Inspiring People: Stories of Innovation and Service

Béatrice Zre is a specialist in the management of NGOs and community-based organizations. She is presenting in French, and we thank Valerie Sun for providing translation help. The original zoom call, unedited with the French, can be see on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/enDxdw5eLtY Béatrice Zre has more than 15 years of experience as an NGO manager in Togo and Ivory Coast. After her last NGO managem...

Michael Collopy, San Francisco native and renowned portrait photographer, will discuss his career photographing some of the world’s most influential leaders, including seven U.S. presidents, and 41 Nobel peace laureates, business leaders, and civil rights activists. Collopy has also been commissioned to photograph such movie stars and musicians as George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Paul McCartney, B.B...

In our third and final presentation featuring amazing high schoolers this month, you'll hear from North Star, a group that created a GPS-tracking bracelet called SJ Tracker meant for Alzheimer’s patients. It works with a mobile app, SafeJourney, which allows family members and caregivers to track the patients' location anytime and anywhere through their phone. North Star is a group of 10th...

This is our second of three weeks featuring young people engaged in important work - in this case, questions about teens and social media. Researcher Danah Boyd once wrote, "Most teens aren't addicted to social media; they're addicted to each other." Join us for an engaging workshop showcasing the results of a student-designed action research project, completed in partnership wit...

This week is the first of three in a row in which we feature students who have done amazing work to improve the lives of others. This presentation is an overview of a project our speaker, Pierce Wright, developed aiming to predict the nature of incoming Emergency Medical Service (EMS) calls by training an algorithm. A volunteer EMR, Wright found most ambulance calls he fielded related to mental he...

This week we'll hear from Nick LaGarde and Mike Kane. As we record, Nick is the president for the eClub of Silicon Valley for 2023-2024. As he wraps up his year, Nick is excited to reflect back on the challenges and successes of the Rotary year. Nick is a proud father of four and the partner to fellow eClub Rotarian, Tatiana. During the work week, Nick helps nonprofits make the most of their m...

Today we'll learn about an organization called Real Ice. Climate change, caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, could cause the global temperature to increase by several degrees by the end of the century, precipitating climate tipping points with serious consequences. The solution to this problem is to cease the burning of fossil fuels and to eliminate excess greenhouse gasses from...

The Walk of Life project is a unique and inspiring initiative aimed at improving literacy in India and about promoting education of Indian culture and heritage in the world. Even in a world of electronic communication, the best communication happens when we meet people in person. By Walk of Life, the primary intention is to connect with the people and motivate them to acquire education and adopt p...

Diane Shader Smith, has had a vibrant career as a writer, speaker, publicist, and fundraiser with an extensive roster of clients during her multi-decade career. When Diane’s daughter Mallory died at the age of 25, she brought Mallory’s memoir to publication as Salt in My Soul (Random House 2019), which led to the documentary of the same name (3Arts Entertainment). Using Mallory’s words, Diane has...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. Our speaker, Tim Allen, joined Wharton Research Data Services in 2008, after working for local companies and starting a few of his own. He began programming at age six during a summer camp his mother won in a raffle. Tim currently serves as an organizer of the Philadelphia Python Use...

Family history is the biggest risk factor for many cancers, especially ovarian, the deadliest gynecologic cancer. The use of genetic information is becoming increasingly important in the detection and treatment of cancer. This talk explores the familial and genetic risk factors for ovarian, breast and other related cancers. Learn how genomics and genetics can guide proactive testing as well as tre...

Dateability is the only dating app designed for the disabled and chronically ill communities. People with disabilities and chronic illness often encounter ableism on other dating apps. We understand the unique circumstances that present when dating with a disability, which is why we created a safe and accepting space to create meaningful connections for people with physical, intellectual, and psyc...

Our speaker this week is Emily Drabinski, the current president of the American Library Association. She is Associate Professor at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, and publishes and presents widely on topics related to knowledge organization, information literacy, and critical perspectives in librarianship. Drabinski edits Gender and Sexuality in Information S...

Black and brown communities generally do not possess the built-up generational wealth of their white peers. The Federal Bank of St. Louis performed analysis of that data using the most recent data available from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finance. For white families, that median amount was $184,000. Contrast that with a typical Black and Latine family, for which the median...

Cathy Zhao is a stand-up comedian and a sit-down entrepreneur based in San Francisco. She's opened and hosted for Margaret Cho 4 times; Second Place in the First North America Standup Comedy Competition in Chinese Mandarin; performed at the Laugh Factory, SF Punchline, Cobb's, San Jose Improv, SF Comedy Day, Detroit Women Comedy Festival etc. She co-founded Laughitouthub.org, a 501(c)3 non...

This week, we explore possibilities for supporting the sustainability of nonprofit leaders and the organizations they serve. The speaker's organization, CEN, has adopted IDEAL values (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Liberation) that ground its approach to ensure more just and impactful outcomes for the sector. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities CEN and its comm...

Machine Learning has tremendous potential to help us better understand a variety of domains and build tools for automated decision-making. Such tools carry the promise of more accurate predictions and higher efficiency than might be achievable without them. However, machine learning also has the potential to lead to outcomes that reinforce biases, disproportionately impact particular subpopulation...

GiveDirectly sends cash directly to people living in extreme poverty, no strings attached. GiveDirectly is the first – and largest – nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the world’s poorest. They believe people living in poverty deserve the dignity to choose for themselves how best to improve their lives, and cash enables that choice. They have successfully delivered over $700M to app...

Vahid Motazedian, serves as the executive director for Olinga Learning and the Foundation for the Application of Science (FAS), two California nonprofits dedicated to empowering youth to contribute to the social and economic development of their small, rural communities. Vahid grew up in Iran, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Oregon. His father studied agriculture and dedicated his life to helping small far...

The Rotary Club of Eugene Metropolitan, joined by members of several other clubs, including the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, hears from Rotary International President Elect Stephanie Urchick. Stephanie Urchick is a member of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA. She will serve RI as president in 2024-25. She has been an RI director and Rotary Foundation trustee. She has served RI in n...

Have you ever wondered why the rates of depression have skyrocketed over the past decade? Mental health has been deemed a public global crisis. And increased rates of depression are linked to higher rates of suicide. Candice will present on addressing depression in the digital age. Listeners will leave being able to recognize depressive symptoms and signs of suicidal ideation; understand the impac...

Diagnostic devices in ophthalmology inspired by adaptive optics technologies in astronomy have made their way to the clinic in the form of affordable portable or wearable instruments. The Quicksee is an accurate handheld auto refractometer bringing eye prescriptions (the bottleneck to refraction corrections) to remote, underserved areas. The SimVis is a head-mounted binocular visual simulator of p...

Mike Vandemark, leads an amazingly talented community of musicians called the Lexington Lab Band. In this conversation with the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, we will hear how teamwork and humility allow these musicians to achieve a level of excellence that brings honor to those whose songs they cover, and joy to those who love the music. The lesson for service clubs is a powerful one. A musician...

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) is a science- and technology-driven nonprofit detecting and preventing deforestation and supporting biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring in 119 countries. Founded in 2014, RFCx accomplishes this work by combining the power of acoustics, AI, an international team of field workers, scientists, engineers, and data scientists, and on-the-ground collaborators. By utilizing...

The Green That School (GTS) project is designed to engage a diverse, multi-faceted audience, encompassing local and global stakeholders. The project merges students from the Daraja Academy in Nanyuki, Kenya, and the Merced Union High School District in California in the United States. The initiative aims to empower young women by addressing critical issues such as gender violence, quality educatio...