Candidate: Scott L Hopes

Dr. Scott Hopes is chairman of the Manatee County School Board and board member from District 4. He is also chairman and chief executive officer of CliniLinc, a health and medical information services and technology company with offices in Miami, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Hopes is a product of Florida’s public education system, graduating from Bay County High School, Panama City, Florida, 1979, Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City, Florida, Associate of Arts, 1980, University of South Florida, College of Natural Sciences, Tampa, Florida, Bachelor of Arts, Natural Sciences, Biology 1983, University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Master of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 1985 and Doctor of Business Administration, University of South Florida, Muma College of Business in 2017.

In 1984, during a critical shortage of science teachers in Florida’s public schools, Dr. Hopes started teaching eighth and ninth grade Science in the School District of Hillsborough County. Dr. Hopes was not trained as a teacher in college, yet went on after his first year of teaching to be appointed the Department Chairman of the Science, Health, Physical education, and Media departments at McLane Junior High in Brandon, Florida, and became the first Department Chairman at the newly built Burns Junior High School in Brandon in 1986. Dr. Hopes concurrently studied education and gifted student education at the University of South Florida, College of Education.

Dr. Hopes was recruited in late 1986 by Tampa General Hospital, a 1,000 bed public teaching hospital, later becoming the Evening and Night Administrator of the hospital at the age of 26.

Dr. Hopes started his health care consulting practice at Ernst & Whinney (nka Ernst & Young) in Miami in 1988 and in 1989 co-founded the consulting firm Healthcare Management Decisions, Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida; Healthcare Management now has offices in Sarasota, Tallahassee and Dublin, Ireland.

 In 1999, Dr. Hopes was asked to again serve the people of Florida as a member of Governor Jeb Bush’s administration at the Agency for Health Care Administration. Hopes oversaw the Bureau of Certificate of Need and Financial Analysis and went on to be Director of the Division of Health Policy, responsible for the development and implementation of health care policy, research and legislation for the State of Florida.

Dr. Hopes recently served on the Board of Trustees of the University of South Florida System, which oversees the University of South Florida Tampa, University of South Florida St. Petersburg and the University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee.

Dr. Hopes has served over 30 years as an executive and consultant to major health care companies, hospitals, governments, pharmaceutical companies, insurance/HMOs, and physician providers in the areas of health policy and planning, health care finance, health facilities and systems management, risk management, epidemiology, disease management, correctional health and public health. Hopes acquired his first hospital in Destin, Florida in 1994. Hopes has served as a researcher at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and College of Public Health and has published in the areas of clinical medicine, health policy and health care finance.

Dr. Hopes has spent more than 30 years lobbying the legislature to improve access to primary care and hospital services, improve public education and to hold government accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Florida.

Dr. Hopes is 57 years old, married to Ronda Hopes and has three children, son Aaron, 27, a graduate of Emory University, University of Chicago and is completing his PhD at Stanford University, daughter Ariel, 25, a graduate of Brandeis University, is a behavioral therapist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Zakary, 22, a junior at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.