As of January 2022 Ernie Friend is FLATE’s Executive Director. Ernie comes to FLATE after 25 years at Florida State College at Jacksonville serving various administrative roles in IT, Manufacturing, and other related technology associate degree programs. FLATE helped him transition his previous manufacturing program to the A.S. Engineering Technology Degree at FSCJ.
Over the years, Ernie and FLATE worked together on several large and small U.S. Department of Labor and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants for manufacturing and other IT programs across Florida and the entire country. After Ernie was re-assigned to be an administrator over FSCJ’s IT and Cybersecurity degree programs, Ernie and FLATE continued to work together with shared Florida visions for better connections of ET and IT programs around the state, providing state-wide access to industrial and IT internships (both in-person and virtual), and engaging more Florida industry professionals in technician education.