JAX FILIPINOS
Sharol Noblejas earned her Associate Degree from the University of Florida, her Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management from the University of Central Florida, and her MBA from Orlando College.
While at UF, Sharol served as President of the University of Florida Filipino Student Association. After leaving UF, she became President of her Student Health Information Management Association and later President of the Florida Health Information Management Association. In this organization, she was honored with the Outstanding Student Award, Outstanding New Professional Award, and the Distinguished Member Award.
Sharol is highly active in the Filipino and Asian communities, as well as in the City of Jacksonville. She served as a Commissioner for the City of Jacksonville Housing and Community Development Commission and held roles under Mayor Lenny Curry and Mayor Donna Deegan on the Asian American Advisory Board. She is a Past President of Night of Asia and the Knights of Rizal Ladies Auxiliary, and she currently serves as President of the Visayas Mindanao Association and Jax Filipinos. Sharol is also a member of the Ilocano Association and the Bayanihan Club of Jacksonville.
In addition to her extensive volunteer work, Sharol is a Senior IT Program Manager at Florida Blue / Guidewell Health, where she oversees operations of more than 100 clinics across Florida.
Born in Long Beach, California, Sharol’s parents hail from Oroquieta City, Philippines. She is married to her husband, Norman, and they have two sons: Nicholas, who works at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Christopher, a student at the University of Central Florida.
Redner is a Filipino American Board Certified Behavior Analyst who has been serving children, families, and registered behavior technicians in the autism and special needs community in Jacksonville and the Philippines for over ten years.
In addition to being a BCBA, he merged his love for travel and his special needs experience to help improve the travel experience for children and families in the autism and special needs community as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines and volunteer with Autism on the Seas and other disability organizations.
Along with his passion for serving the special needs community, he is deeply passionate about sharing his Filipino culture and helping Filipino Americans gain a deeper understanding of their rich culture and heritage. Through his love for photography and the creative arts, he collaborated with a friend and fellow educator to launch the platform Tita & Kuya, as a way to share Filipino culture, people, and stories in a fun and creative way. Recently, he started Autism Pamilya which was created to serve and support autistic and disabled Filipinos and their families.
He hopes to further elevate Filipino people and culture through his role as Vice President for Jax Filipinos.
Lee has over a decade of Data Science and Visualization experience in the financial industry. She is a VP-Sr Business Associate, where she provides insight and recommendations to Technology Workforce Strategy Senior Leaders through visual aids, as well as managing the data.
Lee’s extensive data background includes SQL Server, Oracle, Hadoop, Teradata, PostgreSQL, and SAS, utilizing tools such as Tableau, Toad, Cognos, Python, PowerShell, Alteryx, SharePoint, SSRS, and Microsoft Access.
Lee’s community journey began at Chase, where she was involved with business resource groups and frequently volunteered for community events. In 2016, she joined the Asian Pacific Islander Reaching for Excellence (ASPIRE) as Jax Site Co-Lead, growing the membership from 78 to over 300 in just a year. She enjoyed bringing the Asian community together, sharing the cultures within the workplace, and wants to continue to accomplish this within the JAX community.
As a wife and mother of two, Lee has a passion for sharing her Filipino heritage and believes it is important to pass on our rich culture and history to the next generation. Her family played an active role with the dance group Fil Millennials, and she also served as a Board Member of the Filipino Language and Cultural School. She hopes to continue using her experience, leadership, and expertise in the community to impact the Jax Filipinos community.
Faith Ordillas is a Corporate Response and Resolution Specialist with ADT Security, specializing in Corporate Relations and Social Media. Growing up in a military family, she moved to Jacksonville in 1993. With her passion for Jacksonville and her Filipino culture, she volunteered for the Filipino Pride Day festival in 2010 and later became the Head of the Entertainment and Arts Committee alongside Angel Borja. Faith and Angel served the community for several years and were responsible for showcasing local talents and entertainers, as well as bringing world-renowned talents to Jacksonville, including Mikey Bustos and AJ Rafael.
Faith hopes to continue utilizing her experience and skills to bring the community together and put Jax Filipinos on the map.
Agnes Lopez is a Filipino-American editorial and commercial photographer with a studio in the historic Riverside-Avondale neighborhood of Jacksonville.
Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, The Local Palate, in shows on the Food Network, and more. She was awarded the gold medal for her food photography in the cookbook category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2017 for The Chef’s Canvas Cookbook.
For the past six years, Agnes has been hard at work directing her first documentary, JAX Filipino Chefs, following the journey of eight Filipino-American chefs as they set out to change the culinary scene of Northeast Florida with their food.
Her portraits of Filipino World War II veterans, The Faces to Remember Project, were recently on display in an exhibit at the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville, Florida. More about the project can be seen at www.thefacestoremember.com.
As a Jacksonville native with proud Pangasinan roots, Audrey is passionate about uplifting Filipino heritage and hopes to help build community and preserve Filipino culture for her children and future generations.
Audrey spent most of her career in environmental services, where she was the lead marketing and communications partner for over 225 national locations. She provided counsel for external communications, privatization contracts, mergers and acquisitions, operations, safety, sales, and customer service. She has extensive experience as a creative director, social media manager, event planner, and project manager. In her current position with Johnson & Johnson Vision, she plays an integral role in the execution and strategic planning of peer-to-peer education programs and academic initiatives across the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, as well as locally at the J&J Institute.
Audrey incorporates her creativity and business savvy as a marketing consultant, freelance publicist, and volunteer. Her nonprofit experience includes leading volunteer teams, serving on the Board of Directors, and acting as Communications Chair for several local organizations. Most notably, she was the Marketing Chair for Filipino Pride Day during its first three years, an event that drew more than 30,000 attendees in its inaugural year.
In addition to her charitable work and professional pursuits, Audrey is a certified yoga instructor and a member of Jacksonville’s Yelp Elite. She also enjoys staying active and spending time outdoors, with hobbies like paddleboarding, hiking, and running. Audrey is a dedicated mom of two, plus a fur baby.
Claire is full of Pinoy pride, and is the only on-air Filipino American reporter in Jacksonville. She works as a multiskilled journalist with First Coast News. The Pennsylvania native is making Florida her home, making a living as a reporter on Good Morning Jacksonville.
She has worked in every role in the typical TV, radio, and print newsrooms. The highlights of her career include being a reporter for Tegna’s WNEP-TV near Scranton, Pennsylvania for two years and bringing political issues to light at Hearst Television’s Washington D.C. News Bureau. Every day, Claire uses a camera lens and a microphone to capture history happening right before our eyes. She’s excited to share her story of what it’s like to tell both heart-warming and heart-breaking moments in our community.
Claire is a reporter by day, a triple threat by night. She's a recording artist with music, dance, and theatre performance credits across the East Coast. If she's not at work, you can find Claire at the golf course or in the kitchen cooking or baking.
Irene is a Filipino American Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst who has been serving children and families in the special needs community for over twenty years.
Along with her passion for serving the special needs community, she is very passionate about mentoring young Filipinos and helping them understand their culture and history. She has mentored several individuals in Jacksonville and in the Philippines. Irene has a heart for service to the community.
Recently, Irene partnered with a friend and fellow educator to launch the platform TITA and KUYA, as a way to share Filipino stories in a creative and meaningful way.
Her hope is to use JAX FILIPINOS as a way to mentor Filipinos in Jacksonville and help raise up the next generation of Filipino leaders and talent.
Joshua Ang Price was born and raised in Arkansas and moved to Jacksonville earlier this year. Since 2018, he has served as the founding CEO of Hybrid Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in government policy and fundraising for nonprofit organizations, particularly through federal grants.
Joshua has nearly 15 years of experience working with economic and community development projects, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on government communications, policy development, fundraising, and grant writing. He served on the senior leadership teams of two federal agencies: the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) under two Presidential Appointees and as the Public Information Officer of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Arkansas District Office during the onset and height of the pandemic.
Josh serves on the boards and committees of several regional and international nonprofit organizations, including the Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO), and is active in state government and national politics. Josh served as an Election Commissioner for Pulaski County
Eldy Mendez is a documentary and freelance photographer based in Jacksonville with over 10 years of professional experience.
He was first introduced to art by his mother. When he was younger, she would draw and illustrate things to tell him stories. She later introduced him to photography as well. His mother was the "family photographer." He saw what she had captured with her camera and learned that he could preserve moments and tell stories through this simple tool too.
With a knack for storytelling, he preserves and captures candid moments using a camera. Eldy has a unique ability to find beauty in any perspective he sees and encounters. As an artist, an important value and strength in his work is the notion and concept that evolve from the word “remembrance.” Eldy’s work is driven by the desire to take someone’s moments and to create a narrative.
Eldy graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of North Florida with a concentration in Photography. Eldy continues to pursue Documentary Photography projects along with working as a Freelance photographer.
Eldy is looking forward to embracing his Filipino heritage through this new role and to find a way to give back to the Jax Filipino community in the best way he knows how, through the art of photography and documenting upcoming events and stories yet to unfold.