St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch Announces Key Appointments

St. Petersburg, Florida (September 21, 2022) – Today, Mayor Ken Welch announced key appointments for his administration which include Jordan Doyle Walsh as Interim Chief of Staff, Alizza Punzalan-Randle as Managing Director for Communications and Community Engagement, Erica Riggins as Public Information Officer, and Shelly Loos as Director of Stakeholder and Community Engagement.

“I’m incredibly excited to announce these impactful appointments to our administration,” said Mayor Ken Welch. “Their decades of work in the community will prove invaluable as we continue our mission towards inclusive progress. Collaborating with the community and key stakeholders is imperative to ensuring transparency and accountability at all levels of this administration. I look forward to working alongside our current and new team members to serve the people of our great city, continuing our partnership to build the St.Petersburg of the future while honoring those who were so instrumental in shaping our past.”

Jordan ‘Doyle’ Walsh is an 8-year veteran of local government in the Tampa Bay region. Formally, a Senior Advisor in the Mayor’s Office for St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch.

As an aide to Pinellas County Commissioner Janet C. Long, Walsh worked closely with regional leaders to implement solutions on a broad set of issues ranging from transportation and climate change to state and federal legislative priorities, impacting all of Tampa Bay. He has a proven track record of collaboration and strategic initiative development and implementation. His experience spans external affairs and government relations, research and policy development, and successful execution of organizational strategic visioning. His work has positioned him as a community advocate with experience in providing strategic leadership to elected officials and governmental agencies. Walsh has also worked to coordinate legislative and policy operations across all levels of government in his roles.

He joined the Ken Welch for Mayor Campaign as a Senior Advisor in 2021. After helping to guide his successful campaign to victory, he joined the Mayor-Elect Ken Welch Transition team prior to joining the Welch Administration on January 6, 2022.

Walsh has a Bachelor of B.A. in Business Administration from Florida State University and a Juris Doctorate from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.

Alizza Punzalan-Randle, a nonprofit executive for more than two decades, was most recently Chief Development Officer for St. Pete Free Clinic in February 2021.

Over the past two decades, she has had the distinct privilege of working for some of St. Petersburg's institutional gems. As Eckerd College's community and media relations director, she learned how to cultivate relationships with those who help tell their story and spread the message. At Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, she leveraged connections in the private and public sectors to strategically address pressing health concerns affecting our youth. At the St. Pete Free Clinic, she had effective storytelling that has had lasting impact with funders, donors and volunteers.

Her career spans social services, pediatric health care, higher education, public broadcasting, visual and performing arts, and racial and social justice, having recently led YWCA Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley as its CEO for two years.

Alizza earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Rhodes College in Memphis, where she sold Steinway pianos, performed as a professional accompanist, and began her nonprofit career as the Director of Public Relations for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. In the early 2000s, she held the position of Director of Resources for the St. Pete Free Clinic prior to her role as Chief Development Office.

Alizza is a graduate of Leadership St. Pete Class of 2003, Leadership Knoxville Class of 2020, and the Tampa Bay Public Leadership Institute. As a servant leader, she has served on multiple boards and advisory councils, including Community Tampa Bay, Creative Clay, Knoxville’s and St. Petersburg’s chambers of commerce, Pinellas County Urban League, Rotary Club of St. Petersburg, the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area Citizen Advisory Committee, Suncoast Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, YWCA of Tampa Bay, and the YWCA USA National Coordinating Board. Alizza is a past state president of the Florida Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. (BPW/FL), and past local president of BPW/St. Petersburg-Pinellas. Alizza and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.

Erica Riggins is an award-winning journalist and morning anchor on Spectrum Bay News 9, Tampa Bay’s only 24-hour news channel.

A Texas native, Erica’s broadcasting career had an unusual beginning. Graduating as a mechanical engineer from the University of Texas at Austin, Erica put her degree to work as an equipment engineer for Motorola. Over the next several years as she grew within the company, Erica realized that she wanted to be a part of something bigger and to make a difference in her community. This set Erica on a new career path. She returned to school to study communications and television journalism.

Erica began her career as a journalist in Sherman, Texas as a weekend anchor and reporter at KXII-TV. From there, she returned to her hometown to report for the 24-hour local news channel News 8 Austin, now Spectrum News, and later anchored the evening news.

Always looking for new challenges, Erica moved to the Tampa Bay area to serve as weekend morning anchor for Spectrum Bay News 9. For nearly 20-years, Tampa Bay viewers have been waking up to her on Your Morning News.

Recognized for her exceptional achievements, Erica won an Emmy award for Outstanding Live Report for her story on students protesting the Iraq war. She also won the prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary in regards to a series of reports focusing on the growing and disturbing trends of child abuse. Other awards and honors that Erica has garnered includes: the Pinellas County Urban League’s President’s Award, the Outstanding Community Service Award from the Teamster’s National Black Caucus, and Outstanding Service in the Field of Communications from the national sorority of Phi Delta Kappa. But, perhaps the award that she is most proud of is the community service award named in her honor from Men in the Making.

Erica has a passion for uplifting and protecting children. She’s proud to be a new advisory board member for the Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco, a Gulf Coast JCFS program connecting foster children with their forever homes.

You’ll find her spending most of her personal time in area parks and playgrounds with her three young sons.

Most recently part of our transition team, Shelly Loos is a veteran marketing and engagement executive. She served as Vice President of Marketing for a South Florida-based technology company for 11 years before coming to the City of St. Petersburg. Shelly managed the creative team in promoting the company’s Content Management System in the K-12 education, healthcare, corporate training, and marine sectors.

Prior to settling down in South Florida, Shelly worked across the country in 15 different states on national, state, and local campaigns. She has been an advisor to six presidential campaigns for President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senator John Kerry, General Wesley Clark and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Obama. Shelly served in the following senior positions: National Director of Ballot Access and Delegate Selection for General Wesely Clark, Illinois State Director for Vice President Al Gore, Senior Get-out-the-Vote advisor for President Barack Obama, and Florida Field Director for Senator John Kerry.

Shelly has managed the political communications and floor operations at the last 6 Democratic National Conventions. Managing 20+ staff and 200+ volunteers as the Director of Floor Operations where Shelly strategized and coordinated the floor demonstrations, political whip system and message signage with television producers, presidential speech writers and other campaign and convention operations.

Shelly worked on both of President Clinton’s Presidential Inauguration Committees. In 1992, she was the Director of Visibility for the Inaugural Parade and in 1996, she was the Director of Unofficial Events for the 1996 Presidential Inaugural Committee where she connected corporate hosts with opportunities, partners and venues. Shelly served as the Midwest Director for Vice President Gore’s national PAC Leadership ’98 and managed relationship-building and engagement with elected officials and community

leaders.

Shelly has worked in three state legislatures – as a Legislative Aide in the Florida Legislature; Committee Clerk to both the Natural Resources and Education Committees in the Nebraska Unicameral; and Legislative Aide for the Senate Majority Leader in the Rhode Island State Senate.

Shelly actively gives back to any community she is part of by serving on boards, volunteering and supporting local nonprofit organizations and efforts.

View the updated City Organizational Chart here.