, executive editor of
Around the Ranch and was the publisher of Doctors
Health Journal. Along with Virginia, he started the Lakewood
Ranch Civic Action Forum, the original (and still flourishing)
out east networking group, the Lakewood Ranch Business Leaders,
is on the board of the Manatee Community College Foundation, ArtsCenter
manatee and has been active in many local organizations ranging
from the Manatee Chamber of Commerce to the Manatee County Planning
Commission.
Pat Driscoll
is our Chief Marketing Officer and editor.
She is an American who was raised overseas and in Florida. She had a distinguished career in health care marketing and ran
marketing for several hospitals before coming to Living Out
East. She is active in organizations throughout the region
and is interested in alternative health issues. She and her
husband Don live out east near the new Braden River High School..
Fran
Schipper, is our Creative Director. She has many years of
experience in pre-press technology and advertising design with
the St. Peterberg Times and Newspaper Publishing Corporation and
lives in St. Petersburg with her daghter and husband Ed who is
also a graphic artist.
Gail Cameron Somodi
is our Research Editor. She hails from Delaware and was a contributing
writer to Around the Ranch. She is also Senior Editor
of Doctors Health Journal and is trained in botanical
research. She lives in Lakewood Ranch with her husband Daniel
and children Katherine and Daniel.
Jane Jule, MBA is our Marketing Executive
for Manatee County. Very active in the Sarasota-Manatee
business community, she is on the board of the Lakewood Ranch
Business Alliance and active both in professional organizations
for women and local business networking organizations. She enjoys
international gourmet cooking, ballroom dancing and investing
as hobbies. She lives east of I-75 in Manatee County.
Diana Harrington is our Marketing Executive and arts columnist who specializes in the arts and entertainment. She comes to us from the New York area and was very active in the arts, particularly symphonic music. She lives in one of the new condos in downtown Sarasota,
Nancy Spooner is
a LOE Marketing Executive for the growing areas north of the Manatee
River. She is a talented graphic artist and active in the Sarasota-Manatee business community. She lives with her husband in out east in
Manatee County.
Cathandra Matthews
is our webmaster. She and her husband Jeff live in Lakewood Ranch
with children Todd, Kevin, Reese, Sydney and Quinn. She is ably
assisted by David Grace, the President of Abacus
Web Services who lives in Mill Creek with his wife Fern..
Our regular columnists
all have significant connections out east as well. They, too,
know what it means to live and/or work out east, along I-75, the
main street of the community and the heart of the suncoast. They
include Beatty Cohan, Jill Obrochta Dambro, Pat
Driscoll, Steve Grossman, Linda Kammerer,
Lucy Lapides, Mike Tullio, Dick Moran, Sean Murphy, Jake
Kammerer, Tammy Kovar, Judy and Natalie, the Polite Police
and Anne Weintraub, Esq.
