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Speakers 2003–04

Date Name Title and Organization Topic
Jul 16, 2003 Paul Ash Executive Director, San Francisco Food Bank What hunger looks like in The City, the work of SF Food Bank, and how corporations and individuals can participate in solving the problem.
Jul 23, 2003 Sarah Sacks-Irvine Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2003–2004 and volunteer, Rape Trauma Services of San Mateo County RTS, the population it serves, the trauma of sexual assault, and breaking the cycle of violence.
Jul 30, 2003 Joel Rubinstein Immediate past president, Rotary Club of San Francisco West, and member, RESULTS Three days in June of lobbying Democratic and Republican members of Congress on foreign aid funding for AIDS, TB, and malaria, pursuant to President Bush’s Global AIDS Initiative.
Aug 6, 2003 Martin Stephan Old Growth Campaigner, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which works to protect the earth’s rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through dynamic campaigns that work to bring corporate and governmental policies into alignment with popular support for rainforest conservation. RAN’s Old Growth Campaign, which works to preserve the earth’s remaining ancient forests by driving old growth wood products out of the marketplace and by promoting the use of sustainable alternatives. The campaign currently targets Boise Cascade’s logging and distribution of old growth wood.
Aug 13, 2003 Lyzel Sydiongco and Dennis McMahon Members of the Group Study Exchange (GSE) team that went to Vietnam in spring 2002. Lyzel is an account executive at a San Francisco-based marketing and PR firm. Dennis works as the public affairs specialist in the San Francisco Peace Corps office. Our GSE experience in Vietnam
Aug 20, 2003 DG Fred West, District Executive Director Sandie Krutz, and ADG Riki Intner Rotary District 5150  
Aug 27, 2003 Toby Leavitt Executive Director, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival History and educational projects of the S.F. Shakespeare Festival
Sep 3, 2003 Dena Blank Executive Director, Bay Area Girls Center, which serves 11-to-18-year-old girls from around the Bay Area. BAGC’s mission is to empower adolescent girls to develop and express their strengths. In September 2004, Bay Area Girls Center became GirlVentures.  
Sep 10, 2003 Nadine Blaschak-Brown Program Coordinator, Rally Family Visitation Services, a community-based social service designed for children who may be at risk of emotional or physical harm following their parents’ separation or divorce. Rally provides a safe, neutral environment with professional staff and trained volunteers who supervise visits and monitor exchanges between children and their parents. Rally’s services, including supervised visitation, and monitored exchanges for safe transfer of children between parents.
Sep 17, 2003 Bill Gilmore Architect and member, Rotary Club of San Francisco West My career as an architect
Sep 17, 2003 Bonus speaker: Carine Gursky Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Light The Night Walk, the Society’s nationwide evening walk to raise awareness of blood cancers and funds for cures. A walk is scheduled for San Francisco September 27.
Sep 24, 2003 Aubrey Weldon The People Management Company, attorney, and member, Rotary Club of Daly City “Law, Lawyers and the Rise of Capitalism”
Oct 1, 2003 Anita Yoskowitz Program Coordinator, Veteran Industries, a Department of Veterans Affairs vocational program that assists American veterans in securing competitive employment in their respective communities. At Veteran Industries, in addition to handling the financial end of the program, she works with the private business community to increase veterans’ opportunities in the private business sector.  
Oct 8, 2003 Julie Ohtaki Blood Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides blood and blood components to hospitals, physicians and patients throughout Northern California, helping 50,000 patients every year with blood donated by community volunteers.  
Oct 15, 2003 Liz Kennedy Activities Coordinator, Rita da Cascia, a project of the Catholic Youth Organization in San Francisco. Rita da Cascia assists families with persons with AIDS. Rita da Cascia’s programs including “Adopt a family” and the clients served.
Oct 22, 2003 James “Jim” Mullin Broker Associate, Cameron Jones Realtors, Inc., and member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco West. With over 20 years of real estate sales experience, he is a member of the San Francisco Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. “The Real State of Real Estate in San Francisco.”
Oct 29, 2003 Ruth Garland-Dewson Founder and Executive Director, Western Addition Foundation for Girls, dedicated to helping young girls of all ethnic backgrounds, promoting student scholarships, internships, and uniforms and equipment for girls’ sports teams. She is also the owner of Mrs. Dewson’s Hats at Fillmore and California, and the author of Hats for Every Head.  
Nov 5, 2003 Heidi Kühn Founder and Executive Director, Roots of Peace, an organization dedicated to eradicating landmines worldwide and rehabilitating the land to make it productive once more. Heidi Kühn is a member of the Rotary Club of San Rafael and was ambassador to Utsunomiya, Japan, through a Rotary Exchange program in 1975. The “Mines to Vines” initiative, demining hundreds of acres of land in Croatia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Nov 12, 2003 Jesse Garrett Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in 1998–99 in Sao Paulo, Brazil & now a sophomore at SF State, pursuing a degree in International Relations. He is also an assistant manager at Noah’s Bagels, and tutors for an afterschool program known as RISE Institute (Research in Special Education).  
Nov 19, 2003 Dave Cresson Member, Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay and past district governor “World Community Service: I’ve Been There.”
Dec 3, 2003 Bill Gilmore Architect and member, Rotary Club of San Francisco West Architecture: the process, from the first meeting with the client to finalizing the plans.
Dec 10, 2003 Dani Montague Member, Rotary #2 Club and State Director, March of Dimes Northern California Chapter. March of Dimes funds research, health education, and advocacy programs to prevent birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. March of Dimes’ campaign against premature birth
Dec 17, 2003 Charles Regal Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution Services, Community Boards of San Francisco, a nonprofit organization that helps develop school-based and community conflict resolution programs in the U.S. and internationally. Community Boards programs, including peer mediation and broader conflict resolution approaches for schools and school districts and more.

 

Date Speaker, Organization, Topic
January 21, 2004 Eric Shapira, member (28 years), Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay; district governor-elect for 2004–2005; and dentist (recently retired due to neck injury). He is completing a master of arts in gerontology from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont. He received a Health, Hunger and Humanity (3‑H) grant in 1989 to work in the jungles of Jamaica after hurricane Gilbert, and was a Rotaplast volunteer in November 2001 in Bolivia. Topic: “Graceful aging.”
January 28, 2004 William Song, Habit Project, which teaches self-hypnoses and other techniques to help people conquer issues including habits, phobias, recurring thoughts, allergies, and chronic pain.
February 4, 2004 Jake McGoldrick, member, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, District 1. Mr. McGoldrick is a 27-year resident of the Richmond District and has been active in protecting and improving San Francisco neighborhoods for more than 18 years, advocating for the preservation and creation of housing. After working his way through San Francisco State University as a construction worker, he became a teacher of English/ESL at Presentation High School and City College of San Francisco. For the last 12 years, he has taught ESL at the University of San Francisco. Mr. McGoldrick was a founder and officer of the Richmond Community Association and an early leader in the fight to preserve the character of the neighborhoods. He has been an officer of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods and the San Francisco Housing and Tenants Council. On the Board of Supervisors, he serves as chair of the Land Use Committee, and is a member of the Finance Committee and the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission. Supervisor McGoldrick is the Board appointee to the Golden Gate Bridge Board, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the California State Association of Cities and is a Commissioner on the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
February 18, 2004 David Bracker, interim executive director, Booker T. Washington Community Services Center, with many programs serving the people of the Western Addition neighborhood in San Francisco. The Rotary Club of San Francisco West is working to improve outdoor facilities of the center. We had one clean-up day and we will rebuild an outdoor stage and improve wheelchair accessibility.
February 25, 2004 Greg Livingston, Licensed Acupuncturist, and practitioner of Chinese herbology and massage therapy, spoke about the history and current practice of Chinese medicine.
March 3, 2004 Ken Lai, owner, Mr. Hardware, and member, Rotary Club of San Francisco West, spoke about the geography and economy of Chile, and showed slides.
March 10, 2004 Howard Levitt, Chief of Interpretation and Education, Golden Gate National Recreational Area, one of the largest urban national parks in the world. GGNRA comprises numerous sites, including Alcatraz, Marin Headlands, Nike Missile Site, Fort Mason, as well as Muir Woods National Monument, Fort Point National Historic Site, and the Presidio of San Francisco. It is the most visited unit of the National Park System in America, receiving over 20 million visitors annually.
  Mr. Levitt is responsible for a multifaceted program of personal services, audiovisual media, exhibits, visitor centers, and publications that orient visitors and facilitate emotional and intellectual connections between park visitors and protected cultural and natural resources. His responsibilities include strategic planning, exhibit development, research, program design, delivery and evaluation; and outreach to non-traditional audiences. He has been with GGNRA since 1986 and with the National Park Service since 1978.
  Our originally scheduled speaker was Brian O’Neill, Superintendent, GGNRA, but he had sudden family obligations. As superintendent, Mr. O’Neill oversees an annual operating budget of $25 million, a staff of 425 employees, and a volunteer force of over 15,000. Mr. O’Neill also provides direction and management of a large resource and visitor facility improvement program at Golden Gate, estimated to be $250 million over the next few years. In his capacity as Superintendent, Mr. O’Neill has been a prominent figure over the past several years in the transitioning of the Presidio of San Francisco from a military installation to national park.
March 17, 2004 Mabel Chan, manager of community services, American Cancer Society. Ms. Chan spoke about the services of American Cancer Society and the annual Relay for Life.
March 24, 2004 James Herynk, former Rotary Scholar, Argentina, 2000. Mr. Herynk is working on agricultural projects with indigenous communities in Central Guatemala. The goal is to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and better health by diversifying diet with new varieties of fruits and animal products. He will soon return to Guatemala and work in partnership with the Coban, Guatemala Rotary Club to expand the farming and health projects to some 125 villages north of Coban.
March 31, 2004 Tony De Angelis, member, Rotary Club of Millbrae; Past District Governor, Rotary District 5150; and operator of BayTraders.com, an internet marketing service: speaking about membership!
April 7, 2004 Leslie Squires, M.D., in private practice in San Francisco, boarded in Internal Medicine and affiliated with California Pacific Medical Center. Topic: Dementia, which affects 4.5 million Americans, with an estimated annual cost of over $100 billion. Dr. Squires reviewed current thinking on the pathogenesis and treatment options available for those with Alzheimer’s disease and prevention strategies for those who may be at risk.
April 14, 2004 Rob Gitin, co-founder and director, At the Crossroads, a young, innovative program whose mission is to reach out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and work with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. ATC serves individuals who aren’t lining up at homeless shelters, or stopping by free clinics for more condoms. Instead, ATC targets people who are put off by the very idea of asking for help, and meets them at the point of need, rather than waiting for them to come for assistance.
  Robert Gitin continues to conduct outreach and counseling as well as directing the organization. He has worked with homeless youth since 1996, and has previous experience working with incarcerated populations. While at Stanford University, Rob conducted fieldwork with homeless youth and assistant-taught a class on homelessness and poverty in the U.S.
April 28, 2004 David Craig, director of the Pygmalion Project of Community Gatepath, an organization that provides services for the developmentally disabled of all ages. Pygmalion goes into fifth grade classrooms with an extensive program to make the students aware of the problems of the developmentally disabled. David Craig is the former director of community relations for the San Francisco Giants, where his job was image-building for the Giants. He spoke about both the Pygmalion Project and community relations in the baseball industry.
May 12, 2004 Daniel Alef, member, Santa Ynez Valley Rotary Club in Santa Barbara County; author of an award-winning historical novel Pale Truth, the first book in a trilogy. Pale Truth is set mainly in San Francisco and accurately reflects California history. Mr. Alef also writes a weekly column in the Santa Barbara News Press called Titans of Fortune, about California’s great moguls. Mr. Alef spoke about (1) the state of history in the U.S. and the reasons for its dismal record; (2) the role of historical fiction in the cure; (3) following his dream.
May 19, 2004 Tod Mikuriya, M.D., Medical Coordinator, California Cannabis Centers and author, Oakland Buyers’ Cooperative Protocols. Dr. Mikuriya’s medical practice puts himself in the eye of multiple political, social, and legal hurricanes in a cultural war against medical marijuana. In private medical psychiatric consultative practice in Berkeley and the East Bay, he was an attending psychiatrist at Gladman Hospital from 1970 until 1991. He was chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley (1993–94), and attending psychiatrist at Laurel Grove, Vencor, Alameda County Medical Center, and San Leandro Hospitals until 2000. Dr. Mikuriya was director of the Drug Abuse Treatment Center at the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute, NJ, before appointment as director of non-classified marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies. He set up the first methadone maintenance program in Alameda County.
  Dr. Mikuriya is a member of the California Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association (Life Member), American Society of Addiction Medicine, California Society of Addiction Medicine (certified Addiction Medicine Specialist and Medical Review Officer) and the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, where he served on the ACCMA Chemical Addictions Committee. His talk included a discussion of the California Medical Board’s case against him, in which he was put on probation and assessed $75,000 in costs for what he describes as a politically-motivated malicious prosecution.
  Tod Mikuriya died May 20, 2007.
May 26, 2004 John H. Hill, curator-in-charge of Aviation, San Francisco Airport Museums. Mr. Hill began a museum career in 1982 as operations manager for the Laguna Beach Art Museum. In 1986, John joined the San Francisco Airport Museums, which was called Exhibitions Program at that time, as a museum preparator. After he held positions as registrar, curatorial assistant, and curator, he was assigned responsibility for the development of an aviation museum and library at SFO as part of the San Francisco Airport Museums in 1996. Since then, the San Francisco Aeronautical Society was founded as the support affiliate and membership organization of the aviation museum and library in 1997. The San Francisco Museums received accreditation from the American Association of Museums and in 2000, the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum opened in the new International Terminal initiating research services and exhibitions programs for the public, and launching the Museums’ first volunteer program. In 2002, the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum received an “Excellence in Motion” Merit Award from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Mr. Hill’s talk was “SFO — a Flight Through History.”
June 2, 2004 Juanita Recinos, Youth Advocate, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a project of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids. Ms. Recinos, a senior at Mission High School in San Francisco, was recently presented with the 2003 West Regional Youth Advocate of the Year award by Senator Dianne Feinstein for her work to keep children from using tobacco. Ms. Recinos has been an active member of the Youth Community Health Organizing Project (Yoco-Hop) since 2000. She often acts as a spokesperson for the group and represented them at the 3rd World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Chicago. She led members of Yoco-Hop in their efforts to pass the Commercial Free Schools Act for all San Francisco public schools. The act began as a ban on the sale and advertisement of tobacco company subsidiary products on school grounds. It expanded and now also prohibits all vendor contracts and brand name products from being sold in San Francisco public schools. Juanita is working to enforce the ban and educate schools across the city about the act’s provisions. Ms. Recinos also works closely with the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition on a global partnership with a buddy group in El Salvador that has resulted in the passage of a Clean Indoor Air act in San Miguel, El Salvador.
June 9, 2004 Jake Sigg, Conservation Chair and past president, Yerba Buena Chapter, California Native Plant Society (CNPS). CNPS, as part of its mission to preserve the native flora and biological systems, works to inform the public about its natural heritage through field trips, monthly programs, newsletters, and other media. CNPS shares expertise with public agencies, landowners, and community groups. In San Francisco, CNPS works with the Recreation and Park Department and school and community groups in hands-on projects. CNPS cooperates with San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Division in park management, especially San Bruno Mountain, site of the nation’s first Habitat Conservation Plan, cited by Congress to serve as a model for the nation.
  Mr. Sigg described the character of our native flora and the problem of non-native species alongside the diversity of native flowers and plants. He discussed community involvement in environmental restoration, including Rotary’s involvement with UCSF’s Mt. Sutro project.
June 16, 2004 Brian Friedman, Training on the Beach. On May 12, 2004, Mr. Friedman swam handcuffed from Alcatraz to San Francisco to raise public awareness and funds to fight the epidemic of diabetes. He is training to swim handcuffed across the Hudson River for the Late Show with David Letterman. The purpose of swimming handcuffed is to raise awareness of the rising epidemic of diabetes. His fitness experience includes ACE-certified personal trainer, triathlon, open ocean swimming, SGT USMC, SCUBA instructor, first aid and CPR instructor, and adventure racing.
June 23, 2004 Howard Waits, President 2002–2003, Rotary Club of San Francisco (#2 Club). He has served three times as Rotary District 5150 RYLA chairman, including the 2003–04 year now ending. He retired in 2003 as senior financial consultant with Merrill Lynch, where he worked for over 46 years. Howard Waits has been a member of the executive board of the San Francisco Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America since 1993. He is current council advancement chairman, and also chairman of the Point Bonita YMCA Board of Managers. He received the 1998 San Francisco YMCA Volunteer of the Year Award. Howard spoke about the Rotary International Convention in Tokyo, and presented a slideshow of his trip to Thailand.
June 30, 2004 Bill Gilmore, President 2004–05, Rotary Club of San Francisco West.

For more information, please contact programs@rotarysfwest.org.