by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Jacksonville Community Council Inc. Vice President Ben Warner was promoted to president and CEO effective Sept. 1, succeeding Skip Cramer, who is retiring.
JCCI announced the move Friday.
“JCCI has been led by a very few individuals in this role and each has put his own stamp on this organization,” Warner said Friday.
He called the opportunity a “tremendous honor.”
JCCI was created in 1975 to bring together citizens to study community issues. It has completed 71 community studies and also works with other organizations and communities.
JCCI’s study process and indicator reports, including the annual Quality of Life Progress Report for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida and the Race Relations Progress Report for Jacksonville, have served as models for communities around the world.
Warner will be introduced officially at JCCI’s 36th annual meeting Sept. 9 at the Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership. It will feature guest speaker Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio, Texas.
Warner worked with Castro in 2010-11 to help create a community vision for San Antonio for the year 2020.
JCCI has been primarily led by three people — Marian Chambers for 19 years, Lois Chepenik for 10 and Cramer for seven, Warner said.
“This organization has been led by people with high integrity,” he said.
Warner said JCCI has restructured to meet some of the challenges facing nonprofit organizations, focusing its resources “so that we are more effective at doing the things we do best.”
Warner said staffing has dropped from its pre-recession peak of 13 to eight.
One focus will be on implementing the studies it has led, “making sure we have the highest quality people making all these things happen.”
Warner said the city is undergoing a period of “transformation and growth” and that JCCI wants to help Jacksonville reach its potential.
“One of the important things to figure out is how to do more to reshape the community. We’ve done a lot of background work on a lot of issues. It’s time to take it the next step forward,” he said.
“I could not be happier with Ben’s selection for this vital leadership position. His credentials, locally, nationally and internationally, are impeccable,” said JCCI Board Chair William C. Mason in a news release.
Cramer plans to remain in the area and stay active in the community as a volunteer and consultant.
Cramer said in April that he would retire from JCCI no later than Sept. 23. He previously served in the Navy for 32 years followed by 10 years with the North Florida Region of the American Red Cross.
Cramer commanded Naval Air Station Jacksonville from August 1991 to August 1993 and then became the deputy dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I
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