39th Environmental Permitting Summer School

Charlette Roman is a retired U. S. Army officer with 26 years of military service who enlisted in the Army in 1973 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1976. She served as Commander of an Airborne Signal Battalion at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, a Garrison Commander in Georgia and rose to the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2001. During her military service, Roman also worked as a U.S. Army Inspector General and was one of the first U.S. military personnel present to witness East Germans crossing the Freedom Bridge in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

After retirement, Roman moved to Marco Island in Collier County and became involved in public service locally, including serving on the Collier Citizens Council, Collier County Planning Commission, Marco Island Planning Board and Marco Island Civic Association Board of Directors. She was elected to the Marco Island City Council in 2016. Her public service also includes work safeguarding the tax dollars of citizens while serving on the Marco Island Taxpayers Association Board of Directors.

Roman has a passion for conservation causes and volunteered more than 1,000 hours with Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. She also served as the President of The Friends of Tigertail Beach, a nonprofit conservation organization and was a founding Board Member of the Gulf Coast Orchid Alliance. She is a certified Florida Master Naturalist and in recognition of her educational and stewardship efforts, Roman received the prestigious Collier County Audubon Society Fellowship in 2009, now Audubon of the Western Everglades. In 2022, she was honored for her environmental work with the Laverne Norris Gaynor Environmental Champion Award from the Friends of Rookery Bay Board of Directors.

Roman grew up in Akron, Ohio and currently lives on Marco Island.

Roman received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Loyola University in New Orleans and a Master of Arts Degree in Business Management from Webster University. She is also a U.S. Army War College Graduate.