Deering Estate Foundation honors its 2025 Champion Partners

Annual awards recognize outstanding contributions to the Deering Estate

Jan. 29, 2026 at 6:39pm

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The Deering Estate Foundation and the Deering Estate honored its 2025 Champion Partners of the Year, recognizing a group of awardees for their accomplishments in preservation, programming, community engagement, and more. The awards celebrated the cooperative efforts and community involvement that help preserve and enhance the Deering Estate.

Why it matters

The Deering Estate is a historic and environmental landmark in Miami, and the Champion Partner awards highlight the vital role that community organizations, businesses, volunteers, and advocates play in supporting the Estate's mission of conservation, preservation, and public access. These awards showcase how diverse partnerships and grassroots engagement are essential to maintaining the Deering Estate as a cultural and ecological resource for South Florida.

The details

The 2025 Champion Partner award recipients included RJ Heisenbottle Architects for their work on the Stone House restoration, Amerant Bank for their financial expertise and sponsorship support, artist Barron Sherer for his innovative film programming, Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute for their community health initiatives, artist Susana Behar for her musical performances, the Green Mobility Network for managing the Seafood Festival bike valet, and several dedicated volunteers. The awards recognized the partners' contributions in areas like historic preservation, arts and culture, environmental conservation, and community engagement.

  • The awards ceremony took place on January 21, 2026.
  • The Deering Seafood Festival, which involves several of the honored partners, is an annual event.

The players

Suzanne Gottlieb Calleja

President of the Deering Estate Foundation.

Nina Zanella

Executive Director of the Deering Estate Foundation.

Karen Solms

Chief of the Deering Estate.

RJ Heisenbottle Architects

A nationally respected architecture and historic preservation firm that has worked on the Stone House restoration project at the Deering Estate.

Amerant Bank

A Florida-based community bank that has provided financial expertise and sponsorship support to the Deering Estate Foundation.

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What they’re saying

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The takeaway

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