Lisa G. Carreno is President & CEO, United Way of the Wine Country. She is a former civil litigation attorney and a seasoned nonprofit and community leader with nearly four decades of experience on both the East and West Coasts. She has served as President and CEO of United Way of the Wine Country since August 2018.Lisa is an alumna of the Radical Transformational Leadership (RTL) training and co-facilitates the growing Sonoma County Community Centric Fundraising Community of Practice. She currently serves on the boards of Los Cien Sonoma County, Forget Me Not Farm Children's Services, Community Foundation Sonoma County, Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative, and the Pepperwood Preserve Foundation as well as the 10,000 Degrees Sonoma County Advisory Board.

Lisa will celebrates her 35th anniversary with her wife, Lorene Irizary, this summer.

Our guest speaker for August 13, 2026 was Magaly Quispe, a Bolivian sociologist and founder of AVP/PAV Bolivia (PAV is an acronym for “Proyecto Alternativas a la Violencia”). Magaly was introduced by her friend and mentor, Barbara Flynn, who also translated Magaly’s talk. Magaly is a member of Bolivian’s indigenous Aymara group, one of the largest indigenous groups in Bolivia. She received a scholarship from the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund, which enabled her to complete her undergraduate degree in sociology. She became familiar with AVP (the Alternatives to Violence Project) while at the university. She became an AVP facilitator and worked to teach alternatives to violence in Bolivian prisons. She is primarily responsible for the AVP Student Residence in Sorata, Bolivia.

AVP is an international organization founded to teach principles of nonviolence in prisons, schools and the wider community. AVP/PAV Bolivia fosters deep transformation by integrating restorative justice and Quaker principles into schools and prisons. AVP was introduced in Bolivia in the mid-2000s. Bolivia is located in the central and southern parts of South America and is the size of California and Texas combined. It is extremely poor. It has the 3^rd largest Quaker population in the world. There are 2 systems of justice in Bolivia; indigenous and governmental. The governmental system is corrupt and routinely imprisons people who cannot defend themselves: roughly 50-60% of prisoners nationwide are held with no opportunity for a hearing. In prisons, money speaks. If you are poor you don’t have much of an opportunity. Prisons in Bolivia are different. Generally, the guards are stationed only at the doors to the prison and the prisoners self-organize, like a city within a city.

AVP/PAV has 5 projects in Bolivia: the Students’ Home in Sonata; AVP in schools, domestic violence; AVP in prisons across the country; AVP greenhouses in prisons; and AVP in the community. In the Sonata school, AVP/PAV provides housing, full meals, educational support, resources for special needs, and preparation for university study. AVP/PAV has worked in 47 schools with 311 basic workshops with students, parents, and teachers. To students it teaches the stages of falling in love and/or bullying. It teaches nonviolence to parents, and to teachers it helps teach labor/work. Schools like Sonata have experienced a dramatic reduction in violence. In prisons, AVP/PAV uses the same methodology. Magaly started her work teaching nonviolence in Bolivian prisons. Since 2025, they’ve conducted 83 workshops with more than 2,000 participants in 40 prisons. AVP/PAV has also started building solar greenhouses because prisoners do not have access to fresh fruit or vegetables.

Thank you so much Magaly and Barbara for the wonderful presentation. We’d love to hear more about your projects in the future.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!

Rafael left us this last Thursday after a six-year battle with cancer. He will be missed by all of us. He was in Managua at the hospital with his devoted wife Ninoska at his side when he entered heaven. He leaves quite a legacy of service that most of you had a chance to be part of. We worked with him since 2006. No mission to the Sabalos region of Nicaragua happened without his planning and execution. He was John Jones' primary interpreter for all the mission work. He and his wife Ninoska were the primary points of contact with the government and the contractor for the construction and equipping of the Sabalos Surgery Center. It was his persistence that was able to move our mission work to El Salvador. He leaves behind his wife Ninoska and two sons (now in the states). Expect to see Ninoska working at future mission to El Salvador!

Ninoska earns a modest income and John along with other members have expressed a desire to pool together financial assistance. We are looking into the best way to facilitate this.