About Smart North Florida

Clayton Levins is the Executive Director of Smart North Florida. He brings specialties in tri-sector experience having worked in the government, non-profit and private sectors. He also has an MBA in finance and accounting and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Jacksonville University.

Clayton began his career in community development and government relations roles at Jacksonville University and the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. While at these positions, he helped establish a Community Redevelopment Area for Jacksonville’s Arlington neighborhood, worked with the JTA to obtain a 2018 BUILD Grant from the USDOT, and became ingrained in the region’s growing “Smart Cities” programs. After leaving the public sector, Clayton worked in strategic innovation for the Haskell Company, a global general contractor. While at Haskell, he worked to enhance the company’s innovation culture by scaling internal innovations and piloting technologies from startups in the architecture, engineering, and construction technology ecosystem.

Clayton’s passion is improving our region’s quality of life by leveraging technology, innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship and as the executive director of Smart North Florida he intends to do just that.

Jeff Sheffield, a 29-year transportation professional, is the executive director of the independent four-county North Florida Transportation Planning Organization (North Florida TPO) handling transportation planning and prioritizing in the region. Jeff has been with the North Florida TPO since 1992 in varied positions of increasing responsibility and became executive director in 2009. He has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in urban planning from Florida State University.

In his role, Jeff leads regional coordination and policy development and oversees project management for programs and studies. Working with partner agencies, he has championed results-oriented investments in smart technologies, data and partnerships; intelligent transportation systems (ITS); traffic incident management; safety, bicycle and pedestrian planning; freight and logistics planning; clean fuels infrastructure and vehicles; and multi-modal mobility improvements. In addition, Jeff is a frequent speaker on transportation-related topics. With his leadership, the North Florida TPO has developed and launched two non-profit organizations - North Florida Clean Fuels Coalition and Smart North Florida.

Steve Selders is the Director of IT Strategy and Solution Development for JEA, a role he has had since 2018. In this role, Steve is accountable for multiple innovative teams and processes to manage investments in People, Processes, and Technologies across JEA. Steve leads JEA’s Technology Services ‘Mode 2’ organization comprising teams including Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Information Management & Business Intelligence, and Technology Solution Development, along with leading efforts across JEA’s Innovation Lab and Mobile teams.

Prior to his current role, Steve held several technology development roles since joining JEA in 2008 as a Technology Project Manager. He has led successful enterprise teams across various domains, including the ERP space, JEA’s Dark Fiber program, and technology strategic planning.

At JEA, he has also served as Director of Technology PMO, Director of Telecom Strategy and Sales, and Interim Chief Information Officer.

Originally from Jacksonville, Kristopher Smith joined the LISC Jacksonville staff in April 2020. In his role as Community Development Program Officer, Smith oversees LISC’s Jacksonville Urban Core Initiative and its efforts to advance economic growth in urban core neighborhoods. Kristopher brings nearly 20 years of experience in community engagement and development, grant making and capacity building to the organization. Prior to joining LISC he served as Director of Community Services for the Community Action Council in Lexington managing the organization’s community centers and Head Start initiatives focused on reducing poverty and financial oversight for the agency’s $42 million annual operating budget. Kristopher has a MPA from Nova Southeastern University and BA from Bethune – Cookman University.

Raghu is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successes and failures. He was the Chief Innovation Leader at GE Transportation, which he joined through the acquisition of ShipXpress, a company that was Co-founder and CTO.

Raghu is the founder of Sapna Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that’s focused on bringing innovative solutions to alleviate poverty, “the link”, a 22,500 sq ft award-winning innovation and activity center, and Wired2Perform, a patented behavioral science and people analytics SAAS platform.

Raghu is an active investor and mentor to various startup founders. Raghu currently lives in Nocatee, Florida with his wife and younger son.

Patrick W. Krechowski has over 20 years of experience in real estate, land use, environmental, governmental, administrative litigation, appeals and title insurance law. Patrick is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in City, County and Local Government Law. His practice focuses on all aspects of zoning and land use law, real estate due diligence, environmental permitting (including sovereign submerged lands and riparian rights), environmental remediation, water use permitting and planning, beach nourishment projects, coastal construction and due diligence before local governments and federal/state agencies, including associated administrative and civil litigation.

Kara Barber is an enterprising and collaborative advocate for advancing the success of the North Florida economy. She currently serves as the Assistant Director for UNF’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation running day-to-day operations and programming. Prior to UNF, Kara was in development for the North Florida American Diabetes Association where she worked with local Jacksonville business leaders to raise close to half a million dollars for research, education, and programs. She also previously worked at the Florida State Golf Association where she grew membership by recruiting over 500 new golfers. In addition to her non-profit work, Kara also ran Orientation and the Student Solutions Center at Jacksonville University. Under her leadership, she was able to increase student success and persistence towards graduation, specifically with second-year students.

Lynn Rutkowski was born and raised in Michigan. As a young girl, it was always her dream to move to Florida. At the age of 29, that dream came true when her job in aviation sales transferred Lynn and her family to Keystone Heights. In 2012, Lynn was hired by the City of Keystone Heights as a part time Code Enforcement Officer. Shortly after, she became full time as the Planning and Zoning Clerk, later, Interim City Manager and was appointed City Clerk in January 2016. Council appointed Lynn as City Manager June 1st, 2020, after Mr. Scott Kornegay retired from the City of Keystone Heights.

When not at work, she and her family spend a great deal of time volunteering for organizations within the community. As a former member of the Lake Region Kiwanis, she served as the K-Kids adviser for McRae Elementary as well as Club President for the 2015 - 2016 year. Lynn currently is a member of the Rotary Club of Keystone Heights.