Speakers

Michael Potter is an entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, author, and social enterprise investor. He is the founder of Geeks Without Frontiers and director of Paradigm Ventures. Michael was previously appointed to the team advising the Federal Communications Commission Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee regarding strategies for helping to close the digital divide in the United States. Potter directed the space documentary, “Orphans of Apollo” and has served on two Space Policy Presidential Transition projects.

 

Join us in welcoming Scott Elliott, Executive Director of ICAN, a nonprofit organization that provides quality employment, life skills, and social programs for Southern California’s adults with intellectual & developmental disabilities. Scott will share what's new with his organization and what ICAN is doing in our community. 

Join us in welcoming Mike Talleda, President of Wounded Heroes of America

We make sure our heroes know they aren’t alone and they aren’t forgotten. Conceived in October 2001 to originally help the families of 9/11 victims, our mission grew into an organization dedicated to aiding the veterans of the wars that followed. Founded in 2004 in Hawthorne, California, Wounded Heroes of America reaches veteran families in the Southern California communities and in 16 other locations in the United States. Our job is connecting wounded (OIF) Iraq and (OEF) Afghanistan veterans with the resources they need to re-enter and adjust to civilian life. We focus on the proven commitment and functional abilities honed in their service. We rely on community support to fulfill our mission.

Lynn Doran, a native Californian, began her life of adventure and creativity in the 1950s, traveling with her parents whose curiosity led them deep into Mexico, pulling a travel-trailer.

Leaving college with a degree in Fine Arts, Lynn immediately started her own company, “Natty,” designing and manufacturing women’s specialized ski accessories, as well as more youthfully contemporary tennis and golf attire. Success allowed Lynn to leave the world of business and start traveling the world, photographically documenting, selectively collecting artifacts and turning her lifelong-interest into a major motivating factor in her life.Travel serves Lynn as a stimulant and her creative themes express themselves through ceramic sculpture, printmaking and photography.

Longtime PVE resident and photographer John Harbison takes you on a fascinating and informative trip down memory lane with clips from films and TV shows that were shot in Palos Verdes over the last century. In these movies, PV has “pretended" to be many locations around the world, such as Japan, Scotland, Arabia, Egypt, England, Hawaii, San Francisco and the Caribbean. John has had a successful business career as a management consultant, entrepreneur and early-stage investor (with five of his investments earning between 256x and 1478x). One of his companies introduced the world’s first side blindspot detection radar for cars, and that company grew from $0 to $700 million in revenue in eight years. As a photographer, he travels extensively to remote locations and specializes in wildlife and landscape photography; locally, he’s won the grand prize in the Palos Verdes Photography contest twice.

Michael Friedman is a docent at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, and a retired attorney and long-time Palos Verdes resident.

Join us as Mike shares his knowedge of the history of the Peninsula!

Prof. Frank Chindamo, CHP, founded LaughMD, Inc. to answer the question, “If Laughter is the Best Medicine, why don’t we use it as medicine?” LaughMD has conducted 5 studies showing that its comedy video app lowered stress and pain in over 90% of patients, in one study, by over 60%. Frank began his media career in comedy writing and production at SNL, and as an assistant on Ghostbusters.  He's won 30+ awards for writing/producing comedy videos for HBO, Showtime, CBS, PBS, Comedy Central and more. He launched the world’s first mobile comedy channel, featured on the front pages of Forbes, the LA Times, and in the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times. Former Adjunct Professor in Web Video at USC, UCLA and Chapman University. Certified Humor Professional through the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor.

Join us in welcoming Rosa Kwon Easton as she shares her journey writing her debut novel, White Mulberry. 

Rosa Kwon Easton was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up with her extended family in Los Angeles. Easton holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Smith College, a master’s in international and public affairs from Columbia University, and a JD from Boston College Law School. She is a lawyer and an elected trustee of the Palos Verdes Library District. She has two adult children and lives with her husband and Maltipoo in sunny Southern California.

PV Rotary welcomes Jennifer Weintraub, owner of Assisted Living Locators in Torrance, to share her knowledge about the ever growing need for assisted living facilities. 

From Jennifer: I am dedicated to offering a personalized, no-cost senior placement service to my community. With a 25-year career in the fashion industry, leading teams in sales, operations, and business development, I have honed my ability to understand and cater to individual needs, goals, and challenges. I deeply value the relationships I build and am committed to gaining trust through empathy and active listening. Now, as part of the Assisted Living Locators team, I am eager to apply these skills to serve seniors and their families, assisting them in making critical life decisions. I’m excited to bring my unique expertise and dedication to seniors and their families in Torrance and the surrounding areas.