Events

The Honorable Bob Evnen has served as Nebraska’s Secretary of State since January 2019. The Secretary of State’s office covers several functions important to the State of Nebraska. The Secretary oversees the state’s Business Services Division, which handles business and nonprofit filings, security interest filings, notary public commissions, apostilles and documents going to other countries.

Secretary Evnen is Nebraska’s Chief Election Officer. He oversees election matters in the state.Secretary Evnen prioritizes election security and accuracy. In 2019, the Secretary of State’s office was awarded the Innovators Award by the National Association of State Election Directors for the office’s work on an intrusion detection device for voter registration lists. Secretary Evnen is overseeing the implementation of the state’s new voter ID law, which Nebraska voters overwhelmingly passed in 2022 and the Unicameral has implemented through legislation.

Secretary Evnen serves as Nebraska’s Chief Protocol Officer for international relations and trade. He promotes foreign direct investment in Nebraska, and as a diplomat for the State, he promotes Nebraska’s products, industries, commercial businesses and services in the international sphere. Secretary Evnen has led trade missions involving Nebraska businesses and university educators, to Kenya, Bulgaria, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Additionally, the Secretary serves on the Pardons Board, Real Estate Commission, State Records Board, Board of State Canvassers and the Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Secretary Evnen is the keeper of the Great Seal of the State of Nebraska.

Prior to serving as Secretary of State, Mr. Evnen was a distinguished attorney who practiced labor and employment law as a partner with Wood Aitken LLP, a Nebraska-based law firm. Before being elected as Secretary of State, Mr. Evnen served for eight years on the Nebraska State Board of Education.

Mr. Evnen is a graduate of Michigan State University (BA) and the University of Southern California (JD).

Welcome to Africa! Dr. Mary Willis will present the impact of a Rotary #14 project, the largest in 2024, providing dental supplies and treatment for children in Zambia! Eight of her students from Missouri State University and 20 from the Copperbelt University School of Medicine, Dental Clinic, provided assessment and dental supplies to 1,123 kids with 143 receiving dental treatments in June & July. 

Dr. Willis is the Department Head for Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology at Missouri State University. For 22 years, she was a Professor, Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.   Her passion has always been student research trips to Africa which have had a major impact on their careers. She has organized research for 65 students in Zambia and Ethiopia over the past ten years. Her philosophy is always the importance of “giving back” to the communities where she works; this Rotary #14 support has provided 6th and 7th graders with dental supplies and treatment in Zambia, improving the health of those who have never been to a dentist. Dr. Willis earned an MA and PhD at Washington University, St. Louis and completed the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at USAID’s Population, Health, and Nutrition. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters, and is currently working on a textbook, Consuming Culture: A Holistic Approach to the Study of Food and Nutrition. Her focus is on food security and health-related sequelae in domestic and international settings, and always in serving for an impact.

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Tom Kerfoot joined Children's Nebraska in January of 2016 as a Director of Development for Philanthropy. Tom attended Bellevue University for Marketing Management and has thirteen years of experience in healthcare fundraising, working previously for the CHI Health Foundation. Tom has a long record of successfully working with private donors, foundations and corporate sponsors to secure funding for projects and programs. He has extensive experience in event planning and management, and collaborated with a team to develop the planned giving program at CHI Health Foundation.

Tom completed the Certificate in Fundraising Management through the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is currently the Vice President – Marketing & Sponsorships for the Charitable Gift Planners of Nebraska and is a member of the Omaha Estate Planning Council. Tom earned the designation of Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy in 2016 through a year-long program with The American College of Financial Services and the Omaha Community Foundation.

Tom has received numerous awards and recognition for his volunteer work in the community. He was recognized as the Volunteer of the Year in 2007, 2013 and 2014 for the Sarpy County Chamber of Commerce. He received the highest honor of Chamber Excellence Award in 2016 for the Sarpy County Chamber of Commerce. He was honored as the Volunteer of the Year in 2009 for the La Vista Chamber of Commerce. He was recognized as the Friend of La Vista in 2011 for his work with the foundation and volunteer work in the community. 

Michael (Mike) Boehm leads efforts across the University of Nebraska system for all agricultural, natural resources, rural economic prosperity and related affairs. He holds the dual role of Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska. Prior to joining UNL in 2017, Mike was a professor of plant pathology and vice provost for academic and strategic planning at Ohio State. 

One of Vice Chancellor Boehm's responsibilities is to oversee the development of the new agricultural research center at Nebraska Innovation Campus. That will be the primary topic of his presentation. 

What does it take to lead a Live Television Production? Join Ryan Dobesh as he talks about all the people, technology and planning that goes into National Sports Production.

Ryan has worked in Television Production for more than 20 years. He started his career at Nebraska Public Media, where in 2022 he earned a Heartland Emmy Award for directing "Ernie Chambers - Through the Years".

He has worked for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Big Ten Network, and ESPN where he is currently an Operations Producer. 

He will talk about what goes into creating National TV Productions as well as some behind the scenes stories of the TV world.

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

• Sports Radio Station Owner KNTK-FM Lincoln, Nebraska. 93.7 The Ticket FM.
• Host of "Old School with Jay Foreman” and “DP One on One" at 93.7 The Ticket FM Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Speakerat  TEDxLander, May 2019. The Love Project
• Speaker at TEDxDeerPark, March 2020. An American Face 13X
• Amazon Best Selling Author, “The Impact of Influence," (Volumes 1-8), "Rebuilt Through Recovery," "Black Man Love," "Concrete Connections," "It’s Not About Me," and "The Winning Mindset."

Derrick “DP” Pearson is a sportscaster, radio and television host, writer, sports executive, and high school coach. That career has taken him nationwide, including Washington, DC, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and now Lincoln where he calls home. In addition to his media and coaching ventures,he also helped establish Fat Guy Charities in Charlotte, an NFL Charity, and developed LovePrints, a national mentor program that promotes Loving and Learning through Sports. DP joins Jay Foreman every weekday from 4pm to 6pm.

We'll meet right after the meeting, either within the room or out in the balcony/lounge area. 

Agenda:

- Discuss changing the grant & after-action report formats

- Discuss international speakers and events

- Club Int'l Grant cycle for the fall

- Global Grant opportunities

Police Chief Michon Morrow has been a member of the Lincoln Police Department since 1995. She started her career in the Victim Assistance Unit as a Domestic Violence Advocate before becoming a commissioned officer in December 1997. During her tenure, she has served as Field Training Officer, Domestic Violence Investigator, Duty Commander, and Captain of the Southwest Team, one of the Department’s diverse community-based policing teams. As an Assistant Chief, she led the Management Services Unit, to include CALEA, Liquor and Keno, Legislation, and Special Projects. She also led the Emergency Communication Center, Education and Personnel, Internal Affairs, Records, Property and Evidence and Finance. She is passionate about leadership, officer wellness and service to the community. She chaired the Lincoln Police Department Wellness Committee, which she worked to establish in 2012, until 2022. She now oversees the Wellness Committee, Peer Support Officers and Chaplains. She serves on several boards for non-profit organizations and volunteers in her community on a regular basis. She is also the coordinator and a facilitator for the IACP Leadership in Police Organizations Program for 16 agencies in Eastern Nebraska as well as a National Instructor for the First Line Leadership Program. She is also an Instructor, Content Creator and Podcast moderator for VALOR. She holds a Master's Degree in Forensic Science, Behavioral Studies, from Nebraska Wesleyan University. She is married with two boys who keep her very busy.

Location: S 68^th Street between Bennett and Roca Roads (two miles)

Parking/starting point: S 68^th & Wittstruck Road; park on Wittstruck shoulder

Time: 10 a.m. to approximately noon

Details:

• Safety vests and garbage bags will be provided.
• Recommend volunteers wear gloves and sturdy closed-toed shoes.
• Each person walks one mile.

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Are you ready to dig in? Rotary 14 members will be updating the landscaping at The Gathering Place on Saturday, September 28, from 9 a.m. to noon. We need volunteers to help move and plant flowers, install pavers, and clean up. Please sign up, bring gloves, and wear good shoes and clothes that can get dirty! (If there is rain, we will move the event to October 6.)

A renowned academic leader, researcher, professor and pediatrician, H. Dele Davies, MD, is dedicated to transforming health science education and driving positive change within the community and beyond.

Dr. Davies serves as the interim chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, following the selection of Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, as president of the University of Nebraska System.
 
In this role, Dr. Davies is responsible for all aspects of campus leadership, program quality and operations, including six colleges, a graduate studies program, two degree-granting institutes, the professional staff and faculty of more than 6,000, and 4,500 health professions students.
 
Throughout his career, Dr. Davies has championed initiatives that inspire personal and professional growth, ensuring that students, faculty and staff are equipped with the tools and opportunities to excel. He is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and dynamic environment at UNMC where every individual is empowered to reach their full potential.
 
Dr. Davies joined UNMC in 2012, initially appointed as vice chancellor. He was promoted in 2017 to senior vice chancellor, with expanded responsibilities and direct oversight of all UNMC colleges and a health sciences library. He has served as dean of graduate studies since joining UNMC.
 
Prior to joining UNMC, Dr. Davies served as professor and chair of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatrics and Human Development Department. Before that, he was director of the Child Health Research Unit at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, Canada, and the Child Health Research Institute at the University of Calgary.
 
As senior vice chancellor, Dr. Davies has overseen numerous initiatives and helped grow UNMC's rural health programs, pathway programs, community outreach and faculty development. Under his leadership, UNMC’s overall student enrollment has grown every year with multiple new professional degree programs added. As dean of graduate studies, Dr. Davies implemented key programs focused on student development and wellness, and developed faculty as mentors and leaders.
 
Dr. Davies has received numerous prestigious awards during his career for his research, teaching, mentorship and community service. Since 2006, he has been recognized annually as a member of the Best Doctors of America, is a fellow of both the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society, the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.  
 
Dr. Davies has more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals related to his research on infectious diseases topics, several book chapters and other scholarly publications, and numerous presentations at national and international meetings.

Dr. Davies earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Toronto Dana Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Davies also holds a master’s degree in health care management from the Harvard School of Public Health.
 
He is specialty-trained in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Dr. Davies has served on more than 180 committees, advisory boards, government or public health councils and organizations, such as:

• Chair, Readiness and Resilience Working Group, National Biodefense Safety Board, advisory to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
• Member, Advisory Committee to the National Institutes of Health, Deputy Director for Intramural Research.
• Founding and Past Chair, Association of Academic Health Centers, Chief Academic Officers Executive Leadership Group.
• Board Member, Council of Graduate Schools.

Initial meeting of the banner committee to decide what to do with the exchange flags and old banners we have in storage. 

John Spatz has served as the Executive Director of the Nebraska Association of School Boards (NASB) since 2012. Prior to this, he was the legal counsel with NASB starting in 2003. As part of his role with NASB, John also serves in a leadership position with ALICAP (Chief Administrator), Sparq Data Solutions, Inc., (Chairman), NJUMP/CJUMP (Manager), Envise AMS, Inc. (Co-founder). John is the author of the “Guidebook to Nebraska’s Public Meetings Law”, which is used by schools to comply with the Open Meetings Act. Outside of his role with the NASB, he served on the Lincoln City Council from 2007 to 2011 and was the Chair of the Board in 2011. He has also served on the board for Lincoln’s Multicultural Advisory Committee, Neighborworks Lincoln, and the Partnership for Healthy Lincoln. John represents Nebraska as a voting member of the Education Commission of the States and served on the Board of Counselors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center from 2015 to 2023. John is married to Julianne Spatz and has three children in Lincoln Public Schools.

Committee Meeting after the regular meeting. 

Saturday, October 12th @ 3:00 pm. 

• Meet at Pioneers Park - enter off of Van Dorn and meet near the sledding hill (same entrance used for Pinewood Bowl events). 
• Ride - We will do a 15 mile loop on limestone & concrete trails and some bike-friendly city streets. Our path will take us around the Haymarket area and out to roughly Bob Devaney before we turn around to head back to Pioneers Park. If time and interest allows, we'll take a short break so that the adventurers within our group can do a lap around the cycle cross course at Van Dorn Park (optional). Depending on our group, the ride will take about 60-90 minutes. 
• Fellowship - After our ride, we will head to Lee's Chicken for a bite and a beverage. Not joining us for the ride? Not a problem! Please come celebrate with us after the ride at Lee's Chicken. We anticipate being there from about 4:30 to 6:00 pm. 
• Donate - We are suggesting a donation of $50 per person to get us to our $1,500 event goal. But all amounts, big or small, are welcome! 
  •  Use this link to donate and get credit at MyRotary with RI: ​https://link.edgepilot.com/s/cc8742c9/BwoLBnJwZUarQz8PRrnWyQ?u=https://raise.rotary.org/jjwilliams/challenge
  • Cash and checks made out to Polio Plus will also be accepted.

​Questions? Reach out to Jennifer Williams or Christina Usher. We hope to see you there! 

Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood in Jamaica. As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of the country, citing in a recent interview his “spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music.” His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius (2007) remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley.

The author of numerous books and poetry collections, his awards include an Emmy and Webby for LiveHopeLove, an interactive website based on the Kwame Dawes Pulitzer Prize Center project HOPE: Living and Loving with AIDS in Jamaica. Dawes’s other honors and award include the a Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. 

Kwame Dawes serves as the poet laureate of Jamaica as well as the director of the African Poetry Book Fund. He is  the Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. He is The cofounder of the Calabash International Literary Festival and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

For the past year and a half Tom has served as the Lincoln Community Based Outpatient Clinic Site Manager. Before accepting his most recent assignment, he served six years as the Administrative Officer for the Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System’s Imaging Department where he was responsible for reorganization and modernization efforts, among other duties.

Prior to onboarding with the Veterans Health Administration, he completed an administrative residency at Children’s Hospital in Omaha as part of his master’s in health care administration from Xavier University of Cincinnati.

Through the years, Tom has gained valuable experience traveling the world as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and flying routes throughout the Alaskan Bush as a commercial pilot.

He is also a Veteran, having served more than 12 years in the military. While in the military, Tom served as an enlisted Special Tactics Combat Controller and as an Intelligence and Special Warfare Officer. Official duties included Chief of Technical Activities, and Asset Validation Cell Manager while assigned to a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is credited with two tours in Iraq, two tours in Afghanistan, and various other Task Force assignments around the globe.

Monthly committee meeting

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lori Seibel has served as President and CEO of the Community Health Endowment of Lincoln since its inception in 1998. Prior to joining CHE, Lori was the city’s Public Health Epidemiologist and an Advisor to two Lincoln Mayors.

Under Lori’s leadership, the Community Health Endowment has reinvested more than $40 million into our community to achieve CHE’s vision of making Lincoln the healthiest community in the nation. She has led efforts to convene the community around important health issues such as health equity, access to and integration of mental health and medical services, adverse childhood experiences, and access to healthy food.

Lori graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Master’s Degree in Preventive
Medicine.

A Rotary 14 holiday tradition – ringing a bell for The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign. Join your fellow Rotarians across Lincoln on December 7, 2024, for a short one-hour shift to help raise funds to support The Salvation Army’s programs.

Each year, The Salvation Army will serve more than 25 million people across America – including many in Lincoln. That means 55+ million meals for the hungry, 10+ million nights of shelter for people experiencing homelessness, and countless Christmas gifts for children who may otherwise go without.

For questions, please call Co-Chairs Jay Wexler at (845) 913-6719 or Deb Uttecht at (402) 560-4148.

Please Note: 20 seats were reserved at Robber's Cave. The first 20 people to register will be automatically put on Rotary's attendee list and anyone signed up after that will go to a waitlist as we further coordinate with Miracle at Robbers Cave. 

Join Us for an Inspiring Presentation by Jeff Ahl

We’re thrilled to invite you to an upcoming presentation by Jeffrey Ahl, founder and principal of his innovative architectural firm. The firm’s name and mission evolved from a fascinating case study Jeff undertook, where he went undercover to experience firsthand how architectural design impacts the quality of life in senior care environments.

Through his journey, Jeff discovered that the greatest contributors to quality of life weren’t just the physical spaces but also the culture and relationships within them. His findings have deeply influenced how his firm approaches design to foster meaningful connections and vibrant communities.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Jeff’s unique story and learn how he’s applying these principles to transform architectural services. We encourage all Rotary members to join and be inspired by his vision!

Community Action is preparing for their annual Holiday Toy Drive! Last year they were able to have over 250 families “shop” for free toys, including 50 families at the Gathering Place. 

This year they are collecting toys/gifts for children age 0-18. Families will have the opportunity to visit their store in December and choose the toys/gifts that are the best fit for their children.

Rotary 14 will be collecting toys during our December 17 meeting, which is our Holiday Party. You can access the gift idea list here. They’ve also created an Amazon wish list for anyone who would prefer that method of donation.

Happy Holidays! 

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Happy New Year! 

All Club-Member Open House  - View the Exchange Banners

We have had exchange banners in storage for some time. The Open House will be the final opportunity for Club Members to view the exchange banners before they are digitized and disposed of.  If a Club Member wishes to take an exchange banner (or two!) with them as a souvenir, they will be welcome to do so. 

Michael Eckelkamp will be hosting us at Christ Lincoln's gym so we have plenty of room to display the banners. 

 Join Us for an Inspiring Talk on HomeFIT! 

Rotarians, are you planning for the future or helping loved ones do the same? Learn practical tips to make your forever home a haven for aging in place. From clever adaptations to simple upgrades, this session is packed with insights to help you stay safe, comfortable, and independent.

Don't miss this opportunity to turn your home into a place where you can thrive for years to come.

#HomeFIT #ForeverHome #Rotary #AgingInPlace