San Marcos Chamber Podcast

Today’s Guest: Mike Sannella, Board President, Vallecitos Water District Mike Sannella was first elected to the Vallecitos Water District Board of Directors, Division 4 in 2014.  He represents parts of San Marcos, Carlsbad, and the Lake San Marcos community. A resident of San Marcos since 1996, Sannella’ s involvement in the community includes having served as City Planning Commissioner, Vice Pres...

Tune in for an exciting forecast on new and updated events that will be rolling out from the San Marcos Chamber in the upcoming months.

What purpose does a Chamber of Commerce serve? Who makes up the San Marcos Chamber's membership? How is a Chamber relevant to you, as a business owner? Find out the answers in this episode.

Solutions for Change was founded in 1999 by social entrepreneurs Chris and Tammy Megison because they didn’t think it was right for babies to be sleeping on the floor of an emergency winter shelter. Prior to starting up Solutions for Change, the Megisons developed and directed work and housing programs that helped thousands of homeless men get jobs, pay rent and earn their way back into society th...

If you enjoyed this episode, would you consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts ( https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/san-marcos-chamber-podcast/id1523542039 )? It takes less than 60 seconds and helps to make a difference in getting important news out to our community. EMAIL Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Email Rick at rick@sanmarcoschamber.com . SOCIAL Click here to sign up for...

Today’s Guest: Amy Ventetuolo, Vice President of Marketing and Development, TrueCare   Amy Ventetuolo is proud to serve as the Vice President of Marketing & Development at TrueCare. With over 17 years of experience creating award-winning communications and marketing campaigns, as well as uniting philanthropic passions with organizational missions, Amy serves as a key facilitator to create lasting...

Brian Goldstein, Ph. D., CCC-SLP is the Executive Dean of the College of Rehabilitative Sciences. Dr. Goldstein is an accomplished teacher, scholar and academic leader with more than 25 years of experience in higher education at public and private universities with multiple locations. Prior to joining USAHS Dr. Goldstein served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at La Salle Univers...

Today’s Guest: Ed Musgrove, San Marcos City Council Member Ed is a resident of the Twin Oaks Valley where he lives with his wife Carole and daughters, Cailin and Brooke. Ed is a California native moving from Sacrament to San Diego as a child. After graduating from Poway High School, Ed joined the United States Army where he served over six years including a tour in Germany and assignments in Texas...

Casa de Amparo has been recognized as a major force in child abuse prevention since 1978 and moved to their current San Marcos location in 2012. Partnering with the greater San Diego community, Casa de Amparo ensures that children and their families receive unique and innovative services for healing, for stopping child mistreatment of any kind, and for ending generational cycles of abuse. The resu...

Bob serves as CEO of RAR Hospitality. He is an internationally recognized hotelier with over 40 years of hospitality-related management experience. Recognized by his “hotel guru,” moniker, Bob shares insights and industry trends at hotelguru.com . He has held nearly every position in the hotel business including General Manager of full-service four Diamond hotels for Hilton and Embassy Suites. His...

This episode breaks down where the San Marcos Unified School District is at with regards to distance learning and getting students back to the classroom. Tiffany also discusses the challenges during this pandemic and some of the educational tools that may be used moving forward past the pandemic.   Mentioned: San Marcos Unified School District Reopening San Marcos Schools Career Technical Educatio...

Today’s Guest: Jennings Imel, U.S. Chamber of Commerce   Jennings Imel is the Executive Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Western Regional Office. The office is responsible for legislative and political grassroots activities in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Hawaii in support of the U.S. Chamber’s national public policy goals.   Before joining the U.S. Chamber staff in 2013, Jenni...

California State University San Marcos’ 4th President Ellen Neufeldt joined the university in July 2019. Only seven months later, COVID-19 made itself known to the world, presenting enormous challenges and uncertainties for individuals and organizations across our city and region. Through the crisis, President Ellen Neufeldt is leading the university guided by values of people, innovation, student...

Palomar College’s main campus is located in San Marcos, which helps make San Marcos the Education Hub of North County. Palomar College enrolls approximately 30,000 full-time and part-time students. At Palomar, students may choose from over 200 associate degree and certificate programs, complete the first two years of a bachelor’s degree, or enjoy personal enrichment classes for lifelong learning....

Tess is the Economic Development Director for the City of San Marcos. In addition to working for the city over the past five years, she serves on the San Marcos Chamber Board of Directors as the city liaison. Tess’ responsibilities include recruiting businesses to open in San Marcos. Learn about some of the new developments and businesses that plan on making San Marcos their home. North City is ta...

Carol Farrar is an entrepreneur who specializes in helping people with Residential Real Estate in the North County communities of San Diego. Being a native of the area, Carol is an invaluable resource of information & shares her passion through platforms like Facebook, Pinterest & Instagram. She is also on the North San Diego County Association of REALTORS board of directors, President for the 201...

San Marcos was incorporated in 1963. The city transitioned from a city of 17,000 residents and home of one of the largest chicken ranches in the country to an ever growing university city of nearly 100,000 residents today.  Rick Gittings served as San Marcos City Manager from 1983-2006 when the transformation began. In this episode he discusses how the work began to make San Marcos a sustainable c...

“Since the beginning of COVID, just in North County we’ve distributed about 6.5 million pounds of food. And we’re feding about 130,000 people a month in North County.” - Jim Floros, President & CEO, San Diego Food Bank Jim Floros joined the San Diego Food Bank from the Burn Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing fire and burn injuries and deaths, where he served as executive director and CEO...

One of the focuses of the Chamber has been providing our local business owners with valuable resources to pivot during the pandemic. And providing our members with the platform to get the word out to other business owners about tools and strategies that can help inform critical decisions. The topic of Business Innovation continues to remain a relevant topic because the framework and mindset is app...

Resources Mentioned: San Marcos Chamber Public Policy Guidelines San Marcos City Council Candidates Forum [9.30.2020] San Marcos Unified School Governing Board Candidates Forum [10.7.2020] - event registration coming soon. Please check website for details: sanmarcoschamber.com San Marcos Chamber COVID Resource Page Coffee Connections with Councilmember Randy Walton [10.14.2020] Power Luncheon with...

It all began over 20 years ago when Dos Desperados founder, Steve Munson ( @dosdesperadosbrew ) got the brewing bug. His first brew was a Mexican style ale and was such a hit at his backyard cookouts that he could no longer keep up the demand brewing in his family home. That is when Steve decided it was time to turn his favorite hobby into a business. In 2014 Dos Desperados was born. Dos Desperado...

District Attorney Stephan leads the second largest DA’s Office in California, manages a professional staff of over 1000 employees, and serves as the People’s Prosecutor for the entire San Diego County and its over 3 Million residents. Summer served as a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego County for 28 years where she combined extensive courtroom experience with over 15 years of management exper...

Danny Fitzgerald works for Southwestern Community College as the Acting Regional Director for the San Diego – Imperial SBDC Regional Network and oversees the San Diego Women’s Business Center. For over 20 years, Danny has been a prominent fixture in the small business communities of San Diego County and Imperial County, and on both sides of the US-Mexico border. His service in a wide variety of le...

Dan has been a member of the San Marcos Fire Department since 2001. Starting as a firefighter he climbed the ranks to fire engineer, captain, battalion chief, division chief and to his current role as fire chief.  With his vast experience within the San Marcos Fire Department, Chief Barron shares his perspective on how firefighting and fire prevention has changed. Also, learn about the structure o...

Dr. Thomas grew up in San Diego and received her bachelor's degree in Animal Physiology from University of California San Diego. She then went on to UC Davis for veterinary school where she graduated in 2007. She completed her internship training, along with Dr. Riehl, at Loomis Basin Veterinary Clinic in the Sacramento area. Dr. Thomas has worked as an emergency veterinarian since graduation as w...