Hazelle Rogers Profile:
Long before she recognized her special gift as a people person, Hazelle Rogers was engaging in school as head of her house team. She loves netball and track and field. Hazelle was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the oldest of three children she migrated to New York in 1969. In 1976 she began to organize the tenant in her apartment complex once again showing her leadership. She relocated to Florida in 1982 and the advocacy continued. She became secretary of the Eastgate Homeowners Association a position she held until she was elected in 1996. She encourage her political mentor now deceased Mr. Willie Webb Sr., to do citizenship drive which she coordinated.
She found a group of ladies who loved her favorite sport of netball and she would drive to Miami twice a week to play and promote the game. She was a founding member of the Florida Netball and the USA Netball Associations and founding member of the Saint Netball Club in Lauderdale Lakes and Broward County in 1990. As a member of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board she was able to convince the city of Lauderdale Lakes to invest in a Netball program and the first official netball court in Broward County, recognize the diversity of the community, promote a game for young girls and become the home of the most popular female sports in the word. She was a member of the delegation that entered the first team representing USA in England at the games in 1995. In July 2005 she chaired the host committee for the World Youth Netball Championship Games. This was the first time in the over 100 year history of the games that it was played in the United States.
The Saints Club which is her passion and young student members they were encouraged to volunteer and they began to volunteer with United Negro College fund Telethon by taking pledges. That experience motivated her to start the Caribbean friend of UNCF to raise funds from within the Caribbean community in support of UNCF and to provide scholarship for Caribbean students attending Florida Memorial University. Her activism in support of UNCF grew and she became Vice Chair of the Broward chapter working with Chairman John Ruffin for over 15 years.
She served on the Broward County Parks Advisory Board always promoting the diversity of the programs to meet the needs of a growing Caribbean community. She was at the table for the planning and development of the Regional Park in Broward County which boast a diverse program of sporting and recreational activities to include an international cricket facility and 3 netball courts.
The Honorable Hazelle Rogers was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2008 where she represents the residents of District 94. Over these three years she served as a member of the following councils and committees: the Government Accountability Act Council, Health & Family Services Policy Council, Health Care Services Policy Committee, Human services Appropriations Committee, and Roads, Bridges and Ports Policy Committee, finance & Tax, Economic Development & Tourism Subcommittee, Rulemaking & Regulation Subcommittee, Join Administrative Procedures Committee, House Redistricting Committee, House Redistricting subcommittee and as Ranking democrat on the Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee. She is also a Deputy Whip on the floor.
She brings a unique perspective and experience to the Legislature having served as a local elected official with the City of Lauderdale Lakes for 4 terms a position she lost by 2 votes in her first attempt in 1995. She served as president of Broward League of Cities from 2004-2005, the first Caribbean American to hold that position and the first and only elected official from the city of Lauderdale Lakes. On July 7, 2007; she announced her candidacy for State House of Representatives where she currently serves. As a freshman she was successful in having 2 bills passed in her first session and encouraged the formation of the Annual Caribbean Heritage Celebration in the Florida House now in its 3rd year. In 2011 she is credited in passing the School Dress Code of Conduct bill.
Her political career began in 1996 when she was elected to office in the City of Lauderdale Lakes, making her the first person from the English speaking Caribbean-American community to be elected to office in the South Eastern United States.
Hazelle has been involved in many community activities. Her community service awards are too numerous to mention, some of these include her induction into the Broward County's Women Hall of Fame, March 2001; her nomination and finalist for the National League of Cities, Women in Municipal Government 2005 Awards; Recipient of the 2005 Blue Cross Blue Shield Orange Bowl Thurgood Marshall Achievers Award; One Community (formerly NCCJ) Margaret Roach Community Awards Honoree.
Hazelle is a distinguished past president of the Broward League of Cities, a group of local elected officials representing the 31 cities in Broward County. She is a founding member of the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and the oldest festival in Broward County now in its 17th year. She is a member of several local democratic clubs and founder of the Caribbean American Democratic Club. She is very active in politics at all level.
She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from the University of Phoenix, and has completed studies at New York City Community College and Pace University in New York. She holds a mortgage and real estate license, a mortgage professional and consultant. She has been married to her husband Clifton since 1974; she is the oldest of 3 children to the matriarch of her family Eulalee Bax.