July 2007 Programs

July 9 ~ Kerry Childress, Treating Injured Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan War, Rebuilding Injured Lives

Ms. Childress currently serves as the Communications Officer and Congressional Liaison for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.  Prior to this assignment, Ms. Childress worked at VA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. as the Director of Communications for all of the Veterans Health Administration.  As such she developed communications policy and strategy, including guidance to the office of the Under Secretary for Health, central office programs, and Network and field facilities. 

A Vietnam-era Navy veteran, her 22-years of public affairs experience includes working at the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home, Arlington National Cemetery, Military District of Washington and as associate editor of Navy Times.  She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland and holds a masters degree from American University in public relations. 

She joins us today to talk about the role that VA is playing in caring for our newest and youngest servicemembers and veterans returning injured from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - VA Palo Alto - Rebuilding Injured Lives.


July 16 ~ Firoozeh Dumas, "Laughing without an Accent: Tales of an Iranian Humorist."

Firoozeh Dumas, author of the national bestseller, Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (Random House, 2003), will tell us how she became a published author and where her stories have taken her since. She will be accompanied by her father, Kazem Jazayeri, who was a member of the Rotary Club in Abadan, Iran in the 1950's.

Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran and moved to Whittier, California at the age of seven. After a two-year stay, she and her family moved back to Iran and lived in Ahvaz and Tehran. Two years later, they moved back to Whittier, then to Newport Beach. Firoozeh then attended UC Berkeley where she met and married a Frenchman.

Firoozeh grew up listening to her father, a former Fulbright Scholar, recount the many colorful stories of his life. In 2001, with no prior writing experience, Firoozeh decided to write her stories as a gift for her two children. Random House published these stories in 2003. Funny in Farsi was on the SF Chronicle and LA Times bestseller lists and was a finalist for the PEN/USA award in 2004 and a finalist in 2005 for an Audie Award for best audio book. She lost to Bob Dylan.  She was also a finalist for the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor, the first Middle Eastern woman ever to receive this honor.  Unfortunately, she lost that one to Jon Stewart. Even though, as Firoozeh's dad likes to point out, Jon Stewart wrote his book with a team of writers, while Firoozeh wrote hers, alone, before her children woke up for school.

Critics and readers of all ages have loved her stories. Jimmy Carter called Funny in Farsi, "A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love-of family, country and heritage."

For the past three years, Firoozeh has traveled the country reminding us that our commonalities far outweigh our differences…and doing so with humor. She has spoken in conferences, schools, universities, churches, Jewish Temples and Islamic centers. Her travels have taken her from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Harvard University to UCLA.  Everywhere she has gone, audiences have embraced her message of shared humanity and invited her back for more. 

In April 2005, Firoozeh's one-woman show, "Laughing Without an Accent" opened in Northern California to sold out audiences.  She is currently working on her next book, a series of autobiographical essays entitled, "Last Mango in Paris." Her book will be out in late 2007 or early 2008.


July 23 ~ Jim Harbaugh ~ Stanford Football Update

Stanford University officially introduced Jim Harbaugh as its new head football coach and Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football on Tuesday at a press conference held at Kissick Auditorium inside the Arrillaga Family Sports Center on the Stanford campus.

"I was very happy we were able to recruit Jim Harbaugh to come to Stanford University," said Bob Bowlsby, The Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics at Stanford. "I think he is an extraordinary fit at our University. He certainly values the convergence of world class athletics and world class academics, and I think he will do an extraordinary job of representing our University as the head football coach in the years ahead."

"It is a pleasure, privilege, honor and blessing to accept the opportunity to be Stanford University's next head football coach", commented Harbaugh. "Now, I dedicate my life's work to building the foundation here at Stanford University, the foundation that will lead to great success down the road as well as continue the tradition and restore the legacy that Stanford rightfully has in college football."

JIM HARBAUGH AT A GLANCE, Personal
Name: James Joseph "Jim" Harbaugh
Birthdate: December 23, 1963
Place of Birth: Toledo, OH
High School: Palo Alto High School, 1982
College: Michigan, B.A., Communications, 1986
NFL Draft: 1987/Chicago Bears/1st Round (26th overall pick)
NFL Playing Career: 1987-2001 (Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore, San Diego, Carolina)
Children: Jay (born June 14, 1989); James, Jr. (September 4, 1996); Grace June 27, 2000)
Coaching Career : 2007 Stanford University ~ New head football coach and Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, University of San Diego - Head Coach (2004-06), Overall Head Coaching Record: 29-6 (2006)


July 30 ~ (Our own) Dr. Nick Nichols, Is There Privacy After the Web?

The World Wide Web has put a wealth of information literally at our fingertips.  Just about everything from news articles to soap opera reviews is available online.  But the Internet also provides access to a large amount of personal information on nearly everyone and the data on each of us just keeps growing.  We have heard about government agencies gathering information about individuals and a nosey neighbor might dig up information about you.  However, the biggest consumers of personal information are thieves and businesses.  This talk will discuss the kind of personal information available on the web, how people get it, how long it lasts, and some ways it is used.

Palo Alto Rotarian since 1998, A. J. "Nick" Nichols, Ph.D. Computer Technology Expert, Mediator, and Arbitrator provides services as a computer technical expert in all aspects of litigation, pre-litigation evaluation, mediation, trial and arbitration.  Dr. Nichols has also served as a neutral technology expert to judges of United States District Courts; the Supreme Court of Singapore; the Superior Courts of San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Diego Counties; JAMS neutrals; and directly to the parties involved.

Dr. Nichols serves as an arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association and the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.  He is on the mediation panels of the Northern District of California, the First Appellate District of the California Court of Appeals and the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center in San Mateo, California.  He obtained his mediation training at Harvard Law School and through the organizations for which he mediates.

His education includes a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, an M.S in EE from Stanford, and B.S degrees in both Business Management and Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. Nichols has a broad background in the engineering of computer hardware and software.  He served as an engineering executive, developer, and researcher for Millennium Systems, Intel Corporation, American Microsystems, Novar Corporation, and Lockheed Missiles & Space Company.  He founded Probitas to provide consulting and product development assistance to high technology companies and has served as president since its inception.   See http://probitas.com/ for more information.

June 2007 Programs

June 4 - Celebration of Life - Video produced by Bill Busse and Dick Freeman - highlighting the lives of the following past members.

·   Rabbi Sydney Akselrad
·   John Bracken
·   Alfred Kenrick
·   Andy Moser
·   Daryl Pearson
·   Keith Petty
·   Richard E Abbott
·   Robert V Brown
·   William J Miller
·   Michael Traugott
·   Joseph Jedd


June 11 - Ramon Myers - Crucial issues to both China and the U.S. -  Dr. Myers's talk will be based on a book titled The Struggle Across the Taiwan Strait: the divided China problem

Ramon Myers received his ph.d. degree in economics from the U. of Washington, Seattle, Washington. On August 1, 1975 Myers began a new job as curator of the East Asian Collection and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Five years a go when the East Asian Collection was transferred to Green Library, Myers became consultant to the Hoover Institution Archives and Senior Fellow Emeritus, positions he still holds.

At Hoover Myers was responsible for building a modern China and Japanese collection for Hoover and Stanford University. He also was responsible for developing a research program consisting of books and essays published by Hoover Institution describing and analyzing the evolution of a new Taiwan after China divided into two regimes in 1949. Finally, he has been able to write, lecture, and speak about topics related to the divided China problem, the rise of Chinese Communism  in mainland China, Japanese imperialism in the 20th century, East Asian security and economic change, and Chinese economic history.

His unusual job has enabled Myers to visit Taiwan more than one hundred times since his coming to Hoover as well as visit mainland China where he had the opportunity to meet with top leaders of the government and Communist party. He has had the good fortune to collaborate with Chinese scholars and fiction writers such as Tsai Ling with whom he co-authored with Myers the writing of a book titled The First Chinese Democracy: Political Life in the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Before Ms. Tsai moved to Shanghai some four years ago she played an important role in helping Myers to produce an agreement between the Hoover Institution and the Guomindang Party in Taiwan for Hoover to preserve the documents of the Guomindang Party. This is a project that is ongoing at the Hoover Institution and will take many years to complete. When it is finished, the Hoover Institution Archives will possess some of the most important papers and materials on the Republic of China in the 20th and 21st Centuries.


June 18 - Three New Member Talks, as follows.

Sven Strohband

I was born and raised in Northrhine Westphalia in Germany and also completed my initial education there. Being of an adventurous nature, I decided, after my one year mandatory military service, to start my studies in the US. I moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, and started my undergraduate studies at Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering. After four cold winters I decided that graduate school had to be in a warmer climate and went to Stanford University to study Mechanical Engineering and obtained my Masters and Doctorate degrees. My focus was on the simulation of very small scale structures as they exist for example in semiconductors. My research enabled me to cross the boundary between multiple disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Computer Science, a fact that I enjoyed very much.

After school I joined the Electronics Research Laboratory of Volkswagen of America in Palo Alto as a Senior Engineer where I started the novel materials efforts in the laboratory. Later, I also became the lead engineer for the Stanford racing team that produced the DARPA Grand Challenge car "Stanley" (an autonomous robot that won a 132 mile off-road race without any drivers) which is now a part of the Smithsonian collection. After the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab I joined Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments in Menlo Park. With MDV, I am a partner on the IT investment side.

I have the great fortune to be married to my high school sweetheart and we have a three year old daughter.

Scott Glissmeyer

I am the Executive Director of the Palo Alto Family YMCA on Ross Road. I was hired as the Associate Executive in September of 2005 and got the job as the Executive Director after Dan Logan's retirement last year.

I was born in Stockton California and graduated from San Francisco State University (go Gators!). After competing in competitive swimming for ten years, I have been a YMCA professional since 1989, when I became the Aquatics Director of the Stonestown Family YMCA in San Francisco. In the ensuing years, I was Fitness Director at the Richmond District YMCA and opened the new Presidio Community YMCA on the site of the former Army base. Starting in 1998, I served on the staff of the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA in north San Diego County, the last four as Associate Executive Director.

I believe in the people that make up the YMCA because of the tangible positive impact they have daily on those in our community who need it the most. My wife Elaine is the Executive Director of the Northwest YMCA in Cupertino and a member of the Cupertino Rotary, so our family has both YMCA and Rotary in common! I enjoy music of all forms (and playing the guitar so long as there are no more than four chords), working out, outdoors activities, and cheering for the 49ers.

Larry Bailey

I have been a property owner and resident of Palo Alto since the early 90's.
However, I have been local resident since 1952 including graduating from
Palo Alto High in 1970, Foothill Jr. College in 1972, and San Jose State
University in 1985.

For the past 3 years, I have been a real estate mortgage professional with
Countrywide Home Loans in Los Altos including 1 year for Nova Financial
Services in Cupertino.  A few of my previous career employers include Qwest
Communication, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, plus a number of NFL teams.

I have been married for 10 years and I have one daughter.  My wife, Sophie
Ravel, emigrated to the U.S. from France in 1984 and she has been a real
estate agent for 20 years.  Her real estate career commenced with Century 21
Gold, followed by Grubb & Ellis, Cornish & Carey, Coldwell Banker, and
currently she is with Keller Willians in Palo Alto.

My 7-year-old daughter Maya has been attending the International School of
the Peninsula, a private French school in Palo Alto, since nursery and now
she's in the first grade.

June 26 - Debunking of the President  - Tuesday Evening

" Fair Winds and a Following Sea"

it's

EAOS for CO, *

ART

Please join us for the Debunking of ART STAUFFER

Palo Alto Rotary President 2006-2007

TUESDAY,  June 26, 2007

6  P.M.

Drinks, dinner and entertainment

The Woman's Club of Palo Alto, 475 Homer Avenue 

Palo Alto Rotary - Calendar of Events

May 2007 Programs

May 7 - Kathleen Sullivan - "Beef, It's What's for Lunch - Advertising and the First Amendment".

Kathleen M Sullivan is the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law and Former Dean of the Stanford Law School. She received BA degrees from Cornell University in 1976 and University of Oxford in 1978, where she was a Marshall Scholar, and received her JD degree from Harvard Law School in 1981.

She is a nationally prominent scholar and teacher of constitutional law. Author of the nation's leading casebook in constitutional law, she has published articles on federalism, religion, speech, equality, and constitutional theory. A professor of law at Harvard Law School before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1993, she is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Also an outstanding litigator who has argued before numerous appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, she has been named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. From 1999 to 2004, Professor Sullivan served as the eleventh dean of Stanford Law School and the first woman dean of any school at Stanford. As dean, she made fifteen faculty appointments, established the clinical faculty, renovated all 17 classrooms and the library reading room, launched numerous academic centers, started the LLM program, and raised over $100 million for the school.

May 14 - Dr. Robert Negrin - Potential of Cellular Therapies and Brief Status of Proposition 71.

Robert S. Negrin, MD is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and is the Medical Director of the Clinical Bone Marrow Transplant Laboratory. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and MD from Harvard University. He trained in medicine and hematology at Stanford University and joined the faculty in 1990. His research work has focused on cellular immunology in particular developing a more fundamental understanding of complex biological reactions such as graft versus host and graft vs tumor reactions in animal models and in the clinic. He has authored over 145 original papers and 35 book chapters. He received the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award in 2004 and was recently the President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

May 21 - Professor Michael Kirsh - "Failure to Complete College: Implications for California's Grim Economic Future".

Mike Kirst is Emeritus  Professor of Education and Business Administration, by courtesy, at Stanford University. As a policy generalist, Kirst has published articles on school finance politics, curriculum politics, intergovernmental relations, and education reform policies. He is the author of 10 books, including From High School to College (2004), and The Political Dynamics of American Education (2005). Kirst was a member of the California State Board of Education from 1975 to 1982 and its president from 1977 to 1981. He was cofounder of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) in 1983, and is a member of the management and research staff of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Before joining the Stanford faculty, Kirst held several positions with the federal government, including staff director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower and Poverty.

May 28 - Dark - Memorial Day

·   Rabbi Sydney Akselrad
·   John Bracken
·   Alfred Kenrick
·   Andy Moser
·   Daryl Pearson
·   Keith Petty
·   Richard E Abbott
·   Robert V Brown
·   William J Miller
·   Michael Traugott
·   Joseph Jedd