Speakers

Bradley D. Beach is a Supervising Agent in Charge for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, serving a large portion of Los Angeles County and has been employed there since 1999.  ABC educates licensees and regulates over 100,000 ABC licenses throughout the state.  ABC Agents work mostly undercover to enforce all laws from the ABC Act and Penal Code.  As a sworn peace officer, Beach is a background investigator, field training officer, internal affairs investigator, acting public information officer and long-time firearms instructor. He is a lifetime member of the California Narcotics Association and a member of the Fraternal Order of Police. 

He was also elected in 2020 and is a Governing Board Member, Trustee Area #4, and currently serves as President for the ABC Unified School District which oversees 30 schools, 3,000 employees and has a budget of over $300 million.  Beach is a past Commissioner on the City of Cerritos Planning Commission from 2015-2017 and was a Parks and Recreation Commissioner from 2013-2015 and a member of the Cerritos Community Safety Committee from 2011-2013.  He was appointed to the Bellflower Unified School District Citizen’s Task Force in the 2019/2020 school year.

Marifrances Trivelli is the director of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, located in the Port of Los Angeles, one of the world’s busiest container ports. The most enjoyable aspect of her job is working with community stakeholders to create exhibits and programs that reflect the lives and work of harbor-area residents, making the history of the harbor accessible and relevant.  Marifrances is looking forward to updating the Rotary Club on the latest new exhibits and programs.

She is a board member of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and the Council of American Maritime Museums (as immediate past president).  Marifrances also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Powerships Magazine and serves on the City of Torrance’s Historic Preservation Commission.

Marifrances has a BA in Political Science from the University of Rhode Island an MA in history from the University of Connecticut, and is a graduate of the Getty Museum’s Leadership Institute.

In her free time, she enjoys home improvements, piano, and cardio kickboxing.

Please join us to hear Dr. Wes Bradford help us to understand the effects of Long Covid.

Please join us the hear Ara Mihranian, City Manager of Rancho Palos Verdes.

A nationally acclaimed reentry program for women, A New Way of Life was established in 1998 by Susan Burton. Ms. Burton struggled to rise above a life of poverty, violence, and loss, and was enmeshed in the cycle of mass incarceration for nearly two decades. After being released from prison for the sixth time, Ms. Burton was finally able to access recovery services in an affluent area of Los Angeles. There she discovered and embraced opportunities that were never offered before. She became determined to bring those resources to areas plagued by poverty and over-incarceration.

Ms. Burton’s vision attracted like-minded community members, including our co-directors Michael Towler and Pamela Marshall. Mr. Towler struggled to find meaningful work after the financial market crashed in 2008, when he was referred to Ms. Burton. He began as a part-time bookkeeper. After being promoted as a full-time accountant, Mr. Towler became our co-director in 2018. Ms. Marshall was navigating life as a single mother when she was connected with Ms. Burton through a transitional welfare to work program. After the program ended, Ms. Marshall was rehired as an administrative assistant before transitioning to family reunification case manager, office manager, and then co-director in 2020.

From its humble beginnings as a single reentry home in South Los Angeles, A New Way of Life has grown into a holistic reentry program. We now have teams dedicated to housing, legal services, workforce and education development, and advocacy. Since our establishment, we have provided housing to over 1,500 formerly incarcerated women, helped reunite more than 400 women with their children, and provided pro bono legal services to more than 3,400 community members with conviction histories.

Please join us to meet Ralph Grippo, President of Terranea to hear about current happenings and plans for the resort.

With more than 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Mr. Grippo is best known in the sector for creating exceptional guest experiences at some of the most exclusive hotels around the globe. Most recently, Grippo tapped that knowledge as principal of the Southern California based Bellwether Financial Group where he oversaw operations, design and development for Dana Point Harbor Partners. However, he spent the majority of his hospitality career developing superior hotel products for both the Irvine Company and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Grippo spent 11 years with the Newport Beach based Irvine Company where he was the president of resort operations. He was responsible for the opening of the Resort at Pelican Hill where he developed ultra-luxury service delivery concepts, assembled a team of more than 1,000 hospitality professionals and consistently delivered both profit and service excellence. While at the Irvine Company, he also oversaw the transition and repositioning of two luxury branded properties to independent hotels. He helped the Irvine Company grow its owned and operated independent collection from $90 million to $300 million in revenue while leading the market in key performance indicators.

Prior to his tenure at the Irvine Company, Grippo spent nearly two decades with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company where he held various roles ranging from area vice president for China to area vice president for Southern California and Hawaii. He also was general manager for several Ritz-Carlton hotels including Huntington Hotel and Spa and Portman Shanghai. During his career with Ritz-Carlton he oversaw or supported the opening of eight hotels including Marina del Rey, Pasadena, Osaka, Beijing, Financial Street and Tokyo, while managing a pipeline of hotels in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Pudong.

Please join us to hear from Maxim Ofina about Habitat for Humanity.