Mission Statement
The Industrial Arts Center mission is to ignite and fuel an artistic passion and a keen awareness of the industrial arts. This goal is supported by providing skilled instructors and a state of the art facility with the tools necessary to encourage personal growth and build a cooperative artistic community.

Board of Directors

Mike McKee, President
Mike McKee has been a Florida resident for 35 years, bringing extensive construction and landscape design experience with him. His work on many commercial and historic restoration projects brought him to the City of Gulfport where he assumed the dual positions of Senior Construction Manager and Business Consultant for the Culby Group in the unique Art Village of Gulfport.

In these positions, Mike not only oversaw, but planned and executed the upgrades and restoration projects for a collection of shops and cottages where Gulfport's Industrial Arts Center is now located. His innovative designs and renovations have met with critical approval of artists, tenants and customers.

Mike continues to work with both artists and the business community, turning their abstract ideas into reality. He is active in the community serving as president of the Industrial Arts Center, production manager for City of Imagination, vice president of the Gulfport Merchants Association, advisory board member for the City of Gulfport Economic Development Committee, member of Rotary International, and president of Noble Property Inc.

Toffer Ross, Vice President
Christopher Ross (Toffer) is a landscape architectural consultant based in Gulfport, Florida. She was born in Tampa, Florida and raised near Tokyo, Japan. Toffer received her Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of South Florida in Tampa and her Master of Engineering in landscape architecture from Florida International University in Miami.

Toffer is a founding member of the 27-year-old Fallopian Tubes, the longest running women's rock band in Florida history. Her father was a school administrator and her mother was an artist; both were natives of Tampa, Florida like their daughter. She spends her off hours gardening and playing the tuba, usually not at the same time.

Louise Lavalla, Treasurer
Louise Lavalla has resided in the Tampa bay area since 1979. She has 25 five years of management experience in the hospitality industry. After a brief term with the State of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, she decided to pursue a career in banking and finance. In 2005 she joined Bank of America, where she is currently Banking Center Manager of the Gulfport location. Louise is actively involved in the Gulfport community and also is a member of the Board of Directors for the Gulfport Multi-purpose Senior Center Foundation.

Amy Oatley, Secretary
Amy Oatley is well known in the Gulfport arts community as co-founder of Positive Expressions, a non-profit art gallery that was founded to empower the HIV-positive community and educate the public about the disease. Positive Expressions operated in Gulfport from 1995-2000 and closed its doors after moving to St. Petersburg's Grand Central District in 2002.

Instructors