Events

Heath Rocha serves as Superintendent of the Los Gatos–Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD), one of California’s top-ranked school districts and the only K–12 or high school district in the state to earn a perfect score on the California Dashboard in 2025. A career educator with a deep commitment to student and staff well-being, Heath leads with empathy, service, and connection, believing that strong relationships are the foundation of successful school communities.

Prior to becoming Superintendent, Heath spent nine years as Assistant Superintendent of Student Services at LGSUHSD, where he led initiatives to support at-risk students and students with disabilities. In response to rising post-pandemic mental health needs, he spearheaded the creation of Wellness Centers at each high school, contributing to a more than 40% decrease in students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. He also led districtwide efforts to strengthen Title IX policies and training, resulting in a more than 50% reduction in reports of sexual harassment.

Heath began his career as a school psychologist and has held leadership roles including Coordinator, Director of Special Education, and Chief Student Services Officer. Known for his approachable leadership and problem-solving mindset, he focuses on removing barriers to learning and creating a culture where staff feel valued and supported, because when educators feel safe and appreciated, students thrive and districts grow stronger.

Michael Paul Hirsch (he/him) is the Executive Director of South Bay Musical Theatre in Saratoga, CA. A familiar face on Bay Area stages, he also served on SBMT’s Board of Directors from 2019 to 2025, including five years as Board Chair. Michael has led product, program, and team initiatives at Silicon Valley companies such as Shutterfly, Yahoo!, eHealth, and Suzy for over 20 years. He studied Theatre at the graduate level at Michigan State University and remains deeply involved in the performing arts community. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing board games, and supporting local arts organizations. He is a husband, father, and a shodan-ranked black belt in kendo. michaelpaulhirsch.com

Hector Estrada is a Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention at the Santa Clara County Fire Department.

Chief Estrada began his fire service career in 1997 with the San Jose Fire Department, rising through the ranks from Firefighter to Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal. Now serving as the Assistant Chief overseeing  Fire Prevention for Santa Clara County Fire Department, he manages all aspects of the Department’s prevention program which includes community risk reduction and education, enforcement of the fire code, fire investigation, hazardous materials inspections, and the plan review / fire protection engineering functions. Prior to his fire service career, Chief Estrada worked in the tech sector and was a business owner where he sharpened his project and process management skills. He credits this experience for his ability to bring structure and scope to his current role. Chief Estrada’s accomplishments include development of technology-based solutions for the fire service, including deployment of mobile technology to the field and implementation of a records management system. 

I have been with the YMCA for 17 years, beginning my career as a personal trainer and now serving as Executive Director of the Southwest Y. I hold a master’s degree in Exercise Science and Wellness, and throughout my career I’ve been passionate about helping individuals and families live healthier lives. I’m especially motivated by supporting people as they work toward fitness goals they never thought possible and by strengthening the overall health of our community.

Sridhar Pursai graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT in India in 1989. After working on converting train stations from manual semaphore based signaling and manual track switching to automated color light signaling and switching, he worked at the Indian Institute of Technology in the Chemistry department on high voltage plasma electronics and co-wrote a book called "Introduction to Microprocessors for Engineers and Scientists", published by Prentice Hall. He then attended graduate school at Purdue University (where he met his future wife DeAnna), and graduated with a master's degree in Computer Architecture.
 
Since then, he has been in California, working at various companies as a silicon hardware designer and architect. He recently retired from NVIDIA after a 20 year stint leading Silicon-On-Chip design and Architecture teams that delivered products aimed at various PCs, MACs, handheld gaming stations, AI servers, and automated self driving vehicles.
 
Along the way, Sri acquired an interest in travel and Photography and has been on tours focused on wildlife and landscape photography. Of late he has started dabbling in night time photography, mostly focusing on framing the Milky Way against interesting landscapes in the Andes in Peru and the Atacama desert in Chile and Bolivia, as well as the northern lights in Iceland. He is also learning to play acoustic, electric, and bass guitar, and drums.

Moryt Milo is a San José Spotlight editor.

Her work as a journalist and newspaper editor includes coverage of government, business, politics and health care. Her commentary has been featured in the Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times and National Geographic online.

As former Silicon Valley Business Journal editor, she established the publication as a must-read for the local business community. Prior to her tenure at the SVBJ, she reported and then served as editor of the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers. She was a contributor to the Progressive Media Project, a publication launched to diversify the country’s op-ed pages, where her commentaries were picked up nationwide.

During her career, she garnered numerous awards for her body of work in writing and breaking news coverage from the California News Publishers Association. Her newsrooms have been honored with general excellence for their reporting and overall news coverage.

Moryt sits on the board of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in Santa Clara County where she moderates events and interviews mental health advocates including Tom Insel, former director of the National Institute for Mental Health, Santa Clara County Superior County Judge Stephen Manley on his behavioral health court programs, and Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg, documentarian and producer of the award-winning film “Bedlam.” She also served on the board of Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen.

Physiologically speaking, why do we feel so good in a beautiful environment? What happens in the body when we experience beauty? Scientists have wondered about this for years—and now we have answers, both to the “what happens” and the “why.” Join me as I share these remarkable findings.

Carol Woodard was born and raised in San Francisco. From an early age, she knew she wanted to pursue one of two paths: medicine or interior design. When it came time for college, she attended UC Berkeley as a pre-med major. But by the end of her junior year, she realized she was ahead of her time—medicine was still largely a world for white men, and she did not see a place for herself within it. She ultimately graduated with a degree in Child Development.

She went on to meet her wonderful husband, raise four children, and today enjoys five grandchildren. Somewhere along the way, she came to an important realization: medicine is often reactive, while interior design—when done thoughtfully—can be profoundly proactive.

She returned to one of her original calling, studied interior design, and became a professional designer. Over the years, she has also earned certification in Applied Color Psycho-Physiology and, more recently, in the Neuroscience of Design.

Her practice has always focused on creating interiors that support the health and well-being of those who occupy them. Intuitively, she has long understood the healing power of a well-designed environment. Today, that intuition is validated by hard science.

Dave Hoyt has been a volunteer at the Computer History Museum since 2015, leading tours of the museum and giving presentations on the museum and computer history. He has a degree in engineering and an MBA, both from Stanford. He has worked in the analytical instrument industry, with both public companies and startups, and as a case writer for the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Presentation

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View houses the largest collection of computing artifacts in the world, including many rare or one-of-a kind items. This presentation will discuss the history of the museum, the visitor experience, and unique artifacts that are not usually included in docent-led tours.

Cynthia Gregory is an award-winning writer and author of Journaling As Sacred Practice: an Act Of Extreme Bravery (2016), What Is Possible From Here (2021), LOVE NOTES From the SOUL (2024), and LOVE NOTES From the SOUL 2.0 (2025).  She is a member of the California Writers Club, Redwood Writers Chapter, and a member in good standing of the International Coaching Federation.

Cynthia’s mission is to help shift-makers and cultural creatives translate their meaningful life experiences into compelling stories. She does this through hands-on writing workshops, individualized author coaching, and transformational writing retreats that support writers at every stage. She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Gonzaga University and her master's degree in literature from Mills College.

Dan Orloff has spent more than four decades connecting Silicon Valley to its own soundtrack. As Founder and Chief Rock Officer of San Jose Rocks — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit documenting and celebrating the music heritage of Santa Clara County — he is on a mission to prove our region belongs in the same conversation as Nashville, Memphis, and Motown.

On May 29, Dan brings Rotarians a genuine music-history detective story: the long, winding path to unwinding one of rock’s great mysteries — where, and when, Grateful Dead first performed under that name. The trail runs through Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests, a modest downtown house, and decades of conflicting accounts. And it leads to San Jose Rocks discovery of two key artifacts, long thought lost to time, that finally pinned the story down for good.

A longtime Santa Clara Valley resident, marketing veteran (Orloff Marketing, since 1992), and managing partner at Pruneyard Cinemas, Dan is a past president of the Campbell Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of San Jose. He has produced and promoted live music across the region for over 40 years.

And he won’t leave Saratoga out of it — expect a few local gems, pieces of Saratoga’s own music history hiding in plain sight. Come for a band you already know. Leave knowing your own backyard helped launch them — and how San Jose Rocks proved it.

Mark Fischer-Colbrie has more than 30 years of experience in building laboratory tools and diagnostic, therapeutic, and medical device companies. He was most recently CEO at Strateos, Inc., a software technology and automation company that seeks to accelerate life science research by enabling cloud access to broad-scale automation. Previously, Mark was the CEO for over ten years at Labcyte Inc., which invented novel lab tools and automation that have been adopted worldwide.

Before Labcyte, he ran business development and was the CFO at Adeza Biomedical Corporation, a women’s healthcare company. He holds four issued patents for diagnostics and therapeutics. In 2013, Mark was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Life Sciences for Northern California. Mark is the former Chairman of the Board for JDRF International, the largest global funder seeking a cure for type one diabetes.

As a 21-year JDRF volunteer, he served on the JDRF International Board for 7 years and was a member of multiple committees including Research, Finance and Nominating & Governance. For the Greater Bay Area JDRF Chapter, Mark served as the Chapter President for 3 terms and has been a board member for 18 years. Mark holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley. He served on a life sciences industry board, the Analytical, Life Sciences Diagnostics Association (ALDA), from 2011 to 2024. Mark enjoys long-distance endurance events and has completed 14 Ironman Triathlons. 

Becky, Jeffrey and Mushu are a skilled companion graduate team from Canine Companions.  Becky is considered the facilitator while Jeffrey is the recipient of Mushu.  For the past nine and a half years, Mushu has assisted Jeffrey with working on independence skills, helped to mitigate his disability, provided him with opportunities for responsibility, and facilitated social interactions in public. Together they have attended countless therapies and adapted sports sessions, she has accompanied him on every hospital visit, they have hung out together backstage at the theater while he’s waited for his turn on stage, and they have traveled across the country multiple times. No matter where they go, Jeffrey delights in introducing his best friend to everyone he meets.