Events

Bio for John Cowan

Guest Speaker for Tuesday, January 31, 2023

John Cowan retired after 36 years of teaching science. In Chico Unified School District, John taught at Bidwell Junior High School, Pleasant Valley High School, but the majority of his time at Fair View High School. John was Teacher of the Year at Anderson Valley High School in Boonville, California in 1986, a Rotarian Educator of the Year in 2011, and the CUSD/CUTA Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2021.

While a member of the Chico Area Flyfishers (CAF) for many years, John only stepped up to a more active role in CAF and fly fishing after retiring. His motivation for being more involved is not just to perfect his skills in fly fishing, but to contribute to the various community service, educational, and conservation projects that CAF is involved with.

John has a son, Eli, who is an engineering student at Cal Poly, SLO. He is also knows many Rotarians through the various social and community service projects with his girlfriend, Robin Bicocca.

Emily graduated from Chico State with her MSW in 2009. Shortly after, she joined the YFC team as a part time case manager at the 6th Street Center for Youth. She worked her way up to full-time, then Program Coordinator. In 2015 she started the HEART Program where she was program manager. Since 2018 Emily has been supervising HEART and the 6th Street Center. Emily is passionate about working with the unhoused and runaway youth population. She loves everything to do with Halloween and enjoys reading, hiking, kayaking, and hanging with her cat, Mama.

6^th Street, a program of Youth for Change, has been operating in downtown Chico since 2008. We are a daytime service center for homeless and runaway youth between the ages of 14 and 24 years old.  6^th Street provides crisis intervention, 18 beds of Transition and Master Lease housing, basic needs such as food, clothing, shower and laundry, and assistance accessing social services. 6^th Street also provides outpatient mental health services, including therapy and counseling services, brief family counseling, conflict mediation and family reunification. For more information, please visit our website www.6thstreetcenter.org

Daniel Mauldin is the Head Coach of the North State Composite High School Mountain Bike Team and a Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial. In 2010 he was asked if he would like to help coach a High School Mountain Bike Team and he said, “Heck No! Who would want to work with kids?” The following year he agreed to help and fell in love with the program, he has been coaching ever since. In 2016 he moved to Chico from the Bay Area. He met his soon to be lovely wife and her two boys, they were married in May of 2021. In 2019 he took over as Head Coach of the North State Composite MTB Team and co-leads the team with Kelly Haight as the Team Director. 

North State Composite is a high school and junior high school mountain biking team comprised of students from all over Butte County. They have had exponential growth of the team and this year have 120 young athletes and over 60 Licensed coaches across two managed teams. Their mission is to build strong Body, Mind, Character, and Community through the inclusive sport of interscholastic cycling. If you've ever been in Upper Park on a Tuesday or a Thursday night and saw a bunch of kids wearing black and blue jerseys, then you've meet some of their athletes. 

Leader in California’s legal cannabis retail sector, co-founding California’s most trusted cannabis retailer. Since 2018, Dodd has created Southern California’s leading retailer and highest equity retail brand, launching more new stores in California’s most competitive markets than any other retailer.

Under Dodd’s leadership, Sweet Flower has won California’s most competitive and most stringent limited license processes, and has been recognized for the strength of its community engagement and its industry leading diversity and inclusivity program.

Dodd is an experienced, hands-on operator and entrepreneur, driving Sweet Flower to over 100% annual revenue growth and assembling a best-in- class leadership team. Experienced cannabis industry founder, serial entrepreneur, M&A and corporate development expert, marketer and brand strategist.