Posted by Christopher Wiseman on Feb 23, 2020
What: World Wide Rotary Day, launched by our Club in 1997, honors the San Francisco Consular Corps as the special guests of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. Typically, representatives from about 35 countries attend. The event also recognizes the many international service activities of the Rotary Club of San Francisco and the broad global impact of Rotary International.
 
This year, we will feature a distinguished panel of leaders connecting the world to discuss three of Rotary International’s pillars that benefit the climate: fighting disease; providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; and growing local economies.
 
Who: Rhonda Poppen, 2018-2019 Club President and Not-for-Profit Consultant, will serve as moderator. The panelists will be Dr. Michael Reyes, Professor, Family Community Medicine and Global Health Sciences Faculty Affiliate, UCSF; Dr. Martha Rutherford, Not-for-Profit Leader and Water Solutions Educator; and Bart Skorupa, Social Entrepreneur and Author. 
 
RHONDA POPPEN enjoys community service as a vital part of her life through the Rotary Club of San Francisco and other organizations. As the Club President for the 2018-2019 year, she and her team led the Club in celebrating 110 years of service and as the 2018 Chair of the Club's signature event, Emergency Services Day, she doubled the number of honorees and attendees from recent years. Independent of Rotary service, Rhonda is an advocate and volunteer with Because Justice Matters, a center for exploited women in the City’s Tenderloin District. By profession, Rhonda is a Certified Grant Writer® with over ten years’ success, to include five years as an independent grant consultant under the name GRANTdog. 
 
Dr. MICHAEL REYES, Professor Emeritus in Family & Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, has enjoyed a public health career focused on strengthening the health care systems for HIV/AIDS in the Western United States (since 1986) and globally (since 2002). He currently leads the Skills Development Unit for the Alameda County Whole Person Care Pilot; this multi-sectoral initiative aims to provide a better safety net for Medicaid clients who are high utilizers of emergency services, chronically ill and/or homeless, and are at high risk for falling out of care. Dr. Reyes was the founding principal investigator for the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health to provide leadership, capacity building, professional training, policy advocacy, research development, and resources to increase access to culturally competent health care for transgender people in the United States.
 
Dr. MARTHA RUTHERFORD has spent the last 30 years as a bilingual educator for elementary schools through advanced graduate programs. Dr. Rutherford’s current passion is to educate and mobilize young people to start a revolution demanding that all people everywhere have access to clean, safe water. In recent years, she has developed a straighforward curriculum that instructs young people how to test water quality and safety, maintain their water purification systems, and monitor water use. As the initiative progresses, results of the students’ findings will be posted on the Kumpi Mayu Foundation website and sent to the World Health Organization. Her dream is to bring scores of young people to the United Nations, where they will make the case that the worldwide water crisis needs the support of every person in each and every country in order to provide clean, safe water for all.
 
By trailblazing his own path around the world, BART SKORUPA became a serial social entrepreneur and best-selling author who dedicates his life to inspiring leadership on a global scale. He is passionate about launching and growing mission-driven organizations at the intersection of technology, philanthropy, and disruptive leadership. Bart is a frequent panelist, speaker, and workshop facilitator at a variety of forums that focus on organizational and personal development. His work has been featured on NPR, Men’s Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, Bravo Network, and Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2014, Dell honored him as one of the 25 World Change-makers alongside Lauren Bush, Edward Norton, and Adam Braun. He is also a proud member of the Full Circle Fund, SOCAP, Opportunity Collaboration, Salesforce Ohana, and Summit Series families.
 
When:  March 24, 2020, 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM
 
Where:  Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
 
Registration:  World Wide Rotary Day is one of our most popular luncheon programs. Please be sure to RSVP so we can be sure there are enough seats for everyone who wants to attend. NO WALK-INS WILL BE ALLOWED AT THIS EVENT.