Circuit Court Judge Gary L. Bergosh serves the First Judicial Circuit of Florida. Over his 18-year career, Bergosh has presided over 50 civil jury trials, including complex civil cases such as Accardo v. Brown, 139 So.3d 848 (Fla. 2014), and more than 100 criminal jury trials, including death penalty cases and one concerning serial killer Craig Price.
Bergosh oversees civil, criminal and family law cases and presides over the Escambia County Veterans Court.
Adopted at age 12 by a U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class, Bergosh lived around the world as a child. His father inspired him to serve his country. After working as a teamster with United Parcel Service to pay for college, Bergosh earned a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1989.
He served on active and reserve duty for 25 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Bergosh’s Marine Corps unit, the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, was deployed with the First Marine Division on Jan. 27, 2003, to fight the war against terrorism.
The New York Times selected Bergosh as the “Quote of the Day” for Feb. 1, 2003: “If I was not willing to do this, how could I expect my son or anybody else’s son to answer our country’s call?” he stated about being called to serve in Iraq.
He served as the Battalion’s Executive Officer in Kuwait and Iraq during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bergosh was nominated for the Bronze Star and awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his service.
During his legal career, Bergosh served as a Florida Assistant State Attorney, a senior attorney with the Department of Defense Office of the General Counsel, and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. He has overseen complex civil cases involving the Federal Tort Claims Act, Medical Care Recovery Act, Federal Claims Collection Act, and federal labor and employment litigation.
After Hurricane Ivan demolished NAS Pensacola in 2004, Bergosh was assigned legal review over $1 billion in contracting and construction on the base and to advise the government on the largest mitigation project in the history of the National Historic Preservation Act.
He also advised the Navy on environmental mitigation to allow for the U.S.S. Ex-Oriskany, a World War II-era aircraft carrier, to be sunk 24 miles off Pensacola, making it the largest artificial reef in the world.
In 2004, the Pensacola Business Journal selected Judge Bergosh as one of 40 up-and-coming individuals under 40 (40 under 40). In November 2021, he received the Florida Patriot Award from the Florida Bar Association.
Then, Second Lieutenant and Carissa Bergosh were married on June 16, 1990. They are the parents of sons, Alexander, 23, and Benjamin, 18.
Carissa Bergosh was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida. The first person in her family to attend college, Carissa was awarded an academic scholarship in 1986 to Pensacola Junior College, where she earned an Associate of Arts degree. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education, cum laude, in 1989 from the University of West Florida.
Carissa began a lifelong career in education by teaching in the inner city schools of Memphis, Tennessee. After one year of teaching, she was selected to enter graduate school and earned a master’s degree in Guidance Counseling and Personnel Services in 1991 from the University of Memphis.
From 1990 until 1996, Carissa continued her career in education by teaching in the Schools of Memphis, Manassas, Virginia, and the U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS) (Okinawa, Japan) as both a classroom teacher and a guidance counselor.
In 1996, Carissa continued her career as a teacher/Guidance Counselor with the Escambia County School District at Bratt Elementary School, Bellview Elementary School and Blue Angels Elementary School.
In January 2003, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Carissa to serve on the Escambia County School Board in a Florida Constitutional political position for one year, due to an emergency vacancy.
Following her time on the Escambia County School Board, Carissa continued to teach and volunteer in the school district. In 2009, she was selected as the first School Liaison Officer between Northwest Florida education agencies and Naval Air Station Pensacola.
As the School Liaison Officer, Carissa empowers military and Department of Defense civilian employees to advocate for their children and navigate through the area school systems’ complex rules and regulations to assist in family readiness for the local military commands.
Dr. Richard Fountain is the Dean of the College of Business at the University of West Florida and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Accounting and Finance.
Florida House of Representatives Michelle Salzman was first elected in November 2020 and is now in her second term as the District 1 Member of the Florida House of Representatives.
Escambia County District 4 Commissioner Michael Kohler ran for office for the first time in 2022 following a 33-year career in the U.S. Navy. His career began in 1988 in Pensacola as a hospital corpsman at Naval Hospital Pensacola.
James J. Reeves, Esquire, is a Pensacola real estate developer, served in the Florida House of Representatives, a former City of Pensacola Councilman, a founding member of the Irish Politicians Club (IPC), and a generous philanthropist.
Part of a Florida family that settled in the Santa Rosa County area in the early 1800s, Doug Broxson, the youngest of Bart and Annie Gordon Broxson’s eleven children, was born in Pensacola in 1949 at the old Sacred Heart Hospital. Doug grew up at Broxson Station on the Gulf
