Jonnie Mae Perry (Vero Beach) is Executive Director of the Gifford Historical Museum and Cultural Center. Last year, she was instrumental in securing a $493,000 grant from the Florida Department of State’s Florida African American Cultural and Historic grant program to begin expanding the Center beyond the current museum housed in Gifford’s Historic Macedonia Church.

A graduate of the 1973 class of Vero Senior High School, Perry received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business/Office Administration from Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. Over a period of 39 years, she worked for U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Airborne Express Corporation, Professional Creative Consultants and J. Brown & Associates. Returning to Indian River County in 2011, she has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Indian River County Historical Society, The Laura Riding Jackson Foundation, Samuel and Audrey Hunter Memorial Foundation, and TCCH-Gifford Health Center Advisory Committee. She is immediate past president of the Vero Beach branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) and has served as AAUW of Florida’s state chair for Diversity and Inclusion for the past three years, hosting monthly Zoom Dialogues on diversity topics.