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Speakers 2007–08

Date	Speaker, Organization, Topic
July 18, 2007	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 B.S. from Bowling Green State University. The talk is titled “Turning Matter into Energy” — Where Matter = Clutter and Energy = Everything in its place and you are empowered!
August 1, 2007	John Shellenberger of the Marin Evening club, speaking about the Rota-Scholars program, which assists schoolchildren in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains of Mexico.
August 15, 2007	District Governor Brian McLeran, governor, Rotary District 5150.
September 5, 2007	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. Dave spoke with us on the topic of Peak Oil on July 26, 2006. This time, the topic is “The Myths of Biofuels.”
October 3, 2007	Joel Rubinstein, member, Rotary Club of San Francisco West, leader, San Francisco chapter of RESULTS, an international citizens’ grassroots lobby creating political will to end hunger and poverty. Topic: The Millennium Development Goals and Stand Up San Francisco, part of Stand Up Against Poverty, an international demonstration October 16 and 17 in support of the Millennium Development Goals.
October 9, 2007	Aoife O’Donovan, Rotary ambassadorial scholar from Ireland. Ms. O’Donovan has a B.A. in applied psychology and a master’s in health psychology, and she has been working on her Ph.D. thesis at University College Dublin since 2004. During her year as Rotary ambassadorial scholar, Aoife is conducting research at the University of California, San Francisco. Her Ph.D. concerns the biology of psychological stress and depression, and she is broadly interested in the relationship between mental health and physical health, and in community approaches to mental health promotion. Aoife expresses her enormous gratitude to the Rotary International Foundation for allowing her the opportunity to study with some of the world’s top scientists in her area of research, and for the chance to get to know the Rotarians of District 5150 and the West Coast of the United States.
October 30, 2007	Benjamin S. Lewis, Reading Companions, which provides non-medical care for senior Bay Area residents through a staff of companions, with activities such as reading, discussing news and books, and games including card games and Scrabble.
November 13, 2007	Roger Steiner The Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for businesspeople and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. In 2007, Rotary District 5150 exchanged GSE Teams with District 1820 in Hessen, Germany. Speaking at this meeting are Paul Darmofal, architect and member, GSE Team and Roger Steiner, GSE Team Leader.   Roger Steiner has been a member for 11 years of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, for which he has served on the Board of Directors. Roger is co-chair of World Wide Rotary Day, a luncheon meeting in which members of the San Francisco Consular Corps representing 30 countries attend. He is District 5150 chair for the Rotary Peace Fellows Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Roger works in real estate investing and property management. He is a graduate with an MBA degree from the Stanford Business School, and also holds a MPA degree from UCLA, and a BA degree from the University of Michigan.
November 20, 2007	Nikki Anderson returns to our club with a talk titled ’Tis the season for Radical Self Care. With the hustle and bustle that comes with the holidays, it’s easy to put self-care on the back burner only to wind up frazzled and burnt out by the time the New Year arrives. This typically leads to the inevitable resolution to start the next diet and get back into your exercise routine. This is a dreadful way to start off the New Year — under pressure to catch up so that you can then begin to focus on the other goals you have for 2008. How would it be for you to go through this holiday season feeling healthy? What if you got to the New Year and actually didn’t have to resolve to yet another diet? What if your holiday season was easy, relaxing and manageable? Then what would your New Years Resolutions be? If you want to end 2007 feeling energized and ready for the New Year, come to this enlightening, interactive workshop and learn some basic strategies for making yourself a priority while enjoying the holiday season. Nikki Anderson specializes in working with professional men and women who are ready to boldly step into a bigger life of choice, empowerment and conscious living. Over the years, Nikki has mentored, counseled, and coached dozens of extraordinary people on how to dare to dream and then explore, identify, and reach their goals. The core of her teaching is to help individuals learn how to dare to dream and then explore, identify, and reach their goals. The core of her teaching is to help individuals learn how to make themselves a priority, create intension in their lives, and feel inspired by the action they are taking toward creating a life of newly defined, attainable success from the inside out.
December 11, 2007	Peter Wolf, member, Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise. A Gemologist and educator, he has been a wholesale broker to the fine jewelry trade for 21 years — in design, manufacture, and import of fine jewelry, diamonds and gems. He holds training and academy certifications including Natural Gemology, Diamond Grading, Synthetic Gemology, including the Gemmological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain. Peter served an early apprenticeship in gemological diamond evaluation and lab evaluation, and colored stone laboratory analysis. He has taught Diamond Grading, Natural Gemology and Synthetic Gemology with Master Gemologist Appraiser Cortney Balzan at the Revere Academy, has contributed to gemological publication and education to the trade, and is a speaker on ethical issues in the fine jewelry trade. He has worked with with the Accredited Gemologists’ Association to set standards of integrity in the trade, to mandate disclosure of gem treatments, and to monitor diamond grading and selling practices. He teaches his private clients about diamonds and gems, and loves when they report back from retailers with sticker shock, and great stories of knowing things the salesperson didn’t. His talks expose ‘situational ethics’ in sales practices, and treatments to diamonds and gems that you — and an astounding number of jewelry salespeople — may not know about. This is part one of a talk, entitled “The Emperor’s New Clothes, or . . . What You Haven’t Been Told (Until Today).”
January 8, 2008	David Liang and Heejae Kang, officers of the UC Berkeley chapter of Engineering World Health (EWH). David Liang is chapter vice president and is a second-year bioengineering major. Heejae Kang is chapter co-treasurer and a second-year molecular cell biology major with a bioengineering minor. EWH is a service organization that focuses on building and repairing biomedical devices in order to improve hospital conditions of third world countries in South America and Africa. EWH was originally founded in Duke University. The UC Berkeley chapter, started this past semester, is the first chapter of EWH in California. This past semester, Berkeley EWH has focused on primarily on building biomedical devices and arranging speaker presentations. Next semester, the plan is to repair biomedical equipment and arrange hospital visits. Berkeley EWH is trying to raise money to not only fund equipment, but to also support members for the annual EWH conference and the EWH Summer Institute, an opportunity for engineering students to gain hands-on repair and design experience while simultaneously helping disadvantaged hospitals and patients in a developing nation.
January 22, 2008	Toni Heineman, executive director, A Home Within. A Home Within seeks to heal the trauma of chronic loss experienced by foster children and to improve the foster care system by building positive lasting relationships and continuous connections through direct services, professional training, public awareness, and advocacy. Toni Heineman is a clinical psychologist who has been in private practice treating children, adults, and families in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years. She is clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCSF and was selected as a fellow by Zero to Three for the 2003–2004 National Leadership Initiative. Dr. Heineman has taught and supervised interns, graduate students and psychiatric residents and presented at numerous professional meetings. She has authored a wide range of journal articles and one book and co-authored another book. Topic: Building meaningful lives for foster kids.
January 29, 2008	Debra Gore-Mann, athletic director, University of San Francisco (USF), speaking on USF athletics and community outreach. Debra Gore-Mann was named athletics director at USF in 2006. She is the first female director of athletics at USF and just the third overall in West Coast Conference history. Before joining USF, Gore-Mann was senior associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator at Stanford from 1999 to 2005, where she most recently served as senior associate athletics director for external relations and senior women’s administrator. She shared financial responsibility for the more than $50 million annual Stanford Athletic Department budget and shared management of 34 sports. Gore-Mann served as senior project manager on the recent Stanford Stadium renovations and served as the lead negotiator on the Cardinal all-school apparel contract with Nike, Inc.. Prior to her tenure at Stanford, Gore-Mann worked in the corporate sector for Bechtel Enterprises, Inc. (1993–99), Morgan Stanley & Co. (1987–92) and Raychem Corp (1982–85). Joining Gore-Mann for this meeting are Nino Giarratano, baseball coach and Tanya Haave, women’s basketball coach at USF.
February 12, 2008	Boris Hesser, member, Rotary #2 Club. Topic: joint Rotary Foundation Matching Grant project on literacy and reproductive health education in Ethiopia with the NGO Ethiopia Reads and the Population Media Center in Addis Ababa.
February 19, 2008	Emily Avera, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2007 to South Africa, sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Francisco West. Emily studied political science at University of Cape Town, where she expects to receive her master’s degree after her dissertation is accepted. During studies and travels in South Africa, she maintained a blog about her adventures. She graduated from Pomona College, one of the Claremont Colleges. Before leaving for South Africa, Emily was campaign coordinator and program associate at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. She continues her work to increase the rate of donations of bone marrow among Asian Americans. Emily Avera exchanges Rotary banners with Myra Goldenbaum, President, Cape Town Rotary Club
February 26, 2008	From the Joanne Pang Foundation, we have Chairman Joseph Pang, Ph.D. and CEO/President Scott Hildula. The Joanne Pang Foundation works in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, to promote the development of a nonprofit Northern California Umbilical Cord Blood Bank (NCUBB). Joseph Pang received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1986 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford University in 1986 to 1987. He authored the book See Daddy! That’s the New Kite, describing the journey of his 9-year-old daughter Joanne battling leukemia. Joseph now manages the Analytical R&D department for InSite Vision, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel ophthalmic products. Scott Hildula is a former award-winning journalist who reported for several newspapers, magazines and agencies in the U.S. and overseas, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Money magazine, San Francisco Business Times, San Jose Business Journal, Peninsula Times-Tribune and UPI. He currently is principal of RedUmbrella Group, a San Francisco-based communications consulting agency. Scott formerly served on the boards of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and San Francisco Rotary #2. He holds a B.S. in Political Science from Grinnell College and lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.
March 11, 2008	Cindy Young, certified interior decorator. Cindy Young’s philosophy is that home environments should serve tbe client with beauty and comfort. She has been creating distinctive interiors for her clients for over 20 years and has served clients in all areas of the U.S. She travels extensively throughout Europe and Central and South America and she puts these varied experiences to work for her clients in creating interior designs that reflect the client’s personality and lifestyle. Cindy is a Certified Interior Decorator and a Certified Project Management Professional and is skilled at delivering projects within budget and on time. She holds a BBA and MBA in finance from the University of Mississippi, and she participates in over 100 hours of continuing interior design education each year to ensure that her clients receive the latest features that will enhance their living and working spaces. She provides complimentary consultations to discuss creating the environment that serve her clients’ needs. The talk is titled “The Design Process.”
March 18, 2008	Mai Siriphongphanh   We have three speakers from Digital Divide Data (DDD), which bridges the divide that separates young people from opportunity by providing disadvantaged youth in Cambodia and Laos with the education and training they need to deliver world-class, competitively-priced information technology (IT) services to global clients, acquire essential business management skills, and break the cycle of poverty.   Mai Siriphongphanh, Chief People Officer, graduated from the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and received her MBA in December 2002. She joined the management training in DDD Phnom Penh in July 2003 and came back to her country of Laos to replicate the DDD model in Vientiane. Three years later, the Vientiane DDD office has over 100 employees and provides opportunities and educational scholarships to disadvantaged populations in Laos. In July 2004, she participated in a mini-MBA program called Global Social Benefit Incubator organized by the Santa Clara University to promote humanitarian ventures. Her business management knowledge, teaching approaches, and leadership skills give her great strengths in motivating and engaging staff to attain the organization’s goals. Souphalak Souksavath     Souphalak Souksavath, Finance Director, graduated from the Business School of the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, in 2003. From 1998 to 2000 she worked for the UNDP project at the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare in Laos, managing accounting for small and medium enterprises, marketing and training for a European Union bank-training project at the Central Bank of Laos. She now leads the finance team for Digital Divide Data and is also a Global Knowledge Partnership East Asia Regional coordinator. Kunthy Kann   Kunthy Kann, General Manager, earned his bachelor’s degree in 2005 in Human Resource Management from the University of Management and Economics in Lithuania, and a High Diploma of English from Pannasastra University of Cambodia in 2003. He worked for two years as an English teacher before joining DDD Phnom Penh in 2001 as operator before being promoted to Team Leader. In October 2003, Kunthy was promoted again, this time to the position of Branch Manager for the Battambang office in Cambodia, where he remained until November 2005, when he became General Manager of DDD’s Phnom Penh office. Kunthy has also been awarded a scholarship to study corporate management in Japan, including internships at Hitachi, Toppan Printing Co., and NTT.
March 25, 2008	Carmen Chu, San Francisco Supervisor, representing District 4, the Outer Sunset-Parkside. Appointed as acting supervisor in September 2007 by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Chu now holds the seat as a full member. She has served in Mayor Newsom’s administration since 2004, when she began work as a budget analyst for the Mayor’s Office of Public Policy and Finance. She held her position as deputy director starting October 2006. Projects that Chu worked on through the Mayor’s Office include Healthy San Francisco — the first-of-its-kind universal health care program for all residents; the 311 Call Center — a centralized point of access where anyone can access services or information 24/7; and the development of long-term fiscal projections for the City & County of San Francisco. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Chu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She worked in the restaurant owned by her parents. Before serving on the Board of Supervisors, Chu was a consultant with Public Financial Management, Inc., a private consulting firm that specialized in helping municipalities manage their debt and finance large public works projects, and a policy analyst with the Board of Supervisors Office of the Legislative Analyst (OLA). Supervisor Chu has two degrees in public policy: a B.A. from Occidental College, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa (2000). Supervisor Chu also earned a master’s degree from U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, where she was the distinguished recipient of a Public Policy and International Affairs Program (PPIA) fellowship (2003).
April 8, 2008	Patrick Schwerdtfeger, founder, Tactical Execution, which helps entrepreneurs build profitability by providing practical business development guidance in easily understood formats, with advice available by consultation, workshops, and on the Internet in text and downloadable audio. The talk is “Drive Internet Traffic to your Website: Targeted Website Visitors on a Shoestring Budget.”
April 15, 2008	Boris Hesser, member, Rotary Club of SF, and the GSE Team from Japan. Pictured, left to right: Asami Suzuki, City Wind Orchestra’s administration office (secretary general) team leader Tatsuo Seshita, auditor of Mibu Eiji (Easy) Yashiro, farmer and leader, Council for Outdoor and Nature Experience Masaki Sugie, assistant manager of Export Division of ITATSU Co., Ltd Mitsuko (Miko) Yamagishi, teacher of English at prefectural high school
April 29, 2008	Russ Ketron, District Governor-Elect, Rotary District 5150
May 13, 2008	Howard Miller is a consultant, facilitator, trainer and coach with over 15 years of experience in helping organizations, entrepreneurs, executives and managers utilize their internal behaviors and communication styles to maximize communication and productivity skills with others. This results in a clearer vision and mission, specific and measurable goals and actions, and more strategies to ensure success. A detail, results-oriented individual with outstanding presentation and communication skills, Howard uses his excellent problem-solving abilities, combined with consistent follow through and sense of humor while consulting with his clients. Clients include mid-range to large companies, both corporate and nonprofit such as the IRS, Blue Cross Blue Shield, IBM, state government, public school districts, and nonprofit organizations. Howard also does executive and business coaching with the Tony Robbins and the Ken Blanchard organizations. He is a board member of the National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter and has been on the boards of ASTD (American Society of Trainers and Developers) and Golden Gate Business Association. He was a Big Brother for seven years and volunteered for San Francisco Suicide Prevention. Howard has a Bachelor of Science, Cum Laude, from the State University of New York at Albany, a Certificate in Training and Human Resource Development from University of California, Berkeley, and graduated from the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) in San Rafael, California. Howard’s business is Fulcrum Point Partners. Today’s talk is “You’re Full of Shift: The 3-Step Process to Deal with Difficult Situations.”
June 3, 2008	Renée Tremel, La Casa de Las Madres, founded in 1976, opened San Francisco’s first domestic violence shelter for women and their children. The shelter has grown into The City’s leading voice for abused women, their children and teens — educating, promoting awareness and changing the community’s and the media’s perceptions about domestic violence and its victims. Through a broad service continuum, La Casa de Las Madres also provides expert intervention and prevention services to more than 10,000 community members annually.
June 10, 2008	Eric Shapira, past district governor of Rotary District 5150, 2004–2005; member, Half Moon Bay Rotary Club for 32 years with perfect attendance; Paul Harris Fellow many times over; recipient of the Rotary International Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service and the Four Avenues of Service Award and a Presidential Citation as a district governor. Eric Shapira practiced dentistry for 35 years and is now a practicing clinical gerontologist, or aging specialist with Aging Mentor Services, Inc. He continues to teach dentistry and gerontology and he recently returned from China, where he was teaching Medicine and Dentistry in a hospital for several weeks. The talk is titled “Rotary: What it can do and why.” Rotarian Helen Abe chairs our special meeting to which we have invited guests from the community.
June 17, 2008	Kirsten Mahoney, life coach, Insight Out Life Coaching. Kirsten serves as a volunteer life coach for Girls on the Run, a program that instills self-esteem and strong values through health education, life skills development, mentoring relationships, and physical training. After living abroad for several years, Kirsten has used her international experience in creating her business. She has a B.A. in sociology and an M.A. in education. The topic is achieving balance in work and life.
June 24, 2008	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. Today’s topic is “How to be an effective communicator” — a quick-paced, interactive session with our participation.