Nina Waters

Nina Waters led Florida’s oldest and largest community foundation, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, from January 2005 through August 2023. During her tenure, the Foundation’s assets and annual grantmaking grew from $51M to peak assets of more than $630 million and annual grants to the community of more than $50 million. Nina’s accomplishments include the launch of a ten-year Quality Education for All Initiative and the development of the Foundation’s first giving circle, the Women’s Giving Alliance.

Nina currently serves on Jacksonville University’s Board of Trustees. She served as chairman of the OneJax Senior Advisory Council and is a past chairman of Philanthropy Southeast (formerly the Southeastern Council of Foundations), former President of Community Foundations of Florida, former board member of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, a founding and legacy member of the Women’s Giving Alliance, a former member of the Florida Board of Managers for Nemours Children’s Hospital, a founding member of the Jacksonville Civic Council, and is a former President of Uptown Civitan Club. She was named as one of Florida Trend’s 500 Most Influential Business Leaders for five years consecutive years (2018 – 2022). Nina was honored by Leadership Jacksonville in 2016, and she received the President’s Citation from OneJax in 2014, the same year she was inducted into the First Coast Business Hall of Fame.  She won the Florida Times-Union EVE Award for Employment in 2013. She also received the Gold Medallion for Lifetime Achievement from OneJax in 2023.

Nina is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to Jacksonville in 1976 to attend Jacksonville University. Upon her retirement in 2023, she and her husband Lex Waters moved to the mountains of North Georgia to be near their son, Alex, his wife, Erika, and grandchildren Ace and Leighton.