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Speakers 2006–07

Date	Speaker, Organization, Topic
July 5, 2006	Brian McLeran, district governor-elect, 2007–2008, speaking on his Rotaplast trip to Vietnam.
July 12, 2006	Joanna Fritz, new club president.
July 19, 2006	Eric Shapira, past district governor, Rotary District 5150. After a career of over 30 years as a cosmetic dentist, Eric changed fields and is a practicing clinical gerontologist with Aging Mentor Services, Inc. Joining Eric are two members of the GSE team that went to Chile in April 2006. Maria Teresa Garcia, business consultant for the Childcare Program, Mission Economic Development Association, a community-based, local economic development corporation. MEDA provides small business technical assistance, loan packaging and advocacy targeted at minority and women-owned businesses in San Francisco’s Mission District. In addition, MEDA conducts neighborhood revitalization projects such as the Mission Corridor Project, 24th Street BART Redesign, and the Dolores Park Strategic Plan. Sheryl Onopchenko, director of business development at Spear Street Partners, which provides mezzanine finance, bridge loans, and equity to residential developers and real estate investors to construct and rehabilitate housing in urban markets. She is primarily responsible for raising capital and overseeing the development process.
July 26, 2006	David Fridley, energy efficiency scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and activist, San Francisco Oil Awareness, concerned with the ramifications of petroleum depletion (peak oil) and surrounding issues. Peak oil is the idea that there is some year on earth at which production of oil peaks, after which increased production will not be possible at any price. The peak oil year may have already come, or it may be in the very near future. In December 2005, a group of SFOA members formed a committee with the goal of contacting the members of the board of supervisors in San Francisco to express concerns about peak oil, with the goal of the city working to mitigate the potential future effects of it on our city and region. After meeting with members of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, attended meetings of the Policy Committee of the Commission on the Environment, as well as the entire Commission on the Environment, and meeting with aides and supervisors, on April 10, 2006, The board of supervisors passed the SFOA resolution by a unanimous vote of 10-0. San Francisco became the first major city in the U.S. to pass such a resolution regarding peak oil.
August 2, 2006	Margi Dunlap, executive director, International Institute of San Francisco, a nonprofit organization that provides a variety of services to immigrant communities in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. IISD’s mission is to enable immigrants and refugees to become fully participating citizens in their new communities. Services include preparation for citizenship interviews and tests, administrative compliance assistance, youth job training, healthcare promotion, and neighborhood communication. IISF is an affiliate of the national partnership, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.   Margi accepted a three-month temporary assignment at IISD in November 1977, coordinating an English workshop for traumatized refugees. After studying anthropology as an undergraduate, she completed her Masters’ in counseling, and earned her MFT license. A Cambodian man whose first English word was “nightmare” helped to put the inadequacy of Margi’s formal education to the test, and set the course for her future. She served on a White House task force convened to respond to the Mariel refugee crisis in 1980 and has worked with the U.S. Committee for Refugees to develop programs for survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Off-duty, Margi writes, raises orchids, watches her family grow, and travels to places she’s never been before.
August 9, 2006	Julie Robbins, occupational therapist and volunteer, VSO Canada, the Canadian partner of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). VSO is an international development agency that works through volunteers to fight global poverty by supporting people to share skills, creativity and learning with communities around the world. Through personal commitment and practical action, volunteers help build a fairer world. In September, Julie will begin a year in Rwanda to help train Rwandan professionals to use occupational therapy techniques with children with disabilities. Meanwhile, Julie is helping to start a company called Development By Design, which designs toys for children with special needs.
August 16, 2006	Mike York, past president, Rotary Club of San Francisco West, demonstrating hands-on beginner balloon modeling. Just back from balloon camp, Mike shows how easy it is to twist balloons into simple pleasing shapes in a very short time.
August 23, 2006	Mark Flegel, district governor, Rotary District 5150. Mark Flegel is president and CEO of Flegel’s Fine Furniture and Interior Design, a fifty-two–year company with locations in Menlo Park, San Rafael, and San Ramon. He received a master’s degree in philosophy from USC. The talk is titled “About Rotary.”
August 30, 2006	Jacquie Proctor, longtime resident of Miraloma Park and cofounder of the Friends of Mount Davidson Conservancy, will present her new book on San Francisco’s West of Twin Peaks. With a master’s dgree in public administration and 30 years of experience in city management, she has been volunteering her expertise to the Miraloma Park Improvement Club and West of Twin Peaks Council since the 1980s. Her work to preserve Mount Davidson Park during the court case concerning separation of church and state in 1997 sparked her interest in local history. Research for that effort was initially published in articles for the SF Museum and Historical Society and Western Neighborhood Project. Her research has now been exapnded into the first book exclusively devoted to the history of San Francisco’s highest hill and surrounding neighborhoods: Sunnyside, Miraloma Park, Westwood Park and Highlands, Monterey Heights, Mount Davidson Manor, Balboa Terrace, and Ingleside Terraces. Recently retired from the City of Berkeley, Jacquie continues to volunteer as an accreditation evaluator for the American Public Works Association and a San Francisco City Guide.
September 6, 2006	Michel Rochat, past president of the Rotary Club of Lausanne-Ouest, Switzerland, and member of the executive board of the Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO) (Universities of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland). The UAS are professional Universities providing studies in specific disciplines (technical, business, fine arts, design, health, social, oenology and hotel management). Their mission is to develop expertise in applications for these fields and to train professionals. The HES-SO is a network of five state and two private universities. The HES-SO is the biggest university of applied Science in Switzerland, with 12,000 students, 3,000 diplomas annually, and an annual budget of U.S.$220 million. Mr. Rochat is working in the United States with the Swiss House in San Francisco (Swissnex). Swissnex is part of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco. Swissnex accommodates several Swiss institutions to develop contacts “connecting the dots” between Western USA, Canada and Swiss institutions and firms. Initiated by the Swiss State Secretary for Education and Research, Swissnex stimulates strategic collaboration and active thinking. Mr. Rochat will be joined by Swissnex Mission Chief Christian Simm. Christian is the Swiss science and technology counselor for the West of North America, and the founder of Swissnex. Previously he was head of the Industrial Liaison Office of EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Switzerland, where he earned his Ph.D. in physics. He was also project leader at INRS-Energie in Varennes, Québec. This meeting's topics include the Swiss education system, Swissnex, and the HES-SO.
September 13, 2006	Dee Dee Tran Que Nguyen, Development Officer, East Meets West Foundation, which has been working for over 17 years with the people of Vietnam to build a peaceful and prosperous future. Currently the largest non-governmental organization (NGO) working in Vietnam today, EMW has built a reputation of implementing high-quality programs and projects that make a lasting impact on thousands of children and families living in poverty. With headquarters in Da Nang, Vietnam, and Oakland, California, EMW employs an exceptionally dedicated and knowledgeable staff that is committed to sustainable development in Vietnam.
September 20, 2006	Vicky Pollack, director, Children’s Book Project, founded to help build literacy by providing free, new and gently used books to children who need them. Since the beginning in 1992, Children’s Book Project has collected and distributed nearly 1,000,000 books to San Francisco Bay Area children and their shelters, schools, community and daycare centers.
September 27, 2006	Tony Bothwell, attorney and president-elect, Fisherman’s Wharf Rotary Club. Tony attended the 2006 Rotary International Convention, and on the way back he visited Denmark to see sites of interest relating to his suspected ancestor James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell (c.1535–1578). Also speaking: Erik Scheller, president, Fisherman’s Wharf Rotary Club, who joined Tony on the trip.
October 4, 2006	Nikki Anderson, personal coach and founder of Everyday Wellness Coaching, has mentored, counseled and coached dozens of persons on how to dare to dream and then explore, identify and reach their goals. She assists her clients in learning how to make themselves a priority, create intention in their lives, and feel inspiration. Nikki brings to her coaching nearly a decade of experience in business, psychology and wellness. She studied nutrition and psychology at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and received her master’s degree in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Nikki is also on the board of directors for SF Coaches, is a member of The International Coaching Federation, and is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). Her approach to life coaching is a combination of consulting, coaching and counseling based in experience, sound psychology and 12-step principles. Her talk is titled “Creating balance in work and life.”
October 18, 2006	Fred West, Membership Chair, Rotary District 5150; District Governor 2003–04; member, Rotary Club of Belmont; and founder, Marble West. Born in Australia, Fred West came to the United States in 1968 for one year to assist a South San Francisco–based company that manufactured a window and curtain wall system under license to his Australian employer. He remained in the U.S. and started his own business in 1975 and joined Belmont Rotary in the same year, maintaining perfect attendance ever since. Marble West specializes in the restoration and maintenance of natural stone (marble, granite, etc.) as well as metal and wood surfaces. Marble West currently maintains in excess of 200 commercial high-rise office buildings, hotels and restaurants in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The talk is titled “Rotary Membership, how do we attract and recruit new members?” Fred promises an informative, thought provoking, motivating and entertaining discussion that will assist our club in achieving our necessary membership growth.
October 25, 2006	David Spero, RN, is a 55-year-old nurse, journalist, activist and health educator living in San Francisco. He has taken care of people in a wide variety of settings, from hospitals to community health centers to home care. In 1989, as a father of two young children, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He had to learn something harder than taking care of other people: how to take care of himself.   David became a health coach, working successfully with chronically ill people to maximize their health and their lives. He gives workshops for health care providers on building patients’ capacity for self-care. In this practice, he soon realized that health and illness are socially created — they come from the quality and difficulties of people’s lives. Working with people as individuals to change habits and behaviors is not nearly as effective as bringing people together to support each other, to change behaviors, lives, and environments.   David counsels healthcare providers on more effective, social ways to help their patients — especially by working with them as equal and empowered partners. He leads wellness groups and support groups, and has co-written educational programs for people with arthritis, asthma, allergies, chronic pain, insomnia, and other conditions. He is currently on faculty of Quality Allies: Improving Care by Involving Patients, a project of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He is the author of the new book Diabetes: Sugar-Coated Crisis: Who Gets it, Who Profits and How to Stop it and the 2002 book The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health and Well-being When You Have a Chronic Illness.
November 1, 2006	Jeff Rubin, founder in 1981 of his newsletter publishing firm, The Newsletter Guy. Jeff has written and designed more than 1,600 newsletters for companies in a wide variety of industries, from defense contractors to mortuaries, from banks to motorcycle dealerships, from oil refineries to financial investment firms. He also publishes newsletters for several professional speakers. Jeff taught newsletter writing and design at The Learning Annex in San Francisco for two years and has been a marketing consultant with the Contra Costa Small Business Development Center. In 1997, he was featured in an article about businesses using newsletters to help promote their expertise, boost business and woo clients. The article, “Rev Up The Presses,” appeared in Your Company magazine, a publication of Money magazine and Time-Warner, Inc. Jeff was a contributing author in the book, Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters, in 2001. He is also the founder of National Punctuation Day. The topic is “How to Stay in Business for the Rest of Your Life.”
November 8, 2006	Nancy Castelli, professional organizer through her own company, Balance, which she founded in 2004. Nancy has over 15 years experience in organizing, time management and speaking, starting with her former career in high tech marketing, sales and business development. Nancy serves clients in the Bay Area from small business owners and sole proprietors to single moms, families, children and working adults. Nancy’s goal is to help clients turn their matter (clutter) into energy — clutter in closets, the garage, the kids room, the office, the file cabinet, in your e-mail box and even clutter in your schedule and to-do list. Her practice is a combination of coaching and hands-on organizing. Her clients experience life changes that result in living a more productive, rewarding and balanced life. She also serves the community though speaking engagements and is on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit child care center in San Francisco. Nancy is an active member of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) (S.F. website), BNI (Business Network International) (S.F. website) and the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Golden Gate Chapter website). She holds a BS from Bowling Green State University.
November 15, 2006	Maureen Smith, hypnotherapist and newsletter publisher, who’s also been a recruiter and volunteer trainer for Shanti, a stock broker, a financial planner, a teacher — of meditation, English and kindergarten — where she learned a lot! She assisted a jewelry designer and managed a warehouse. She’s been an Avon lady, an interior designer, a wife, a cook for summer camps, and a drug store clerk. She’s still a parent, although her children are grown. She does Tai Chi, sings, plays the guitar (like many self-described, self-respecting sixties’ chicks), checks in, meditates, and hangs out. She drinks plenty of water, but doesn’t walk on it. She is the author of Full Tilt Living and The ABCs of Full Tilt Living. Speaker’s topic: Hitting one out of the park: how to get the most out of your client meetings.
November 22, 2006	Meeting cancelled. We delivered thanksgiving meals to needy families instead.
November 29, 2006	John C. Harrison is involved with both the written and spoken word. For 40 years he has been an advertising copywriter and scriptwriter and a writer of corporate trainings and books. He’s also a public speaking coach who can help you put together and deliver an effective presentation. John runs regular full-day public speaking workshops at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. He also conducts on-site workshops for companies that can help employees become more comfortable and credible whenever they have to stand and present. John has given keynotes in London and in Perth, Australia. He’s presented workshops in over 15 cities across the U.S. and Canada as well as in England, Ireland, and Australia. He is past president of an advanced Toastmaster club in Belmont, California and he’s a six-year member of Business Network International. This presentation discusses how, by changing two subtle habits of thought, you can unleash your greatest resources and end up doing your most fulfilling work.
December 20, 2006	Colin Teahan participated in a program to add rooms to a school in Nicaragua in June 2006, and also toured the country. Colin is in seventh grade.
January 10, 2007	Emily Avera, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2007 to South Africa, sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Francisco West. Emily is campaign coordinator and program associate at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. She graduated from Pomona College, one of the Claremont Colleges. She is working to increase the rate of donations of bone marrow among Asian Americans. Emily is an active member of the Rotaract Club of San Francisco.
January 17, 2007	Brynna Jacobson, fellowship director, NamasteDirect. Brynna graduated with her B.A. in peace and conflict studies from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004. Since completing the peace & justice studies M.A. program at the University of San Diego, Brynna has been working for NamasteDirect, a San Francisco-based organization that works with local organizations in Guatemala and southern Mexico to provide microcredit loans to rural Mayan women. Brynna directs the NamasteDirect fellowship program, which provides an opportunity for young people to get involved in the work of international development and serves as a bridge linking donors to the microcredit borrowers who received their loan funds. Brynna’s academic interests include sustainable development, environmental justice, peacebuilding, nonviolent social change, and international civil society.
January 24, 2007	Beverley Bender, gerontologist and Certified Laugh Leader, with an honorary degree from the “University of Stop Acting Your Age.” She has learned to use humor and laughter to get through the “on-going” challenges in life. Bev speaks to businesses, government agencies, community civic clubs, caregivers, retirement communities, nursing homes and private parties on the importance of humor and laughter. Bev will speak anywhere, anytime on her favorite topic “laughing for the health of it.” Bev believes that laughter should be used as a complementary health care because it’s the most effective wonder drug with no side effects! She recently spoke at the Commonwealth Club on “Stop Acting Your Age.” She has been on national and local television promoting laughing exercises that help keep us healthy and happy.
February 7, 2007	Rotarian John Shellenberger. Topic: Rotary trips to Copper Canyon, Mexico, where Rotarians have provided dental care and other assistance to a region of impoverished rural villages.
March 7, 2007	Mike Aguilera, communication expert, trainer, speaker, coach. Aguilera helps clients discover the power and impact of motion, voice, and language at an unconscious level of communication. Mr. Aguilera is CEO and founder of Aguilera & Associates. He has created and conducts a series of unique empowering workshops all based around subconscious communication techniques and strategies for instant results. Mr. Aguilera is creator of the Instant Zone Technique, which helps control and channel energy and anxiety into productive use. He has been invited to conduct his workshops at many major companies including Sun Microsystems, Netscape/AOL, HP, Cisco Systems, IBM, PG&E, GE, Lockheed and many real estate companies and associations. Mike Aguilera is a certified NLP master practitioner and trainer. Mike Aguilera has trained thousands of people worldwide in cutting-edge technologies of accelerated human change and has been a guest on radio and TV programs across the country.
March 14, 2007	Richard Miles, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area. Big Brothers Big Sisters is the oldest and largest youth mentoring organization in the United States, in the Bay Area since 1958. The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships that provide measurable impact. Richard Miles joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area after a successful career as an entrepreneur and CEO in the private sector. His passion for their mission is unparalleled. He has been a Little Brother himself for over 40 years, and has a continuing relationship with his Big Brother. He brings energy and 25 years of building businesses from startup to success, strategic planning, and tactical hands-on leadership to shape the newly consolidated Bay Area-wide agency.
March 21, 2007	Judy Woods, Food Service Project Director and Volunteer Coordinator, Haight Ashbury Food Program (HAFP). HAFP provides free meals Tuesday through Friday, averaging 281 meals per day (as of 2004). Two-thirds of the programs meal guests are homeless. HAFP also provides job training to 24 to 30 participants each year. These participants were adults who faced multiple barriers to employment in their lives, including homelessness, addictions, mental health issues, single-parent families, low literacy levels and language barriers, in addition to an extremely low income. HAFP has a staff of four and relies on volunteers to assist with the preparation and serving of meals, among other tasks.
March 28, 2007	Lucy Quacinella, anti-poverty lawyer working with the Sunset District Neighborhood Coalition. She is the founder of Westside Neighbors to End Homelessness, newly formed and now collecting names of individuals and organizations interested in addressing homelessness in our neighborhood. Lucy Quacinella is a lawyer specializing in health and social services issues. Her business, Multiforum Advocacy Solutions, works with community-based organizations to develop and implement consumer-driven strategic advocacy plans. She has lived in the Outer Sunset for 7 years.
April 11, 2007	Ronni Goldfarb, President and Executive Director, Equal Access, which creates positive change for people in the developing world by providing information and education through targeted content, cost-effective technology, and community engagement. Headquartered in San Francisco, Equal Access has offices in Kathmandu, Nepal; Kabul, Afghanistan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and New Delhi, India. Equal Access was founded in order to close the information gap for communities in the developing world. The vision of the organization is firmly rooted in the belief that people everywhere are entitled to “Equal Access” to information and education and should have the opportunity to join the dialogue as both recipients and contributors of content. The topic of this presentation is Equal Access’ new projects in Cambodia.    As the organization’s founder, Ronni worked closely with the UN and other international agencies to develop a scaleable, cost-effective methodology to reach underserved communities in the developing world with information they critically need but otherwise cannot access — effectively bridging the “digital divide,” empowering people with information to improve their lives. Since 1999, Ronni has traveled and worked closely with local and international staff to develop programs that combine radio, trainings and outreach in Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Laos and, most recently, Cambodia. Ronni holds a Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude from SUNY Buffalo and studied Cultural Anthropology and Media at New York University and the New York School of Visual Arts.
April 25, 2007	GSE team from Wiesbaden, Germany: Peter Enderle, retired GM executive and past president, Rotary Club of Wiesbaden, GSE teamleader; Olaf J. Kopelsch, M.D., neurosurgeon; Annette Kussmaul, manager, customer service, Lufthansa, and former teacher of English and biology; Birgit Lang, multi-branch supervisor, Naspa Bank; Christian Lauer, industrial designer, self-employed; Stephan Schild, IT product manager, Deutsche Bahn (German railway group) and former architect.
May 9, 2007	Mark Fiore, animated political cartoonist. After a short stint at the San Jose Mercury News as staff cartoonist creating traditional political cartoons, Fiore happily fled the print world in 2001 to devote all of his energies to creating animated work. He was awarded the 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in cartooning and was a finalist in the 2005 Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association. He received the 2001 and 2002 New Media award from the National Cartoonists Society, and an award from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Fiore's animated work appears regularly on the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.com, Villagevoice.com, MotherJones.com, and many other news sites.
May 16, 2007	Joyce Yuan, Rotary ambassadorial scholar 2007–08, sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Francisco West. Joyce is going to study psychology and counseling at the Osaka University in Japan.
May 30, 2007	Dolores Wix, energy therapist, certified emotional freedom & healing facilitator, and practitioner of divine splendor healing. Dolores brings a story of recovery. After being raped at age five, she turned to food for comfort, and for over 40 years, suffered from food addiction. In addition to sexual abuse, she has also experienced religious and work abuse. Being a member of the Jehovah's Witness faith for 25 years, Dolores finally left in 2004 and is currently working on a book entitled Releasing Your Divine Splendor: How to Heal from Religious Abuse, which will offer a glimpse inside this organization where she and others were mistreated "in the name of religion." The talk is about how Dolores learned to break free from her eating disorder and recover from the abuse.
June 6, 2007	James C. Brandon, President, JBC Capital Performance, a financial management firm that provides provides financial planning, risk management, and asset management services. Mr. Brandon founded JCB Capital Performance in 2000 after almost 20 years in the investment industry. He received his B.A. from Berkeley in 1982. Topic: Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) is now used by most institutional investors, but not by most individual investors, to manage their portfolios. With MPT, individual investors could improve their investment results. The talk explains what Modern Portfolio Theory is, using examples of well-known funds, such as the $250 billion CALPERS portfolio, managed with MPT. MPT can be applied to portfolios of any size — even a new IRA account with just the initial year's funding. See a PowerPoint-style outline of the talk (pdf, 516K).
June 20, 2007	Marla Zemanek, home wellness coach. Is your home a toxic waste site? Marla discusses toxins in the home environment and “going green.” Ms. Zemanek was a consultant in management and organizational development for 23 years, holding an M.Ed. in special education and an M.A. in educational technology. She previously taught special education, working with severely developmentally disabled institutionalized adults and with underprivileged learning disabled kids. Her love of educating and coaching individuals in personal development fueled her entrepreneurial spirit, and led her to own business of marketing health and wellness products. Marla is passionate about safeguarding children from dangerous toxins in homes and schools, and helping individuals become more conscious about how they can protect the environment by being smarter consumers. She also teaches public speaking at Golden Gate University.
June 27, 2007	Kim Singh, executive director, Asian AIDS Action; journalist; political activist; head of Asia News, a wire service that covers all news on Asia, including South Asia; member, Rotary Club of Vashi New Bombay, Mumbai, India. Topic: Rotary AIDS Project and AIDS in India.