Speakers

A mountain climber, writer, author, educator, survivorship advocate, inspiring presenter, and woman of faith, Ruth Bachman contributes her time, her resources and her talents, bringing a timeless message to diverse audiences, about the one constant in life — change.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Bachman has served as a kindergarten teacher, children’s choir director, aerobics instructor, international travel guide and volunteer coordinator. Her 25+ years of public speaking experience includes work with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. After stepping boldly into life as an amputee, Bachman is a role model for navigating change whole-heartedly with resilience, courage, and grace.

A certified convener in The Art of Convening, Bachman brings meaningful connection, inspiration, and commitment to action to her presentations. She serves as Chair of the Community Advisory Board of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota; and serves on the University of Minnesota Foundation Board of Trustees, the Fairview Health Services Patient Care and Experience Committee, and the Membership and Communications Committee of the Minnesota Cancer Alliance. Bachman is a spokesperson for the Rein in Sarcoma Red Flags of Sarcoma Campaign. In her role as a survivor advocate, she attended the 8th Bienniel Cancer Survivorship Research Conference in Washington D.C in 2016. And, finally, she participated in a remarkable trip to Nepal where she climbed 2 2/3 mountains with Above and Beyond Cancer—the only 64 year old in the group to make it to 19,200 feet!

Out of a deep sense of gratitude, Bachman donates all speaking fees and proceeds from the sale of her book and other Hourglass merchandise to support cancer research, awareness and advocacy. 

Terry Anderson and Gigi Hickey both joined the Lake Minnetonka DAR chapter within the last 10 years, after their retirements allowed them more time for genealogy and volunteer work. Anderson is currently Regent, and Hickey is Vice Regent.

Joining them in their presention will be Wendi Moffley, daughter of Edina Rotarian Joel Jennings and a recent transfer to the Lake Minnetonka DAR chapter.

Dr. Archelle Georgiou is a nationally recognized physician, advocate, advisor and author. She earned her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and enjoyed practicing internal medicine in Northern California. However, wanting to have a broader impact on the healthcare system, she shifted her focus to the managed care industry. Between 1995 and 2007, she was a senior executive and Chief Medical Officer of UnitedHealthcare where she dismantled many of the company’s legacy policies in order to minimize the bureaucratic burdens imposed on patients and physicians.

Since 2008, Georgiou has served as a senior advisor for a diverse group of companies serving health needs in industries ranging from education to analytics and financial services to mining. She worked with former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich at his Center for Health Transformation, a non-partisan think tank focused on advancing patient-centric sustainable healthcare policies. In 2009, she was the medical correspondent for the Blue Zones international expedition to Ikaria, Greece, where she explored lifestyle factors underlying the island's longevity with National Geographic researcher and best-selling author, Dan Buettner.

Georgiou is an executive in residence at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, where she teaches anatomy and physiology to MBA students, to help future industry leaders appreciate the medical complexities of the human body. She serves as a member of the board of directors for Nashville-based Tivity Health.

P.J. Fleck was named head football coach at Minnesota on Jan. 6, 2017. Fleck, 38, is the 30th head coach in the program’s history. He has a career record of 41-35 and is 11-13 at Minnesota. 

In 2018, Fleck led Minnesota to a 6-6 record and wins against Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Fresno State, Miami (Ohio) and New Mexico State. 

Under Fleck, a young Minnesota team beat rival Wisconsin for the first time since 2003 and for the first time on the road since 1994 to reclaim Paul Bunyan’s Axe. The Gophers also downed Purdue’s potent offense, as they held the Boilers to a season low in points (10) and yards (233). Minnesota beat Fresno State to give the Bulldogs one of their two regular season defeats. 

The Gophers have 112 players on the roster and 58 (51.7 percent) are freshmen. That's the most in the nation. The Gophers have 78 underclassmen (69.6 percent), which ranks tenth in college football.

In 2017, Fleck led a young and inexperienced Gopher squad, as 49 of Minnesota’s 110 players (44.5 percent) were freshmen or redshirt freshmen and 76 (69 percent) were underclassmen. Fleck guided Minnesota to a 5-7 record and those five wins were the most by a first-year Gopher head coach new to the program since the legendary Murray Warmath won seven games in 1954. 

Off the field, Fleck and his team can often be found at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and gave back to the community by hosting a diaper drive, canned food drive and turkey drive this year. In the classroom, Minnesota has posted program record GPAs under Fleck. 

Fleck came to Minnesota after spending four years as the head coach at Western Michigan, where he was 30-22 overall and 21-11 in the Mid-American Conference. While leading the Broncos, Fleck authored one of the most memorable turnarounds in college football history. The Broncos were 1-11 in his first year in 2013, but ended the 2016 season with a No. 12 ranking, a 13-1 record, a conference championship and a berth in the Cotton Bowl. 

The Broncos were 12-0 in the 2016 regular season and posted wins against Big Ten opponents Northwestern and Illinois. Fleck then led his team to a 29-23 win against Ohio in the Mid-American Conference championship game before ending the season with a narrow bowl game defeat to Wisconsin. 

Fleck was named MAC Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2016 and in 2016 he the Broncos to their first MAC Championship since 1988. 

Prior to his time at Western Michigan, Fleck served as the wide receivers coach for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 and coached the receivers at Rutgers from 2010-11. He coached receivers and was the recruiting coordinator at Northern Illinois in 2009 and tutored the receivers for the Huskies from 2007-08. Fleck's coaching career began at Ohio State as a graduate assistant in 2006. 

Fleck played receiver at Northern Illinois from 1999-2003 and helped lead the Huskies to a No. 10 ranking, a 10-2 record and wins against Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State in his final season. He ranks in the top five in Northern Illinois history in career receptions (179) and receiving yards (2,162). Fleck holds the school record for punt returns (87) and ranks second in punt return yards (716). He earned First Team All-Mid-American Conference in 2003 and was named Academic All-MAC and Second Team CoSIDA Academic All-American. He graduated in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. 

Fleck played the 2004-05 seasons with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. He signed with the 49ers as a free agent in 2004 and spent most of his time on the practice squad before seeing action against New England late in the season. He spent the 2005 season on the injured reserve roster and in 2006 he stopped playing professionally and started his coaching career. 

Fleck and his wife, Heather, have four children, Gavin, Carter, Paisley (P.J.) and Harper.

Heather Flies has been the Junior High Pastor at Wooddale Church longer than many of her students have been alive. She began her ministry at Wooddale as the Junior High Associate in 1996. In 1998, she joined the pastoral team.

Outside the walls of Wooddale Church, Flies spends a great deal of time and energy as a communicator and has authored "I Want to Talk to My Teen About Girl Stuff" (Standard Publishing) in 2007. In the fall of 2011, her book for teenagers, "That’s What She Said/That’s What He Said," debuted with Summerside Press.

Flies is a graduate of Bethel University in St. Paul where she majored in Communication. She received her Masters of Arts in Theological Studies from Bethel Seminary, also in St. Paul.

She loves football, tennis, NASCAR racing and listening to Christmas music 11 months out of the year. Flies and her husband, Chad, live in Eden Prairie.

Alvin Abraham currently serves as the founding dean of the Dougherty Family College at the University of St. Thomas, which welcomed its inaugural class of students in August 2017. He also serves on The Collective’s National Advisory Board at Teach For America, the board of directors at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Teach For America Twin Cities, and Great MN Schools.

A veteran education leader, Abraham began his career as a 2002 Teach For America corps member in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining the team at the University of St. Thomas, Alvin was the executive director of KIPP Minnesota. He worked with KIPP since 2012, leading the organization through extensive growth and expansion.  Before moving to Minnesota, Alvin led one of Houston ISD’s schools in the Apollo 20 program, a bold initiative to transform public education in Houston, in partnership with Harvard University’s Education Innovation Laboratory. 

Abraham earned a BS from Texas A&M University and a Masters in Education from the University of Houston.  

The annual Area 3 Vocational Ethics Day meeting will be Thursday, April 18, at the Edina Country Club. This annual spring meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. and concludes at 1:30 p.m. All Area 3 Rotary club members are welcome to attend, and area high schools are encouraged to have their students attend the meeting. In 2018, more than 200 participants attended, including high school students from Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, and Richfield.

Stay tuned for information on this year's keynote speaker at the event.

For more information, contact Dan Hallberg at 952-541-0352.

Jim Souhan is a sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He has worked at the paper since 1990, previously covering the Twins and Vikings.

Souhan was Sports Editor of his high school paper at Vianney in St. Louis. He wrote and edited for the Missourian at the University of Missouri, where he earned a journalism degree with an emphasis on American literature.

The third chief executive officer to lead the former Padilla Speer Beardsley since its founding in 1961, Lynn Casey led the company through the largest acquisition of its history when it combined with CRT/tanaka in September 2013 to form Padilla, as well as several acqusitions since. Casey's reputation for building, growing and protecting successful brands comes from her ability to listen, strategize and shoot straight. She works with Padilla clients around the country and in a variety of industries. She also advocates for clients and their issues in our headquarters community, where she serves on several nonprofit boards and is active in many business and civic organizations.

She will speak about "Why Servent Leadership Serves Us Well."

Currently Casey serves as past board chair of the Greater Twin Cities United Way, vice chair of the University of Minnesota Foundation, and serves on the board of Mia (Minneapolis Institute of Art). She is an active member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable and the Itasca Project. She also serves on the board of Walman, a leader in the optical industry and one of Minnesota’s largest ESOP organizations. Professional involvement at the national level includes the PR Council board and, currently, the board of the Arthur Page Society.

In 2014, a University of Minnesota undergraduate named Abby Honold was raped at an off-campus apartment by a fellow student. Minneapolis police arrested the suspect, but released him a few days later. It would take a year before an investigator from another police department picked up Honold’s case and helped bring her rapist to justice.

In reporting that story, Star Tribune reporters heard from several law enforcement sources that sexual assault investigations in Minnesota deserved further scrutiny.

Over the past year, the Star Tribune has examined more than 1,400 rape and sexual assault case files from the 20 law enforcement agencies across Minnesota that reported the highest number of sexual assault reports to the FBI.

Using a public-records request, reporters obtained every rape report from 2015 and 2016 that Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments considered closed. For the other agencies, the Star Tribune examined a random sample from the same years.

A reporter or editor read each of the files, screening out any cases that involved children or incest, were deemed unfounded by police, or that remain under investigation. We logged key details from the cases, such as whether there was physical evidence; whether suspects or witnesses were interviewed, and whether charges were ever filed.

In assessing those case files, the reporters relied on best-practice investigative guidelines developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and an advocacy group called End Violence Against Women International. The reporters also attended a two-day law enforcement seminar about investigating sexual assault. We also asked 13 veteran investigators and prosecutors from across the United States to review and comment on more than 160 of the Minnesota cases.

In addition to the case files, reporters and editors examined hundreds of pages of court records and police documents and interviewed more than 100 assault survivors, sex crimes investigators, jurists, women’s advocates and academic researchers. Rape survivors were identified in these stories only if they specifically agreed to the use of their names for publication.

Three of the reporters who wrote the series for the Star Tribune will share the process with our group, and what changes have occurred since the series was published in July 2018.

Go here for links to the series and additional information.

Save the date! The Rotary Club of Edina Family Picnic is set for Thursday, June 20, 2019! 

Make sure to plan to bring your kids and grandkids! The picinic is for Rotarians and their families!

For more information on the event, contact Social Director Renee Harberts.

There is no Rotary Club of Edina regular meeting on Thursday, June 20.

As the 2018-2019 Rotary year comes to an end, the Rotary Club of Edina presidency will transition from John Flynn to Josh Sprague. Josh will serve as president from July 1, 2019 though June 30, 2020.

Outgoing Club and Foundation board members will also be honored at the meeting. And incoming board members will be welcomed.