Events

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.

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.