Katie Simmons I was hired in 2008 as the executive director of the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce. I was from the Bay Area, and I left because my parents had moved to Chico a few years earlier and I wanted to slow down. I had the opportunity to live and work in Paradise and work with Chuck Rough and Lauren Gill. I really fell in love with it. I also went through the Humboldt fire with the town both as a resident and on the periphery of the emergency operations at the town. We as a chamber had the opportunity to assist the community with messaging and connecting them with resources. I then moved down to Chico and spent seven years as president and CEO of the Chico Chamber of Commerce. During those seven years I got to know economic and social fabric on the region, and the importance the region serves for the North State in terms of supplies, services, homes. I was actually chair of the urgent response task force, at the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, and I helped coordinate a lot of across chambers in the country when they were dealing with disasters, school shootings to floods to hurricanes. Then, in 2018, I joined the Associated General Contractors of California, and I really got a great view on what it means to be in construction. With economic development, community awareness, and construction, I think I really have a lot to bring to Paradise.
Chief Madden has been with the Chico Police Department for 23 years, and most recently, took over as interim chief in early June. Matt has served in almost every sworn position from police officer up to chief. He is a Paradise native, and is very serious about building a strong relationship between the community and the department.
James Gallagher has represented California’s Third Assembly District since 2014. Before joining the Assembly, he served on the Sutter County Board of Supervisors for six years. James earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at UC Berkeley before completing an Assembly Fellowship in Sacramento and a law degree at UC Davis, where he graduated at the top of his class. He advocates for small businesses and farmers in his law practice and is a partner in his family’s farming operation. James is married to his high school sweetheart, Janna; the two live in Sutter County where they are raising their five young children.
Jon joined Rotary in 2005 as a member of the Benicia Rotary Club, served on the Club’s Board in several positions prior to being President in 2009 – 2010.
At the District level, Jon served as Assistant Governor for the Diablo Valley Eight in 2012 – 2013, and the Solano County 10 +1 Clubs in 2013 – 2015 and as District trainer in 2015-2017. He has been a Camp Venture Counselor since 2010, and has been responsible for the House of Friendship at our District Conferences since 2012. Jon is a 2010 graduate of the District 5160 Leadership Academy, a member of the Paul Harris Society and a Major Donor.
He is an avid believer is “Enhancing the Rotary Experience for our Members” and highlighting the work that all of the Rotary Clubs are doing in their local communities.
Jon was born in Bennington, Vermont, He is a 1970 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Chemical Engineering (and a “minor” in football as he was a Student Mgr. of the football team). He retired in 2008 after 30+ years in Technical Sales and Sales Mgt. for Nalco Chemical Co. His working career included 8 years of foreign assignments, two in Thailand and six in Saudi Arabia.
Jon and his wife Bonnie have been married for 49 years and live in San Ramon, Ca. Bonnie is a certified Contra County Master Gardener. They have two children: Tyler and Carrie, and six grandchildren.
Rohey Njie - a public Helath specialist who assisted with the purge of polio in Nigeria will speak with us. She is also an honorary Rotarian in Gambia.
Rohey Njie is a public health professional from Gambia in western Africa. Raised by her grandmother in a rural community, Rohey saw first-hand the damaging effects of traditional medicine and was determined to step into the field of Public Health to help others. Through relentless study and discipline, she gained a scholarship for college and became the first person in her family to enter university. She became the only woman in her public health promotion program and excelled quickly.
From graduation in 2009 to June 2019, she rose through the ranks as a public health officer and health education and promotion officer and became a Senior Program Officer for the Ministry of Health in the Gambia. Rohey’s work focuses on advocacy, community engagement, and social and behavior change communication. While working with the health communication division, she was responsible for planning, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs, including immunizations, social mobilization, and disease prevention. She implemented several interventions and response programs working with and supporting and empowering individuals, families, and communities with health information to enable them take control of their own health and wellbeing.
In July 2019, she was recruited by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative assigned to Nigeria and continued her work with public health interventions to fight against polio. Additionally, Rohey has produced three of her own documentaries, her latest being “A Day in the Life of a Polio Survivor.”
Tod Kimmelshue, Our newest Butte County Supervisor, has been married 33 years to wife Sherri ,with 2 sons, Kirk and Chad. He is a 5th generation family farmer and served for 35 years in the finance and banking industry.
Tod has served on numerous Boards including Butte County Farm Bureau, Board Member and Past President; Faith Lutheran Church Council Member, Past President, Sunday School Teacher; Butte County Water Commission, Vice Chairman; Chamber of Commerce, Board Member and Past President, Chico State Foundation, Board Member and Past Finance Chair; California Farm Bureau, Board Member and Past Finance Chair; Northern California Regional Land Trust, Board Member and Past President; and most importantly Rotary Club, Past President.
Tod has received many community service awards:Agricultural Service Award – Farm City Celebration; Distinguished Citizen of the Year – Boy Scouts of America; Member of the Year – Butte County Farm Bureau; Community Service Award – Chamber of Commerce; and American Farmer Degree – Future Farmers of America (FFA)
Andrew Coolidge was raised just south of Butte County in the small town of Loma Rica in the Yuba County Foothills. He moved to Chico in 1993 to enroll in Chico State. He graduated with a Bacholer of Arts Degree in English Literature.
He has owned and operated Coolidge Public Relations for the last 27 years which produces the Chico Home and Garden Shows, Chico Bridal Shows and Yuba City Home, Garden and Recreation Show. He has also worked closely with the Silver Dollar Fair and Yuba-Sutter Fair over the last twenty-five years on both advertising and sponsorship. He is a single father of two children, his daughter, age 18, attends UCLA, and his son, age 14 is a Freshman at Chico High.
Andrew served on the council from 2014-2018 and was part of the council which restored Chico to fiscal health when they were the 5th most likely city to declare bankruptcy in the State of California. He was re-elected to council in 2020 and became Mayor.
Andrew has also been a PTA president at Chico Country Day School for two years, chaired the Butte County Air Quality Management District Board for four years, is a past board member for the Butte County Fair, past chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee for City Council, former board member of the Butte County Association of Governments, former Chair of the Eagle Scout Board of Review, former board member of the Buttes Area Council BSA Board.
Dr. Karin Lightfoot earned her Baccalaureate of Science degree in Nursing at Cal State Bakersfield and has been a registered Nurse for 37 years. She worked mostly in the areas of public health nursing and obstetrics. She earned her Master of Science degree in Nursing at CSU Chico and began teaching at Chico State School of Nursing in 2007. She earned her Ph. D in Public Health from Walden University in 2016 and she became Director of the School of Nursing in 2017.
She is Nationally Board Certified in Community Health Nursing and holds a Public Health Nursing certification from the California Board of Registered Nursing. She is currently the President-Elect for the California Association for Colleges of Nursing, is a State Grassroots Liaison for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and a board member of Kappa Omicron Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing.
In her spare time, she enjoys camping, gardening, and taking long walks with her husband Robb Lightfoot. They raised their four children in Palo Cedro, California before moving to Chico in 2017, when she took the Director position. With the support of the University administration and the committed nursing faculty and staff, she has navigated the School of Nursing through the challenges of the Camp Fire and now the COVID pandemic.
Frank Schulenberg - Wiki Education Foundation - Schooling with Wiki
Frank Schulenburg is the Executive Director of Wiki Education, the non-profit that connects Wikipedia with subject-matter experts in higher education and cultural institutions. Frank is motivated by the desire to provide people with free access to accurate and trustworthy information, so they can make their own best choices as informed citizens.
Since the early days of his involvement with Wikipedia, Frank’s work has focused on improving content quality and broadening participation. Until 2014, he served on the Executive Team of the Wikimedia Foundation and spearheaded a number of global initiatives aimed at improving the encyclopedia’s coverage and quality.
Frank has been involved with Wikipedia as a volunteer since 2005, both as an author and as a photographer. His encyclopedia articles and photographs have gained widespread acclaim.
Colonel Heather Fox is the Commander, 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, CA. She is responsible for approximately 7,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel, and the entire Air Force high-altitude reconnaissance fleet of U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing is comprised of four groups and four overseas operating locations, executing worldwide missions in support of all six geographic combatant commanders.
Colonel Fox is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and started her career as a T-38 instructor pilot before transitioning to the U-2 program as a mission pilot. Col Fox’s staff duties have included exchange officer service in the UK Royal Air Force Strategy Division, the Joint Staff J3 Reconnaissance Division, and as a strategist and speech writer for the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She has earned three Master's Degrees from the American Public University, King’s College London, and the National Defense University. Her combat experience includes missions over Iraq and Afghanistan during Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, and she has commanded EQ-4, RQ-4, and U-2 combat missions for Operations INHERENT RESOLVE, FREEDOM’S SENTINAL, as well as Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations in the Arabian Gulf.
Colonel Fox is a command pilot with over 2,400 hours in the U-2, E/RQ-4, and T-38A. She has flown 69 combat missions in the U-2 and has over 650 hours of combat time. Prior to her current position, she was a student at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
Ingelise Mahlis-Miller graduated from Inspire School of Arts and Sciences a year early and embarked on an adventure as an Exchange Student with Rotary to Taiwan. She is eighteen years old and has lived in Chico for almost all of her life. She is very excited to have been on exchange to Taiwan through Rotary, and sharing her story with us, and expresses her thanks to Rotary for this wonderful opportunity.
Katy Thoma - Katy came to Chico in 1974 from Aptos, CA to attend Chico State where she graduated with a degree in Economics. Katy has 25 years of banking experience, and 16 years’ experience working in the non-profit sector. She also spent 2 summers during college working as a ride operator at Magic Mountain – one of her favorite jobs. She can still recite her “spiel” on demand. Katy takes great pride in the fact her family has been in California for 9 generations. She is a 3rd generation Rotarian. Katy is honored to be the CEO of the Chico Chamber where she works on behalf of the business community.
Chiara Savage Schwartz and Lilah Parker are Caliifornia high school juniors and student ambassadors for Wonderbag, where they have been working since 2106 to bring the Wonderbag non-electric slow cookers to low-income communities around the world. Together, they visit classrooms and community centers both in California and South Africa to raise awareness and understanding of the challenges that face the most vulnerable and teach everyone how more efficient home cooking can be a recipe for change. Chiara and Lilah's efforts have helped thousands of women and girls recover the time to determine their educational and financial futures. They were honored with a Bay Area Jefferson Award from Multiplying Good in 2019 and the Marin Academy Juniors Grant in 2020.
Lilah Parker and Chiara Savage Schwartz will present a new approach to both local and international women's and homeless impowerment. One Wonderbag, one family, one year, resilience.
On the international front, each wonderbag provides 70% less feul needed to cook, up to 1 ton carbon emissions mitigated, 60% less indoor pollution, up to 1,000 hours diverted, 1,000 liters of cooking water spared, and 5 large trees saved from deforestation.
What is this miracle bag? Lilah and Chiara will explain.
Frederick W. Penney is the host of Radio Law Talk, a radio show discussing the latest trending legal topics and news, broadcast throughout many areas around the country and can be found on SRN Radio networks.
The Penney and Associates firm has now expanded to offices in Sacramento, Roseville, Chico, Rocklin and Irvine with satellite offices in Fairfield, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Southern California. Penney and Associates Cases have been featured on the National Nightly News, local nightly news, radio news programs and numerous articles in print media, and Penny Lawyers have handled numerous high profile personal injury cases and thousands of personal injury cases..
Fred was Born in 1963 and admitted to the California State Bar in 1992, receiving his B.A. degree from Brigham Young University in 1988 in Philosophy, and receiving his J.D. degree in 1991 from J. Reuben Clark Law School.
Following his admission to the bar he briefly worked for a nationwide personal injury firm. Within six months of passing his bar he was lead trial lawyer in a large Superior Court personal injury case. Early in his career Mr. Penney has been featured in magazines, newspapers and on the local nightly news about a number of cases.
Mr. Penney is the author of numerous personal injury articles. He became a member of the California Trial Lawyers Association in 1993, has been admitted in 1992 and 1993 to the Federal Eastern District Court and the 9th District Court of Appeals. Fred Penney is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar and an officer of the court. Mr. Penney is a settlement conference judge for the Placer County Superior Court.
Johrita Solari - A Rotarian since 1993, Johrita is currently a proud member of the Rotary Club of Anaheim, California. She served as District Governor for District 5320 in 2010-2011. Additional service has included chair of the 2013 Southern California/Nevada PETS, training leader at the 2014 and 2015 International Assemblies, chair of the 2015 Institute for Zones 25/26, and membership on Rotary’s Peace Major Gifts Initiative Committee. On July 1, 2019, she became the Rotary International Director (2019-2021) for the newly configured Zones 26/27.
As District Governor, Johrita held the first District 5320 Million Dollar Dinner for The Rotary Foundation. Under her leadership, District 5320 became the second district in the world to become a 100% Paul Harris Club District.
Johrita is Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Solari Enterprises, Inc., a full-service property management company employing 300 team members who specialize in the management of more than $1B of affordable multifamily housing. She works together with her husband and daughters to create a working environment with a high level of ethics and integrity. She has served in many capacities on community and industry boards.
Rotary plays an important role in the lives of the Solari family. Johrita, her husband Bruce, and their two daughters, Gianna and Tressa, are all past club presidents and with their son-in-law, Reece are active supporters of The Rotary Foundation. Johrita and Bruce are members of the Arch Klumph Society.
Laura R. Cootsona holds a Masters in Nonprofit Administration (MNA) from University of San Francisco and a BA from UC Berkeley in Religious Studies and worked with nonprofit organizations as a consultant for 21 years. Cootsona built her consulting practice focused on fundraising, marketing, CEO coaching, strategic planning, and board development. In October of 2015, Cootsona became the Executive Director of the Jesus Center, a social service nonprofit in Chico, CA focusing on reducing the impact of homelessness.
She describes her commitment to folks living on the streets as her first passion, dating back to the early eighties while in school in Berkeley. As an undergraduate she volunteered at the Berkeley Emergency Food Project first as a job coach (and expert spades player) and then as a board member. Since assuming the role of Executive Director, Cootsona focuses on building strategic collaborations for the overall improvement of the community and of those who struggle the most with childhood trauma, mental illness, substance use, and circumstantial challenges. Post Camp Fire, Cootsona serves on the Executive Committee of the Long-Term Recovery Group Board of Directors and is focused on building a full service campus called The Renewal Center.
When she is not at work, Laura enjoys time with her two daughters (22 and 25), biking, reading, swimming, taking pictures, hanging out with friends, and traveling. She and her husband, Greg, a lecturer at CSUC in Religious Studies, are about to celebrate 35 years of marriage.
Susan Cohen Grossman is the Rotary District 5160 Peace Fellowship Chair and has lived in Benicia for more than 30 years. She has been involved with the Peace Fellowship program almost from the start of her 29 years in Rotary and has focused on finding and nurturing potential Peace Fellows.
Susan joined the Fairfield Suisun Club in 1992 when she was the Agricultural Commissioner for Solano County, a position she held for 16 years. She later became a pest management writer at UC Davis, where she joined the Davis Noon Club. For the past 12 years, she has been a member of the Concord Rotary Club. Susan is passionate about International Projects and has been working on an endeavor to bring sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene to impoverished schools in Honduras and Guatemala
Colonel Heather Fox is the Commander, 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, CA. She is responsible for approximately 7,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel, and the entire Air Force high-altitude reconnaissance fleet of U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing is comprised of four groups and four overseas operating locations, executing worldwide missions in support of all six geographic combatant commanders.
Colonel Fox is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and started her career as a T-38 instructor pilot before transitioning to the U-2 program as a mission pilot. Col Fox’s staff duties have included exchange officer service in the UK Royal Air Force Strategy Division, the Joint Staff J3 Reconnaissance Division, and as a strategist and speech writer for the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She has earned three Master's Degrees from the American Public University, King’s College London, and the National Defense University. Her combat experience includes missions over Iraq and Afghanistan during Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, and she has commanded EQ-4, RQ-4, and U-2 combat missions for Operations INHERENT RESOLVE, FREEDOM’S SENTINAL, as well as Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations in the Arabian Gulf.
Colonel Fox is a command pilot with over 2,400 hours in the U-2, E/RQ-4, and T-38A. She has flown 69 combat missions in the U-2 and has over 650 hours of combat time. Prior to her current position, she was a student at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.