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Kim and Julian MacQueen

  • Kim MacQueen: Psychology '89, Master of Psychology '91

Biography

Dr. Kim and Julian MacQueen are active members of the Bahá’í Faith, founding impactful and life-changing programs, such as the Independence of the Blind of Northwest Florida, the MacQueen Alumni Center at the University of South Alabama, the MacQueen School of Hospitality at the University of West Florida, Parent University of Pensacola, Equality Project Alliance for Anti-Racism in Pensacola and the Escambia Children’s Trust founding Chairman.

Through The Hive, a Foundation under Innisfree Hotels, Julian, and Kim fund Dixon School of Arts & Sciences, a private, K-8th grade school serving at-risk youth living in Escambia County, Florida.

Kim holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from UWF. She has strong roots in education and family development. Her first career was as a teacher and later as Administrative Director of Knoxville Montessori Children’s House in Knoxville, Tennessee. Following the completion of her master's degree, she worked as a couples therapist and as an adjunct in the graduate program at UWF.

Since 1986, she has been intimately involved with the building of the culture of Innisfree Hotels, a company she and her husband formed. Kim serves on the founding board of the company.

She has also served on several nonprofit boards, among them the UWF Foundation and the Dixon School of the Arts and Sciences. She is a founding board member of the Wings to the Spirit Foundation which describes its mission as “encouraging the arts in service to humanity.” Kim has been a board member of Parent University since 2020 and is one of the sponsors of developing a satellite program of Parent University in Pensacola.

Julian is the Founder and Chairman of Innisfree Hotels, the Pensacola-based hotel company that owns and operates a collection of hotels in the Southeast. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Julian graduated from The University of South Alabama with a B.A. in Psychology. Since founding Innisfree Hotels in 1985, the company is currently ranked as the 42nd largest hotel company in the U.S. and the seventh largest employer in the Pensacola MSA.

Recognized for both his experience in hotels and philanthropy, Julian has been awarded the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, the 2019 Elvin McCorvey Education Award by NAACP, and the 2020 Florida Trend 500’s Most Influential Business Leaders, Distinguished Alumni University of South Alabama, and a Circumnavigation Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.