Speakers

Gretchen Alther builds programs that strengthen individual and community leadership. She is expanding the East-West Center’s leadership programs for women; directs the Center’s flagship resid\\

ential course, the Asia Pacific Leadership Program; and contributes to other short- and long-term training both in Hawai‘i and across the region. With over 15 years of experience as an international educator and humanitarian, Ms. Alther infuses her program design with a commitment to equity and to grassroots communities. Previously, Ms. Alther designed and managed multimillion-dollar programs to support disaster relief, conflict zone aid, and resilience in marginalized communities in the US, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Gaza, Colombia, Haiti and beyond. She has recently worked with the UNFPA Arab States Office to operationalize their resilience framework in Syria and the broader region. Ms. Alther serves on the advisory committee of the Institute for Climate and Peace, and is a founding board member of the Campa

ign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security. She earned an M.A. from Brandeis University, postgraduate certificates in leadership and peacebuilding from the East-West Center and Chulalongkorn University, respectively, and a B.A. from Texas A&M University.

Nada Miljković is an entrepreneur, educator and multimedia artist. In a former life Nada worked as a construction project manager for twenty years specializing in trains and highways. Now, she teaches business, mulit-media creation, and ethics of emerging technology at the University of California Santa Cruz and entrepreneurship all over the world for Stanford University's International Pre-Collegiate Program. She’s currently a PhD student at the University of Arts Belgrade in digital art. She lives with her family in Santa Cruz.

 

Brief Bio - Toby Corey

I’m a lifelong entrepreneur turned Zentreprenuer and Stanford University Lecturer. I believe deeply in customer-centric big idea thinking. I like to be on and preferably over the edge as much as possible. I used to think that I was figuring life out over time, silly me. I learned to let my journey expand and flow and then I realized the more knowledge I acquire, the less I really know. That “less” part is what shapes me and where awe-ness exits. I’m grateful for: learning so much at Tesla, SolarCity, USWeb, Novell and several other great companies along the way, falling in love with technology early in life, taking disco dance lessons in 1978 after watching “Saturday Night Fever." I'm currently sitting on the boards of CruzFoam and Santa Crus Works, former boards at: Buoy Labs, Advanced MicroGrid Solutions, WildLifeDirect with Chairman Dr. Richard Leakey, NBX Sports, Electron Economy, Intend Change, iGeneration, Travelscape, USWeb, and advisory boards at Qwil, Sorce, Inboard Technologies, and YaDoggi.

Chris is a member of the Rotary Peace Centers committee, a Rotary Positive Peace Activator and IEP (Institute

for Economics and Peace) Ambassador. He previously chaired The Rotary Foundation Peace Major Gifts

Committee.Chris has served on a variety of Rotary committees involved in training, fundraising and membership

development. He is a member of the Rotary Clun of Ladner in Metro Vancouver. He served as Governor of

District 5040.He has been a Rotary volunteer in Philippines, Russia, China, Laos, and India. In 2016, he was part of a team

including WHO, CDC and Gates Foundation evaluating the polio surveillance initiative in Nigeria. He served on

similar polio surveillance teams in South Sudan and Sudan.Chris retired from the Vancouver Police after 31 years of police service. He served in a variety of senioroperational and administrative positions retiring as a District Commander.

He has a degree in Criminology , Graduate Diploma in Public SectorManagement and a Master of Arts in Public Administration .

 

Ryan  Rowe is a public health and development specialist with 15 years of combined experience in community mobilization, corporate finance, event management, fundraising, knowledge management, international business, marketing & communications, non-profit management, and water/health policy and practice.

 

Currently leading digital transformation, knowledge management, and learning for Mission inclusion, a private foundation working for the social and economic inclusion of vulnerable groups in Quebec (Canada) and 12 other countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America/Caribbean.

Prior professional experiences include advising the Governments of Haiti and Malawi on policies for safe drinking-water, directing a non-profit in the United Arab Emirates, and establishing a US$630 million Middle East-focused infrastructure investment fund for the Macquarie Group, an investment bank.

In addition to his native English language, Ryan speaks French, Spanish and Portuguese. He has traveled to over 60 countries and has lived in Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the United Arab Emirates.

Ryan holds a Master of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Canada and a Master of Public Health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the USA. His accomplishments in academia and non-profit work have won him awards and honours and he was named as a Rotary Peace Fellow in 2010. He speaks regularly at private and public engagements on his work in dealing with water and health issues.

Ryan is open to new professional opportunities and connection requests from those with whom he has common interests, including work with Rotary, water/health/community development projects, fundraising and social entrepreneurship/impact