In December 2023, The Florida Bar Foundation changed its name to FFLA. Posts prior to this date contain our former name.

Connie Bookman, founder and CEO of Pensacola nonprofit Pathways for Change, will take office July 1, 2021, as president of The Florida Bar Foundation. The Foundation is a statewide charitable organization whose mission is to provide greater access to justice.

Connie Bookman

Bookman will be just the second non-lawyer to hold the position. A licensed clinical social worker, she founded Pathways for Change in 2005 to provide counseling, education, vocational training and residential addiction treatment for those impacted by poverty and substance abuse. Pathways for Change is currently pivoting from daily program operations to a broader vision of assisting local agencies in eliminating homelessness. She earned her bachelor’s degree from St. Leo University and her master’s degree in social work from Florida State University.

In 2018, Bookman was given the Community Leader of the Year PACE Award from the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce. She received the Chief Judge Award of Service for the First Judicial Circuit in 2015 and was named the FSU School of Social Work Field Educator of the Year in 2012. She has been recognized with the Florida House of Representatives’ 2008 Unsung Hero Award, and the National Association of Social Workers’ Dedicated and Deserving Social Worker Award in 2011.

She is currently the chair of the Foundation’s grants committee. She is also a Florida Bar Foundation Fellow and a member of The Foundation’s Bronze Society for lifetime giving.

The Florida Bar Foundation accomplishes its mission by funding programs that expand and improve representation and advocacy on behalf of low-income persons in civil legal matters, improve the fair and effective administration of justice, and promote public service among lawyers.