Justine GriffinEditor, Economy and Growth
I'm a native Floridian who grew up in Pasco County. Prior to becoming an editor, I covered health and medicine and business news at the Times. Before joining the paper in 2015, I worked for the St. Augustine Record, the Sun Sentinel and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, where I gained national attention for my retail coverage and for a long-form article I wrote about my experience as an egg donor. I'm a graduate of the University of Central Florida (Go Knights!), where I studied journalism. I'm also an equestrian. My horse's name is Mikey.
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/tbt/ed3a70a2-5cb5-402d-b6e6-170e5c028ff8.png "Justine Griffin - Editor, Economy and Growth")
![Egmont Key off the coast of Fort DeSoto in Tampa Bay. Fire officials worked to extinguish a 2-acre fire that burned Sunday afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 562 316"/%3E "Egmont Key off the coast of Fort DeSoto in Tampa Bay. Fire officials worked to extinguish a 2-acre fire that burned Sunday afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/ZURM3MGIDNAX7CHWT3NE5C2KCM.JPG "People fish near the St. Pete Pier. Five people have died so far this year from flesh-eating bacteria, according to data from the Florida Department of Health.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/ANUUZKQ7JFAIVF5KXDPIA2DKUQ.jpg "Tampa Bay Times Top Workplaces 2023.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/5D4R4XWJIEI6TAOPPAY4DVT77I.jpg "Florida reached a new high for 2023 on Friday, when the average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.84, according to industry firm AAA The Auto Group. That beat the previous high of $3.72 from April.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/C73IRT553VHQ7HHJ27EGNYG22A.jpg "Tampa Airport Marriott TPAAP
Photographer: Jeff Herron
www.jeffherron.com
jeff@jeffherron.com
561.902.7797
Shoot Date: 11.2022")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/SI2AY6LRTJFRHP2WAKEUQJ7SCA.JPG "Detectives say two people stole $1,000 worth of welding cable on Oct. 30 at Flexential Tampa-North Data Center and fled in a U-Haul truck with a walrus on the side of it.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/YJ3I3RY5ZBBNPHHFX266FF5MRM.jpg "Now’s the time to nominate your employer for the 14th Tampa Bay Times Top Workplaces award program.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/EAKTDPJ6PNERZIYTQSKFZONNUE.jpg "Now’s the time to nominate your employer for the 14th Tampa Bay Times Top Workplaces award program. Any organization with 50 or more employees in the Tampa Bay area are eligible to participate.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/D46LC3WHMFEKNPJAXM6R3JH37U.JPG "Un McDonald's en Dale Mabry Highway en Tampa el miércoles 12 de mayo de 2021. Caspers Company, con sede en Tampa, anunció el lunes que planea vender todas sus sucursales y franquicias de McDonald's el 1 de octubre.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/53YXCAGJNQI6TMRBPAY4DVT77I.jpg "Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, has been named co-chairperson of the Pulitzer Prize board.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/AGD56K5YLNELVCW2U7U7WRAVQU.jpg "The Arts and Entertainment Residences in downtown Tampa broke ground on Thursday.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/UXHIPEHPZ5APHOEEMBKXK2TB7U.png "The data startup company Manta announced it raised $35 million in Series B funding.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/WANBGBBKXZBVZJTL5MXRU22ABM.jpg "Grant Shriver is the new CEO and partner of TB12, a health and wellness company founded in part by Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Tom Brady.")
:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/3YS52LNQS5BMJIPCGKXDMDCG7Q.jpeg "Keyuhn Chambers, 41, of Pinellas Park.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/EFEBT6NSYRC47LIWYIBUTQY72E.jpg "PostcardMania employee Andre Johnson, of Clearwater, left, works with Sammy Boyaxhi, of Clearwater, to finish and package direct-mail postcard advertisements at the small business marketing company on Friday, March 12, 2021, in Clearwater.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/UUUZOMWJKMI6TMRBPAY4DVT77I.jpg "Egmont Key off the coast of Fort DeSoto in Tampa Bay. Fire officials worked to extinguish a 2-acre fire that burned Sunday afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/Q5HTI3NFMFAXVJSM7QJIHLKSDE.png "This is a breaking news story. Stick with tampabay.com for updates.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/Z2CZ7FTWIJE77LMOKUYYXYUQ6Q.jpg "A 33-year-old man from St. Petersburg is dead after a high-speed chase ended with a wrong-way crash at the Tampa International Airport, according to Florida Highway Patrol.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/C4LQUH2V7NBBFFICWM2J3HQLAY.jpg "JoLynn Schultz, assistant front office manager at the TradeWinds Island Resort is pictured, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 in St. Pete Beach.")
![Barbizon employee Salina Jones, 41, of Lutz works as an outbound sales representative at the corporate headquarters in Tampa. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]](https://www.tampabay.com/resizer//2dzx8M648SFXO5cVwEdKeNocbf8=/320x180/filters:format(webP)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/QI3QMQWIQYI6TIRQPAY4DVT77I.jpg "Barbizon employee Salina Jones, 41, of Lutz works as an outbound sales representative at the corporate headquarters in Tampa. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]")