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New Member Talks
Mar. 15, 2019
Join us this Friday for another one of our favorite programs, our new member talks. This week we will get to know a little more about two new outstanding members, Katie Hedgecock and Manon Janssen.
Katie Hedgecock is a US Army officer and current Stanford Political Science PhD student. A Rotarian since 2016, she is transferring from Clarksville Sunset Rotary in Clarksville, TN. She is married to a Blackhawk pilot and her West Point Classmate, Nate Hedgecock. They are proud dog parents to a goldendoodle named Penny.
Manon Janssen is the current VP of Business Engagement at HR firm Intellipro Group's office in Santa Clara. Her other interests include travel, art, exploring new things, and giving back. Manon's history is well integrated with Rotary, her husband was a Rotary member in Denmark and he was also a Rotary Scholar in L.A. Her parents-in-law were both Rotary members in Denmark, and her father is a PROBUS member in the Netherlands. (PROBUS clubs are organizations for men and women who have retired and want to maintain a social network with others who have similar interests. Each PROBUS club is sponsored by a Rotary club or another PROBUS Club and meets at least once a month for fellowship and to hear guest speakers. Today, there are over 400,000 members in approximately 4,000 PROBUS clubs worldwide)
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Hidden Women: Celtic Burgundy & Europe
Mar. 22, 2019
Please join us Friday when we will welcome back Jacqueline Widmar Stewart as our speaker. A little over a year ago we were fortunate to have Jacqui enlighten us about Celtic society and the importance of a woman’s role therein. However, her painstaking research was impossible to be compressed into a single book; luckily she will be back to fill in some of the rest of her exploration. Jacqui will be continuing her Hidden Women series with the 2nd book, Celtic Burgundy & Europe. New finds call for another look at women in European history. Ever more convincingly, buried treasures show that Europe’s ancient Celts valued females in ways that later empires did not. Archaeology is uncovering vast differences between these family-centric populations and the Roman Empire that fueled its expansion by conquest, occupation and enslavement of Celtic peoples. Over the past 2000 years, institutionalized sexism has carried Rome’s elitist male domination all the way to the present. Along with the riches that have been found in women’s burial chambers, excavations across the continent reveal a surprising consistency in technological capabilities, communication and trade networks of Iron Age Celts. Ancient tombs and treasure troves throughout Great Britain, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovenia give insights into a formerly vibrant culture that is no longer recognized. The Hidden Women series brings vantage views into this wealthy, productive, nature- loving, Iron Age civilization. As author, mother, education advocate and perpetual scholar, Jacqui pursues a wide range of interests that draw her back to her family’s European homeland. Her use of a variety of lenses – law, literature, languages, art, architecture, archeology, and genetics – brings a clearer picture of an obscured past. Those who need to look behind the scene will love her books that explore the how and why. A native of Beverly Shores, Indiana, Jacqui completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and German from the University of Colorado and a Master’s Degree in French from the University of Michigan. Following her marriage to our Blair Stewart, both earned law degrees at Stanford. Jacqui’s European studies include a classics program in Athens, Greece, German language at the University of Bonn in Germany and Slovenian language at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Their two children - Andy and Julia, (both previous speakers), also completed Stanford graduate programs. Twenty years ago Jacqui helped found the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation and then ran the organization for ten years. Since then she has written four books that focus on environmental triumphs: The Glaciers’ Treasure Trove: A Field Guide to the Lake Michigan Riviera, Finding Slovenia: A Guide to Old Europe’s New Country, Parks and Gardens in Greater Paris, and Champagne Regained. |
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21st Century Policing – The Human Behind the Badge
Mar. 29, 2019
Please join us Friday when we will welcome Palo Alto Police Chief Robert Jonsen as our guest speaker. The presentation will address how the Palo Alto Police Department is addressing crime trends; recruiting personnel, and training employees to manage the stressors of the profession so they can service the community at optimal levels. Chief Bob Jonsen has been in law enforcement since 1986. Prior to his appointment at Palo Alto Police Department (January 2018), he was the Chief of Police for the Menlo Park Police Department for five years. Most of Chief Jonsen’s career was with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department where he worked for 27 years. Bob worked assignments in custody, patrol, gangs, and at the Department’s Training Bureau. While assigned to the Training Bureau he was involved in the development and presentation of the 1999 POST Youth Violence telecourse, the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Youth Weapons Prevention and Intervention Program, the national First Responder training offered through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (facilitating block of Institutional Violence), and for writing a recommendation report on school safety policy and procedures for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department. Bob promoted to Sergeant in 2000, and after working as a patrol supervisor, was selected as the Assistant Coordinator of the Regional Community Policing Institute – Los Angeles, which provided law enforcement training throughout a six-county region in southern California. As a Lieutenant, he oversaw the Antelope Valley Crime Fighting Initiative, a crime reduction and community engagement program which was the recipient of the ‘James Q. Wilson Award for Excellence in Community Policing’ in 2010. In 2011, Chief Jonsen was promoted to Captain and took command of Lancaster Station, where he worked until being selected as Menlo Park’s new Police Chief. As the Chief of Police for Menlo Park, Bob secured a new Community Service Center, formed a Chief’s Advisory Group, and integrated community policing philosophies throughout the organization. The Menlo Park Police Department was the recipient of the James Q. Wilson Award for Excellence in Community Policing and the IACP/Cisco Award for Community Policing. |
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Billy, Bill and William – A Tale of Dumb Blind Luck
Apr. 05, 2019
William Grindley, emigre from South Carolina, has lived a vivid adventure and will share some of it this Friday in a presentation called - Billy, Bill and William – A Tale of Dumb Blind Luck. His maternal grandparents, owned the Ford dealerships in South Carolina’s “Low Country” but managed to lose all during the Depression. His dad left home at age 15, to support his mom and baby brother; became Master of Vessel, saved over 100 men in a Newfoundland shipwreck and spent most of Billy and Bill’s boyhood away from Beautiful-Beaufort-By-The-Sea. An overachiever through his pre-teens, Billy couldn’t reconcile Jim Crow South Carolina with the ideals that Beaufort’s Episcopal Church, its Synagogue and Boy Scouts taught him. Spending long weekends rowing his boat, fishing and hunting on Beaufort County’s deserted islands such as Hilton Head, he slowly understood the corrosiveness of institutionalized racial hate. At Clemson University (nee Clemson Agricultural College), Bill had the luck to study under by well-educated Yankees, have lectures from some of the world’s leading architects and philosophers, hitch-hiked through Mexico and worked a long summer in London. But while I rode my Ducati and drove an Aston Martin, this period included an ROTC court-martial and knocking down a campus policeman. After a year of practicing architecture, William joined the Peace Corps and went to Peru. Dumb blind luck prevailed and my assignment, in the Presidential Palace, was to design orphanages and day care centers. More luckily still, over her meatloaf in a squatter settlement, I fell in love with Susan. We married in Lima, then returned to Peru for three more years, I as a banker. When we returned to the US (1969), blind luck got me first into MIT’s Urban Planning school, then later into the World Bank. While the IBRD was prestigious and lucrative, I knew I would become a bureaucrat. Blind luck prevailed and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) offered me a job, which made me meet a ‘bottom line.’ That adventure lasted 13 years with assignments not only in Europe and Latin America, but also Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. I was fired from SRI. But blind luck prevailed, and I started and ran Pacific Strategies for 20 years, keeping 3-4 employees so I could have fun – working directly with clients’ problems. In 1971 we bought our Atherton house that was about to be torn down, and to the best of our abilities, made it a place for our family and our hundreds of friends. Last year we sold it to a family we are convinced wants to – and has the resources to – take it to the next level. We wish them all the luck we had in our 46 years in Fennwood. Over the last decade, it’s been 24/7 on high-speed rail. Episodic ! As must be clear by now that I am not a joiner. Kathleen and Karla dragged me into PAUR. I love it, not only because some of our best friends are here now, but because of PAUR’s work here and El Salvador. |
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Solving the Climate Challenge
Apr. 12, 2019
Please join us Friday when our speaker will be David Cain from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. He will give us a brief overview of the cause and urgency of the climate change crisis and sets the stage for a presentation on what can be done about it. A carbon fee and dividend approach is described as a solution candidate providing an opportunity for comparison with other approaches such as cap and trade. The presentation will conclude with updates on Citizens' Climate Lobby efforts to pass bi-partisan climate legislation in Congress, and what individuals can do to help. Then he will open it up for Q&A. He will also be distributing Constituent Message Forms. Our members, if they wish to, could use these forms to communicate to their representatives in Washington regarding climate change. Dave is Outreach Coordinator for the Silicon Valley North Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and is Co-Leader of CCL’s national Presenters & Schedulers Action Team. As a CCL member he lobbies members of Congress in Washington DC, seeking passage of bi-partisan national climate legislation. Dave has worked for over 30 years in energy R&D and co-founded a company specializing in environmental accounting software used by heavy industry enterprises worldwide. He is currently Senior Director, Environment, Energy & Carbon Products at HIS Markit, a dynamic team that includes more than 5,000 analysts, data scientists, financial experts and industry specialists. Their global information expertise spans numerous industries, including leading positions in finance, energy and transportation. He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley. Dave is the author of “Climate Guardians — Thoughts and Actions for People of Faith.” Climate Guardians is a group of ordinary people banded together in the common belief that there is a moral imperative to stop climate degradation. Each one of them recognizes that continuing to foul our nest – the Earth – with greenhouse gas pollution is profoundly wrong. They come at this conclusion from different persuasions: religious, spiritual, humanistic, and philosophical. But, regardless of their bent, they share the urgency of the moment. They refuse to believe that climate degradation is some other generation’s problem to deal with. The morality here is acute and in high relief. As Climate Guardians they have made the personal commitment to act because it is simply the right and necessary thing to do. They feel that we live in a world of specialists. More than ever we tend to let others deal with issues that fall outside of our realm. In the case of climate change we assume environmentalists, politicians, economists, industry, and non-profits - they will somehow take care of the problem. But, it’s not happening soon or fast enough because of the absence of popular will needed to galvanize action. Climate Guardians seeks to create that popular will – by appealing directly to the innate moral goodness in all people - to act. |
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Apr. 17, 2019 7:00 p.m.
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The UN's Role in a World of Rising Nationalism: Practical Lessons on Affecting Multilateral Process
Apr. 19, 2019
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ECOPA - El Salvador
Apr. 26, 2019
Please join us Friday when our speaker will be Adele Negro. Adele is the founding director of ECOPA: Intersections for Sustainable Living, a not-for-profit organization she is building to expand the 10-year work of “Team El Salvador,” a multi-disciplinary sustainable development practicum she directed in El Salvador for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) from 2006 to 2016. With teams of graduate students and experienced professionals, she oversees ECOPA’s in-country collaborative project work and research in such areas as environmental policy, coastal resource management, business strategies and marketing, public space design and utilization, survey design and administration, program monitoring and evaluation, organizational capacity-building, conflict resolution, and interpretation and translation. Adele is a professional Conference Interpreter, a Certified Federal and State of California Court Interpreter, and a U.S. State Department Translator. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, a Certificate of Studies from Bryn Mawr College in Avignon, France and from l’Institut des Sciences Politiques, Paris, and a Masters degree in Conference Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, where she taught for 6 years in the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education. She has lived and worked for extended periods of time in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, East Africa, France and Italy, and is co-author of the published book-length study, Mozambique and Tanzania: Asking the Big Questions (IFDP, San Francisco, 1980). She is the current president of the California-based Western Regional Chapter of the national Italian American Studies Association (IASA). |
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“From Silence, Hope”
May 03, 2019
Our speaker this week will be PAUR member Bill Doyle. Bill moved from the for-profit sector to the non-profit sector seven months ago when he was recruited as Executive Director of Foundation for Hearing Research, Inc. dba Weingarten Children’s Center in Redwood City (FHR). FHR’s intensive education and therapy program teaches spoken language to children who are deaf or hard of hearing so they can close the gap with hearing peers and succeed in mainstream education starting in the first grade. FHR, a California 501(c)(3), has been a center of excellence and national leader in the field of listening and spoken language for 51 years. Bill will be joined by Renee Schwall, a director and alumna of FHR who will discuss the personal impact of FHR’s spoken language program. Renee is Director of Analytics and Optimization at LiveOps and mother of two. She has previously worked for TuVox and NASA Ames. Renee holds an MA in Communications and BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University where she was also President of the Ski team and Captain of the Mountain Bike Team. Bill’s career has included turnaround and operating management of mid-sized companies, private equity investing, investment banking, and consulting. He achieved successful corporate rejuvenations by applying a single source for operating management, capital, and strategy. His past employers include McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, Allied-Signal, Alex. Brown & Sons, and Govett. Bill holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BSE from Princeton University. Bill is seeking to apply his for-profit experience to help FHR build a sustainable funding base and extend its transformative mission to the majority of children who are deaf or hard of hearing in mainstream schools who fall progressively further behind for lack of spoken language capabilities. |
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May 04, 2019 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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New Member Talks
May 10, 2019
Join us this Friday for another one of our favorite programs, our new member talks. This week we will get to know a little more about two new outstanding members, Paul Krasttiger and Cindy Hofen Colonel Paul Krattiger, representing the US Army, is a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Paul graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. He was commissioned as an armor officer and served assignments throughout the continental United States and Germany and operational assignments in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea. Paul commanded the 1st Battalion, 5th US Cavalry in the 1st Cavalry Division from 2014-2016. Prior to his fellowship at Hoover, he served as the Armor Branch Chief in the US Army Human Resources Command, managing almost four thousand armor officers in the active army. He earned a master of engineering management from Northwestern University and then served as an instructor and later assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at the US Military Academy. His research at the Hoover Institution focuses on the role of the US Education System and its impact on National Security. Upon completion of his time at Hoover, Paul will assume command of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. He enjoys hunting, fishing, skiing, and spending time with his wife and daughters above all! Cindy Hofen is the owner/manager of Managing Moves and More, which is a service catering to seniors wanting to age in place and to moving seniors from their homes to more appropriate living quarters. Cindy grew up in San Diego, graduated from U. C. Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics,then the Thunderbird School in Arizona with a Master Degree in International Management. She spent 2 years living in Barcelona and is fluent in Spanish. Her corporate career - 15 years - was spent at Abbot Labs initially in finance, then in sales and marketing in various cities. After timeout to help raise two daughters Cindy exercised her entrepreneurial skills to found her current company - Managing Moves and More. She is a member of the Mountain View and Los Altos Chambers of Commerce, is on the Avenidas Board of Directors, and is a former Trustee of the Mountain View Public Library. She loves working with seniors, travel, a good book club, and hiking. |
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Stop the Bleed Campagin
May 17, 2019
Join us Friday when Dr. David Spain and Michele Woodfall will be speaking to us about the “Stop the Bleed Campaign”. Motivated by the 2012 tragedy in Sandy Hook and multiple tragedies that have occurred in the ensuing years, what has become known as the Hartford Consensus was convened to bring together leaders from law enforcement, the federal government, and the medical community to improve survivability from manmade or natural mass casualty events. The resulting injuries from these events generally present with severe bleeding which, if left unattended, can result in death. The participants of the Hartford Consensus concluded that by providing first responders (law enforcement) and civilian bystanders the skills and basic tools to stop uncontrolled bleeding in an emergency situation, lives would be saved. Civilians need basic training in Bleeding Control principles so they are able to provide immediate, frontline aid until first responders are able to take over care of an injured person. Due to many situations, there may be a delay between the time of injury and the time a first responder is on the scene. Without civilian intervention in these circumstances, preventable deaths will occur. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma is leading the effort to save lives by teaching the civilian population to provide vital initial response to stop uncontrolled bleeding in emergency situations. This is accomplished by the development of a comprehensive and sustainable bleeding control education and information program targeted to civilians. The Stanford Healthcare Trauma Team has participated in these trainings and will describe the program as well as their experiences with the training. Dr. David A. Spain is the David L. Gregg, MD Professor and Chief of Trauma/Critical care surgery: a position he has held since 2001. He is the Associate Division Chief, General Surgery; Director, Surgical Specialties Clinic; Trauma Medical Director, Stanford Healthcare; Faculty, Goodman Simulation Center, Department of Surgery. His clinical areas of specialty are emergency and elective general surgery, trauma and critical care. His research focus is assessment of clinical care, systems of care and assessment of stress response and PTSD after trauma. He is the current President-elect of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and a Director of the American Board of Surgery. He is the editor of the new textbook Scientific American's Critical Care of the Surgical Patient. He has been awarded the General Surgery Chief Residents Award, Stanford (2018, 2010),Teaching Award, Stanford/Kaiser Emergency Medicine Residency (2004 and 2008). He graduated from Medical school, Wayne State University 1986, Board Certification: General Surgery, American Board of Surgery (1993), Board Certification: Surgical Critical Care, American Board of Surgery (1996). Michelle "Shelly" Woodfall MS RN CEN CCRN is the Director, Trauma & Stroke / Clinical Nurse Specialist / Trauma Service/Stroke Service. She has been a nurse at Stanford for over 30 years. She graduated from UCSF with Master's in Physiological Nursing -Licensed as a Clinical Nurse Specialist specializing in Critical Care & Trauma. |
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Stablecoins: An Important Application of Blockchains
Jun. 14, 2019
Please join us Friday when our speaker will be our own Steven Becker. If you have been wondering about the arrival of cryptocurrency and what it portends for the greenbacks under your mattress, Steven should be able to help explain where we are headed. One direction is stablecoins which are defined as “cryptocurrencies designed to minimize the volatility of the price of the stablecoin, relative to some "stable" asset or basket of assets. A stablecoin can be pegged to a currency, or to exchange traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals). Stablecoins redeemable in commodities are said to be backed, whereas those leveraging fiat money or other cryptocurrencies are referred to as unbacked.” Steven Becker is the President and COO of the Maker Foundation. The organization behind facilitating the development of MakerDAO. MakerDAO is a community and a blockchain protocol that generates Dai, the world’s first fully functional collateralized and decentralized digital cash. Steven is responsible for strategic business operations, partnerships, and marketing. An alternative investment professional with 20 years of experience, Steven owned and managed an alternative investment consulting company for six years prior to joining MakerDAO. In this role, he developed risk and investment management solutions through joint ventures in the UK as well as running a proprietary options and futures portfolio in the US. Furthermore, Steven previously was an owner and manager of a diversified financial services company, a company whose hedge fund was awarded for best risk-adjusted performance during the financial crisis. The private equity and securities financing arm of the company completed international deals with Areva, Rolls-Royce, Metropolitan West, and CalPERS along with a number of local resource deals of which one was listed. Steven has also been a market risk manager and interest rate derivatives trader for an investment bank before joining a startup securities financing and lending company that attempted to create a securities lending exchange. Steven is Chartered as an Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) by the CAIA Association and certified as a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) by the Global Association of Risk Professionals and remains a member of both associations. Steven is also a member of the Palo Alto University Rotary club. He has a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Finance, Financial Accounting and Economics and has completed post-graduate work in Financial Engineering all from the University of Cape Town. |
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How Peninsula Scouts’ New Sustainability Programs Are Minimize Our Environmental Community Footprint
Jun. 21, 2019
Please join us Friday as we welcome Scott Harmon as our speaker. How do we minimize our environmental community footprint? Our Peninsula Scouts’ new sustainability programs are leading the way. Scott is the Sustainability Program Founder for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). He worked with a team of Eagle Scouts to develop a series of programs BSA could embrace to integrate sustainability into the national program. Scott collaborated with the BSA President to determine the right starting point and was then chartered with developing the Sustainability Merit Badge to create a common language and understanding of sustainability within scouting. In coming up with the new Merit Badge he recruited nine authors to help write the merit badge book. 26,000 have earned the award since 2013. As the Sustainability Advisor for the Boy Scouts of America, Scott is developing a sustainability strategy and executing projects within that strategy. He brings to this position his experience as a Silicon Valley Sustainability and Business Development executive. In 2008 Scott’s's son Jon, an Eagle Scout, opened his father's eyes to the urgent environmental problems facing the world. The following year Scott formed a consulting firm called Terra Villicus (Earth Steward) and began helping first the Boy Scouts and later, private companies with high leverage strategies to move the needle on sustainability. That change in worldview ignited Scott's passion to make a difference by pulling together teams of stakeholders to first create and then launch the sustainability merit badge at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree. Scott is also a Silicon Valley business development executive. Early in his career, he worked for TRW, Intel and Fairchild and since has focused on venture-backed start-ups in the semiconductor, systems and energy efficiency markets. He is a charter member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Peninsula Clean Energy, the Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Company providing renewable energy to half of the cities in Silicon Valley. Scott holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from Pepperdine University, has participated in the Harvard Sustainability Leadership Program and is an Eagle Scout. |
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Bruce Karney: Stepping up on Climate Change
Jul. 12, 2019
Please join us on Friday when our speaker will be knowledge management consultant Bruce Karney. Bruce is s a retired marketing professional who has lived in Mountain View since 1981. In 2007 he led a city-wide group of 119 Mountain View homeowners who purchased solar panels at a 35% discount. He subsequently joined SolarCity when it was a small startup to lead group purchasing programs in other cities. Bruce retired from the solar industry in 2012 and is now a full-time environmental activist. In 2008 and again in 2017 he was elected as Chair of Mountain View's Environmental Sustainability Task Force (ESTF). The recommendations from the 2008 Task Force provided the basis for the City's Environmental Sustainability Action Plans from 2009 to 2018, and the recommendations from the second Task Force provide a pathway for achieving the City's goals for 2019-2030. Bruce championed the creation of Carbon Free Silicon Valley (CFSV) to bring together environmental advocates from San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. He serves on the Board of CFSV. He has a BS in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford and an MS in Management Science from UC Berkeley. He is also a graduate of Leadership Mountain View and Acterra's "Be the Change" programs, and has held several leadership roles in the Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association. Bruce's first job after college was at SRI International where he worked as a research assistant to a team studying the negative income tax, now known as Universal Basic Income. From 1981-2005 he worked for HP in Palo Alto, Cupertino and Mountain View in marketing, education and training, and knowledge management. |
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The Scandinavian Model - What Is It All About?
Jul. 19, 2019
Please join us on Friday when it will be our pleasure to welcome the Consul General of Denmark Katrine Paaby Joensen. Many - from President Trump to Bernie Sanders - have an opinion about the so-called ‘Scandinavian Model’. But what is it all the fuss about? Katrine will provide insights into characteristics of Denmark, a typical Scandinavian welfare state; tiny, prosperous, green and among the happiest countries in the world”. She will be touching upon economics, policy, sustainability and the peculiar cultural traits of the Danes, which includes a high level of trust. She shall endeavor to give a brief – and hopefully a bit inspiring - insight into a way of life, which is somewhat different than in the US and which (both rightly and wrongly) attracts some attention these days. Katrine is a career diplomat with more than 20 years’ experience promoting Danish political and commercial interests globally. She is now heading the Danish diplomatic representation in Silicon Valley, building bridges between policy makers and innovative ecosystems, assisting companies and promoting knowledge and growth in Denmark. Before taking up the post in Silicon Valley, Katrine developed global export and innovation strategies for the Trade Council in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen. Katrine has worked with conflict resolution, security policy, development support and economic diplomacy. She began her career in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has also been posted to South Africa and Ghana where she worked to promote sustainable development and political relations. Katrine holds a M.sc. in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, including studies at the University of Cape Town. |
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Stopping Bots for 2020 and Beyond
Jul. 26, 2019
Please join us on Friday when our speaker will be Aidan McCarty, who is currently pursuing a career at the intersection of science, business, and politics. Identity fraud is wreaking havoc on American democracy. Fake accounts on social media are fueling misinformation campaigns both foreign and domestic, making it easier than ever to meddle in our politics. Fake messages are flooding representatives and federal agencies, drowning out the opinions of real Americans. For example, the FCC received 21.7 million public comments about net neutrality in 2017, but Pew Research found that 94% of them were fake or duplicate. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into this last December. New technology can address these problems by helping individuals verify their identities and take action as verified constituents. These advances promise not only to power a more resilient political system, but to fundamentally change how identity is handled online and offline by putting people in control of their personal information. Aidan McCarty studied Biochemistry at Stanford University and earned a 4.2 GPA, top 25 in his class. He dropped out after his Junior year as the co-founder of ePluribus, a seed funded startup, on a mission to build a more secure and unified democracy. Aidan has experience across a wide range of organizations connecting tech, society, and government. He was recently on the teaching staff for Stanford’s Hacking4Defense, an immersive program that connects teams of students with a DoD sponsor to solve some of the toughest AI, energy, and cybersecurity problems. He has also served as Head of SENSA Labs, the top social entrepreneurship incubator at Stanford that has helped to launch companies like ArtsUp and DoNotPay. |
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Survivors of Homelessness and Human Trafficking Rise Together Across The Globe
Aug. 02, 2019
Please join us Friday morning when our speaker will be Carmel Jud. Carmel is the founder and executive director of Rising International. One evening Carmel Jud reached over to the pile of books stacked at the side of her bed and read one question that changed her life. “How are you best suited to serve humanity?” Two years later Carmel and her husband sold almost everything they owned, moved into a donated barn and launched Rising International. Rising International is the first nonprofit in the world to use the home party business model to contribute to solving extreme poverty; both locally and abroad. Carmel’s innovative idea for alleviating poverty using a $185 billion direct sales model has earned her much recognition and several awards, including Huffington Post’s “Greatest Person of the Day.” She opened for Melinda Gates at a TEDx event, was named 50/50 Leadership’s “Woman of the World,” garnered first place in the Cruz Cares Social Innovation Competition, won the Silicon Valley Community Impact Award, and is a proud recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Changemaker Award. Since its inception, Rising International has supported 22,000 women and children living in the most dangerous and remote places on Earth. Today, Rising works with women in more than 20 developing countries. Part of its mission is to focus on areas of the world where it’s the hardest to be alive as woman. From an early age Carmel Jud did daring things. At age 15 she was living on her own, and after attending high school for two years, she founded an award-winning advertising and market research firm. In the 20-year history of the company, Carmel led CJCG from a start-up to a sought-after firm working with Fortune 500 companies. After receiving a tip about a child who was sold into human trafficking, Carmel spearheaded the 2014 launch of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. The Coalition includes more than 40 organizations, businesses and law enforcement agencies now working together at the forefront of a localized movement to end human trafficking—an ambitious but not impossible mission, as Carmel has learned that sometimes the most important change is the kind that comes from daring to try. Carmel will share how Rising International is enabling women surviving homelessness, gender-based violence and human trafficking to connect with other survivors around the globe. Through the power of entrepreneurship they help each other to rise. |
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Therapies in Epilepsy
Aug. 09, 2019
Please join us Friday morning when our speaker will be Dr. Scheherazade Le. Dr. Le is a Neurologist with subspecialty expertise in seizure disorders at the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Neurologists diagnose and treat disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles, and the involuntary nervous system that controls the heart, lungs and other organs. They treat headaches, stroke, dementia, seizures, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders and neuromuscular diseases. She earned her B.A. from Berkeley in Political Science, completed her residency and fellowship training at Stanford, and received her MD from UCSF. Her talk will focus on surgical treatments and devices for epilepsy. Clinical research interests include biosensors and devices in epilepsy, intracranial neurophysiology, autoimmune epilepsy, and novel intra-operative monitoring techniques. |
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Feed Their Read: Why Access to the Right Books Builds Better Readers
Aug. 23, 2019
Please join us this Friday morning when our guest speaker will be Lea Anne Borders explaining why access to the right books can build better readers. By fourth grade, 63% of children in the U.S. are reading below grade level. These children will continue to struggle in school, and are four times more likely than their peers to leave high school without a diploma. Success in reading, like many endeavors, can be tied to practice. The more you read, the better you get at reading. So the issue becomes one of motivation. Decades of research have identified three key levers that motivate children to read – personal relevance, leveling, and choice. Bookelicious, a new e-commerce company founded by Lea Anne Borders, is designed to put these levers into practice. At bookelicious.com, children can easily find and purchase titles that best match their interests and reading abilities, selecting from a professionally curated collection of great books for kids.
Unfortunately, in underserved communities, the issue of motivations compounded by lack of access to books, contributing to the achievement gap between students from high and low income families in the U.S. To address this issue, Bookelicious not only sells books, but it also helps children find the titles they choose in local libraries. However, borrowing your favorite book from the library isn’t as impactful as owning it. To better meet this need, Lea Anne and Judy Koch, Executive Director of the Bring Me a Book Foundation, are piloting the idea of partnering with local nonprofits to adopt Title I classrooms and underwrite the books chosen by students using the Bookelicious platform. The hope is that, by giving disadvantaged children ownership of the right books, they can help close the achievement gap. In addition to her work at m Bookelicious, Lea Anne has served as an advisor to Silicon Valley startups since 1998. Previously, Lea Anne was general counsel for My Wire, Inc., an online media retail startup, and a partner at Cooley LLP, a Silicon Valley based law firm known for its expertise in the areas of venture capital and technology transactions. Lea Anne holds an MS in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She also serves as a board member for non-profits Bring Me a Book Foundation and LitLab. |
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In Observance of Labor Day
Aug. 30, 2019
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Zipline, Lifesaving Deliveries By Drone
Sep. 06, 2019
Please join us this Friday morning when our guest speaker will be Jeremy Schwartz from Zipline. Today, too many people are underserved by last century's limited solutions: trucks, trains, and washed-out roads. Zipline leap-frogs these outdated solutions with a cost-effective drone delivery network, revolutionizing access to healthcare. Their mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. In 2014, Zipline was created to deliver medicine to those who need it most. Since then, they've built the world's fastest and most reliable delivery drone, the world's largest autonomous logistics network, and a truly amazing team. They are a local company, in that they design and test their technology in Half Moon Bay. They assemble the drones and the technology that powers their distribution centers in South San Francisco. They perform extensive flight testing in Davis. Then they operate distribution centers around the planet with teams of local operators. How it works: Doctors place orders on-demand through a simple app for any medicine they need, when they need it. Medical products are stored centrally at Zipline's distribution centers and are flown quickly to any destination. This maintains cold-chain and product integrity, while eliminating waste. Zipline packages the order, then launches it into flight. Racing along at over 100 km/h, vital products arrive faster than any other mode of transport. Their drones fly without a pilot and are battery-powered, reducing the cost and emissions of moving medicine. Their drones fly over remote mountains, rivers, and washed-out roads. They require no local infrastructure to serve communities. Within 30 minutes, medical supplies are delivered from the sky by parachute. Recipients don't interact with the drone itself. The drones only land at Zipline's distribution center, where Zipline operators quickly prepare them for their next flight. They've refined this process to support hundreds of deliveries per day, per distribution center, in all weather conditions. Zipline focuses on running an elite operation so doctors can focus on giving patients the care they deserve. Jeremy Schwartz is the Lead Flight Software engineer at Zipline. Jeremy started his career with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, with a focus on robotics. From there, he spent several years working on autonomous vehicles of all types -- on the ground, in the water, in the air, and in space. For example, he took part in the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, and the DARPA F6 project to develop cluster flight control algorithms for a swarm of satellites in orbit. Jeremy joined Zipline about six months after the company began, and is responsible for all the code that runs onboard the vehicle. |
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New Member Talk and Summer Internships
Sep. 13, 2019
Please join us this Friday morning when we will have a new member talk from Amee Devani and an update about our Vocational Committee’s summer intern program.
Amee Devani comes to us from Kenya where her father was the past president of the Nairobi Rotary Club. She has a BA and MA in Economics from Cambridge. She has worked for Ernst & Young in London focusing on Renewable Energy Consultancy, with focus on clean-tech, wind and biogas projects. She also helped found Pavegen Systems, an innovative clean-tech company, the first to successfully commercialize a product which converts the kinetic energy from footfall to renewable electricity. In 2017 she was a Sloan Fellow at Stanford's GSB. Amee works in the office of the CEO of Palantir Technologies. She is also very recently the co-founder of WellBeam, a digital health solution transforming communication on the continuum of patient care. She is also an avid cyclist. We will also hear short presentations by three college students who had internships this summer made possible by PAUR members. As part of PAUR’s Vocational Committee’s program, a summer internship program was piloted this past year to help college students from local low income families get meaningful experience that will help to launch the student’s careers after they graduate next spring. These students are mostly first generation in their families to attend college. PAUR’s Vocational Committee, working in partnership with two local nonprofits, found relevant and meaningful positions for our speakers. You will hear from them about the impact these internships have had on their career goals and preparation, a little about their lives and goals, and the roles PAUR members have played in helping them. Gabriela Perez, a senior at UC Riverside majoring in Economics. She worked this summer at Mercedes Benz Research Center, thanks to PAUR member Philipp Skarsgard. Bryce Bondarenko, a senior at San Jose State majoring in Business. He interned this summer in the Stanford Athletics Department, thanks to PAUR “Honorary Member” Ray Purpur. Jose Enrique Corado Cano, a senior at UC Riverside majoring in Applied Mathematics. He interned this summer at SLAC, thanks to PAUR member Uwe Bergmann. |