Inspiring People: Stories of Innovation and Service

This week we'll hear about a personal climate journey and its relationship to Rotary environmental projects locally and internationally. Protecting the environment was added as Rotary's 7th Area of Focus in 2020.

DeAnna Pursai is a proud dual Rotarian, member of the San Jose Rotary Club since 2015 and an honorary member of the Saratoga Rotary Club since 2022. She’s been a founding member of the Rotary Climate Action Committee of San Jose, and now serves as the District 5170 Climate Action Council Chair as well as the Vice Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group BigWest Chapter. She is a trained climate ambassador with Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, and she’s a member of Climate Citizens Lobby and Mothers Out Front. She's got a personal mission to talk about climate each day to anyone she can.

In her professional career, DeAnna Pursai holds a Master's in Education Policy Analysis in the School of Education from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an undergraduate degree in Elementary and Special Education from Purdue University.

DeAnna was named a CNN Hero in 2021 and has been named an Architect of Change on the Maria Shriver blog in 2015. She proudly serves on the board of Christmas in the Park. She is big sister to Angel Ellenberger, who happens to have Down syndrome and is an exquisite actress, entertainer and comedian.

DeAnna gave a TEDx talk in Helsinki, Finland, on the theme of Amplifying Silent Voices in October, 2025.

To learn more about ESRAG, go to:

https://esrag.org/

District 5170 Climate Action Committee:

https://www.rotarydistrict5170.org/climate-action/

Katherine Hayhoe's TED Talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it

Hayhoe's book: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World

https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Us-Climate-Scientists-Healing-ebook/dp/B08BZW2BQG/

Imagine Worldwide's goal is to solve the literacy and numeracy crisis for millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa. Foundational learning is the key to unlocking a child’s potential -- improving their health, wealth, and social outcomes -- and these improvements extend to future generations.

With nearly half of global youth being African by 2030, the urgency to find a scalable learning solution is paramount. Imagine Worldwide partners with philanthropists, governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that operates offline and is solar-powered, making it accessible, effective, and affordable. Their model is massively scalable, research-based, and has an unparalleled cost/benefit ratio.

Imagine Worldwide works to harness innovation, government commitments, and highly-targeted philanthropy to catalyze exponential impact for millions of the world's most underserved children.

Here's a short video introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hi1U_-6Xko

Our speaker, Joe Wolf, is Co-CEO and Co-founder of Imagine Worldwide. Joe is passionately committed to eliminating global educational inequity through scalable solutions and he has dedicated the past decade of his career to launching, supporting, and leading educational philanthropies and nonprofit organizations. Joe co-founded Imagine to help all children achieve the foundational literacy and numeracy skills they need to achieve their full potential. Imagine serves some of the world's most marginalized children.

Joe co-founded The Learning Accelerator and Open Up Resources, two highly successful nonprofits focused on innovation and equity in the U.S. K-12 market. He has also served on the boards of the Clayton Christensen Institute, NPX Advisors, Summer Search, New Classrooms, and the New Schools Venture Fund. Joe is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School. He has three school-aged children, is a mountain biker and meditator, and loves all things in the natural world. Joe is based in California, USA.

Learn more about Imagine Worldwide on our website:

https://imagineworldwide.org

Watch this overview video about Imagine Worldwide and our work in Malawi:

https://bit.ly/4e6yzPU

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The convergence of advanced genomic sequencing technologies and innovative environmental sampling approaches are enabling discovery at whole biome scales and across the tree of life, from microbes to mammals.

These technologies are taking us ever closer to the realization of the lifeform detection capabilities of the fictional Star Trek tricorder. Environmental DNA (eDNA) comprises trace amounts of genetic material shed by organisms as they traverse and interact with their environment. Genetic material can enter the environment from shed skin, hair, scales, bodily fluids, defecation and even with every exhaled breath.

This genetic material can now be recovered from the air, water or sediment samples, and can reveal a wealth of information about a region’s inhabitants, from sea turtles to bobcats (lynx), humans to mosquitoes, and even microbes and allergens.

These ultra-rich eDNA genomics datasets can be used to quantify the genetic material from each organism and understand what species are present, their origin, and their genetic diversity. These emerging technologies enable the simultaneous study of viral to vertebrate genomes, and unlock their genetic secrets for a wide variety of downstream applications. These include (1) biodiversity monitoring, (2) flora, fauna and microbial population genetics, (3) pathogen and disease vector genomic surveillance, (4) allergen and narcotic surveillance, (5) antimicrobial resistance surveillance, (6) ecosystem-scale genome mining for drug discovery, and (7) human genetic diversity, disease risk, and genetic ancestry analyses from airborne DNA. This talk will introduce recent advances in airborne DNA genomics, discuss their implications, and explore their promise for diverse fields such as endangered wildlife conservation, genetic diversity and drug discovery, and pathogen and disease vector surveillance.

David Duffy is the Condron Family Endowed Associate Professor of Wildlife Disease Genomics at the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience & Sea Turtle Hospital, with over 20 years' experience in molecular, genomics, wildlife conservation, cancer and environmental studies. His team conducts laboratory-based, clinical, computational and field-based research.

His lab focuses on threats to sea turtles and biodiversity, including plastic ingestion and a sea turtle cancer induced by a pathogen and pollution exposure. The lab also works on the development of advanced eDNA technologies for wildlife, biodiversity, pollution and pathogen monitoring. This includes eDNA analysis from air, sediment and aquatic (freshwater, seawater, estuarine) sources. They also pioneer human eDNA applications.

To learn more about Dr Duffy's work, go to:

https://www.whitney.ufl.edu/people/current-research-faculty/david-duffy-phd/

Science media article on airborne eDNA:

https://www.science.org/content/article/dna-captured-air-could-track-wildlife-invasive-species-and-humans

Sea Turtle Hospital webpage:

https://www.whitney.ufl.edu/conservation--sea-turtle-hospital/about-the-sea-turtle-hospital/

Paper on airborne DNA genomics: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02711-w

Media article on airborne eDNA:

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0610/1518005-dublin-air-quality-dna-genetics-monitoring/

Media article on airborne DNA genomics: https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2025/06/26/scanning-the-air-for-life/

Human eDNA potential and ethical implications news story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/science/environmental-dna-ethics-privacy.html

Human eDNA potential and ethical implications news story: https://us.cnn.com/2023/05/15/health/human-dna-captured-from-air-scn/index.html

USA Today news story on eDNA capabilities:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/08/26/staggering-dna-advances-could-improve-response-climate-change/10000538002/

Sea turtle cancers BBC television segment:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/av/63125522

Libraries are more than places to borrow books; they are dynamic centers of community connection and resource sharing.

From lending tools to hosting community meetings and supporting local solutions to global challenges, libraries play a vital role in the sharing economy. Present in diverse communities around the world, they enable patrons to engage and escape, key elements of personal and collective well-being.

Join us to explore how libraries are advancing sharing and sustainability actions, discover inspiring examples of non-traditional lending programs, and learn how you can participate in this transformational community effort.

Our speaker, Hazel Onsrud, is a public librarian at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine, in the United States. Onsrud works on community programming and collection development, including an extensive library of things focused on the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. She serves on the international Library of Things Mutual Aid Group, the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative and the Steering Team of MECollab. She enjoys collaborating with good humans around the globe and was named a 2024 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and a 2025 New York Times Changemaker. Prior to her work as public librarian, Hazel co-founded the Maine Tool Library and spent a bunch of time learning from graceful teachers. In her free time, she likes to create things, eat molés and design gardens.

To learn more, go to:

LOT Mutual Aid Group: https://sites.google.com/view/lotmutualaid/home

Curtis Memorial Library Library of Things: https://curtislibrary.com/library-of-things/

Sustainable Libraries Initiative: https://www.sustainablelibrariesinitiative.org/

Emily Drabinski - The Stories of Libraries

https://youtu.be/jTzhVjDujuY

Sif Jensen - Unjudge Someone, the Human Library

https://youtu.be/STpTmIo6EGQ

Anthony Chow - Reading Nation Waterfall: Ensuring Equal Access to Books for All Children

https://youtu.be/NhOhuUszuq0

Purnima Rao and Shivam Singh - Building The People's Library: India's Free Library Movement

https://youtu.be/W-gSoOwsBOY

This episode refers to a number of visuals that are in the video version which can be seen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3fbnO3K6fxKt9pfaTp8mYn or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zxlfSvqAhOY

• We believe the message is an important one, even if you do not watch the video, and hope that you will enjoy this and every episode of our series.

Ben Schumaker first spoke to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley in 2016 to tell the story of the Memory Project, a youth arts organization he founded in 2004.

He spoke to us again in 2022 about his efforts to help resettle Afghan refugees. In this presentation, he will briefly recap the history of the Memory Project and update us on his efforts to support education for Afghan girls. He will then describe several challenges that the Memory Project (and the field of art education, in general) has faced during the past several years. Lastly, Ben will invite club members to help him brainstorm potential new pathways that the Memory Project could take in the future, with hopes of adapting and strengthening the organization in these changing times.

Ben founded the Memory Project in 2004 after an experience volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala. While there, he learned that the children had very few personal keepsakes to take with them after leaving the orphanage. As Ben had always enjoyed drawing portraits for others, he had the idea to organize high school art teachers and art students to create portraits as positive and tangible "memories" for the children to carry into their future.

Since then, more than 300,000 young artists have participated in this effort to create portraits for children in 58 different countries.

Running the Memory Project has been Ben's full time job ever since 2006, and his typical workday consists of answering emails alone on his couch. However, the days he loves far more are the ones spent delivering the portraits to children around the world.

Please check out the Memory Project's website and see videos of our work at:

https://memoryproject.org

To learn more about Men for Equality, go to:

https://menforequality.org/

2026 will see three major sporting events in Santa Clara County, the NFL Super Bowl, NCAA March Madness, and FIFA World Cup. There has been attention to the issue of human trafficking at sporting events, and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar brought the realities of labor exploitation to the international stage. Learn about what data tells us about sporting events, trafficking, and exploitation.

Santa Clara County hosted Super Bowl 50 in 2016 and a regional workgroup, No Traffick Ahead was created to provide a regional, comprehensive response to trafficking. There were accomplishments and lessons learned as it relates to messaging, law enforcement, outreach, and services.

No Traffick Ahead is organizing once again, utilizing a social leverage model, to provide a comprehensive approach to human trafficking and human rights violations for the events. This includes making sure visitors to the Bay Area and community members can recognize trafficking and know how to get help or report harm.

Our speaker, Sharan Dhanoa, is Director for the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking. She facilitates collaboration amongst over thirty-five member agencies. In May 2014, she began facilitating the largest multi-county workgroup in the Bay Area, No Traffick Ahead, which is unifying efforts in eight counties in order to effectuate collective impact across sectors. Prior to joining the Coalition, Sharan worked with women trafficked into sexual exploitation in Calcutta, India, by aiding their development through economic empowerment. She started her career in crime research, has worked in crime surveillance, and in an emergency psychiatric facility.

Sharan holds a Master’s degree in Criminology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Juris Doctorate from Santa Clara University School of Law. Sharan was named 2015 Abolitionist of the Year for Advocacy by the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking, received the Unsung Hero Award by the County of Santa Clara Valley in 2015, and was awarded the South Asian Bar Association's Community Impact Award in 2016.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.southbayendtrafficking.org

The World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) works to ensure that every person with a bleeding disorder has access to safe, effective, and sustainable care, no matter where they live.

Around the world, thousands of people with bleeding disorders still face life-long pain, disability, and even early death due to a lack of diagnosis and treatment.

In this talk, WFH Medical and Humanitarian Aid Director, Dr. Assad Haffar, and WFH Head of Corporate & Community Partnerships and National Director of WFH USA, Marlene Spencer, will share how WFH is advancing global standards of care through humanitarian aid, training and education, and policy advocacy. They will also highlight opportunities for partnerships that align with Rotary’s values of service, global health, and community impact.

Dr. Assad Haffar is the Medical and Humanitarian Aid Director at the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) in Montreal, Canada. Since joining WFH in 2000, he has led the organization’s Humanitarian Aid Program, the largest global initiative delivering clotting factor concentrates to countries with limited access, while supporting the development of national care programs and treatment centers worldwide. Dr. Haffar holds an MD from the University of Damascus, as well as advanced degrees from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Environmental and Occupational Health in Japan.

Marlene Spencer is Head of Corporate & Community Partnerships at the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) and National Director of WFH USA, the organization’s U.S. affiliate connecting American supporters to WFH’s global mission. With more than 15 years at WFH, she leads fundraising strategies across corporate and community sectors, securing commitments and working to identify and diversify revenue streams to sustain WFH’s global programs.

To learn more, read the WFH Impact and stories of 2024:

https://wfh.org/

https://wfh.org/about-wfh/#wfh-annual-report-2024/1/

Most job seekers don't know their resumes are screened by algorithms before humans ever see them. With 75% of employers using Applicant Tracking Systems, qualified candidates often get filtered out instantly while hiring managers can't find good talent.

Soubhik Dawn, founder of AI career platform Upplai, will reveal how hiring really works today, and demonstrate how AI is now empowering candidates to optimize their applications effectively. You'll see live examples of resume transformation and learn why this shift is creating a more equitable job market for everyone involved.

Soubhik Dawn is a Stanford and IIT Kharagpur alumnus with nearly two decades of product management and leadership experience spanning Silicon Valley startups to publicly traded companies. As both a hiring manager and product leader, he has built digital products used by millions while leading and hiring across diverse functions including engineering, UX design, product marketing, technical writing, customer support, customer success, solutions consulting, and sales.

Having experienced the hiring process from both sides as someone who has hired dozens of professionals and as a job seeker navigating career transitions, Soubhik understands the frustrations of today's job market. This dual perspective inspired him to found Upplai, an AI-powered platform that is helping job seekers get more interviews and land their dream jobs faster.

Through Upplai, Soubhik has helped thousands of job seekers, across multiple industries, job functions, and experience levels, present their best selves to employers, transforming how professionals approach job applications in an increasingly competitive and AI moderated market.

To learn more, go to:

1. The real reason you might not be getting any job interviews: https://youtu.be/8yA9DKxJfks

2. How a laid-off customer support professional went from 0 interviews to 10+ interviews a week using AI: https://youtu.be/3W5nhlGgBl8

3. How an algorithm scores and ranks your resume: https://youtu.be/3W5nhlGgBl8

4. Resume best practices to impress humans and machines: https://uppl.ai/resume-writing-guide

5. Why ChatGPT might be hurting your job search: https://uppl.ai/chat-gpt-resume-prompts/

Following visiting clubs all over our district, our district governor talks at both practical and philosophical levels about shifts happening (or should be happening) within Rotary.

Herb Ritter has been a dedicated Rotarian for four decades. He is the 5170 District Governor in 2025-06, and has held a wide variety of leadership positions, including club president. Professionally, he enjoyed a successful 32-year career at Schneider Electric before venturing into entrepreneurship.

Herb's commitment to community service extends beyond Rotary, evidenced by his involvement in various organizations. As a 3rd generation Eagle Scout, he has a strong connection to Scouting. With a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA, Herb embodies a blend of education, professional achievement, and service.

To learn more about our district, visit:

https://www.rotarydistrict5170.org/

The way we live, work, and learn is being transformed at an unprecedented pace. Families around the world are seeking more freedom, flexibility, and purpose - not just in their careers, but in the way they raise and educate their children.

Elodie Ferchaud, co-founder of Boundless Life, shares how the future of work and learning is evolving and why so many families are reimagining what’s possible.

Drawing from her own journey as a mother of four and global entrepreneur, Elodie explores how Boundless Life is pioneering a new way of living: one that blends place-based learning, meaningful community, and the freedom to work from anywhere. Discover how this movement is empowering families to design lives of growth, connection, and global citizenship.

Elodie Ferchaud is an entrepreneur, global brand leader, and mother of four who has dedicated her career to building meaningful communities and businesses across the world. After 15 years in international marketing and sales with leading companies such as L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble, she co-founded Boundless Life, a pioneering organization helping families live abroad with forward-thinking education, housing, and community. Her work blends professional expertise with personal passion, inspiring families everywhere to embrace change, growth, and the adventure of global living.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.boundless.life/

https://www.instagram.com/boundlesslife/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundlesslife/