Advertise on podcast: Inspiring People: Stories of Innovation and Service

At least a billion people around the world need glasses they cannot get, not because the technology is complicated, but because the global eyewear supply chain was never designed to reach them. GoodVision Executive Director Matt Gianino and GoodVision founder and inventor Martin Aufmuth trace the cost, complexity, and carbon footprint of how glasses are made and sold today, then show how a portable, electricity-free bending machine and $1 in materials are serving the communities a $180 billion industry has left behind. Martin is a mathematics and physics teacher from Erlangen, Germany, who has relied on glasses since childhood. In 2010, reading Paul Polak's book "Out of Poverty," he was struck by the argument that a pair of affordable glasses could be one of the most transformative inventions for people living in poverty, and spent two years experimenting in his basement until he had developed both a spring steel eyeglass frame and the hand-powered bending machine to produce it. In 2012, he loaded the machine onto a bicycle and ran the first GoodVision eye camps in Uganda. What began in a basement in Erlangen now operates in 11 countries, with more than 1 million pairs of glasses delivered to communities that the conventional eyewear supply chain was never designed to reach. Matt is the Executive Director of GoodVision USA, the American nonprofit arm of GoodVision International. He has more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience across the United States and internationally, and is guided by the conviction that where we are born should not limit what we are able to become. His approach centers on building systems that communities can lead themselves, rather than programs that depend on outside intervention. At GoodVision USA, he is building the community of donors, partners, and advocates whose support will scale this work to every community around the world that needs it. To learn more, go to: https://goodvisionusa.org/ To watch how GoodVision's glasses are made, go to: https://youtu.be/_SjRqCmx6gA?si=CU4RfuRKR_nKHywP

Tiffany Loeffler, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Alliance: Defending the Cause of Kids & Families, a united movement of more than 100 agencies, nonprofits, and churches serving vulnerable children and families throughout the Greater Sacramento Area. Since 2010, Tiffany has been a dedicated advocate for at-risk youth and is deeply passionate about collaboration, firmly believing that meaningful partnerships are the key to preventing and healing childhood trauma. Tiffany and her husband, Matt, are parents to three children, two of whom were adopted from Haiti in 2017 following a remarkable six-and-a-half-year international adoption journey. In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Tiffany has worked in the healthcare field since 2007. She holds a degree in biology and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and continues to treat patients in private practice, bringing the same compassion and commitment to care that defines her leadership in the nonprofit sector. Leveraging Collaboration to Prevent & Heal Childhood Trauma explores how meaningful, cross-sector partnerships can transform outcomes for vulnerable children and families. This presentation highlights the innovative model of The Alliance, which unites and mobilizes more than 100 organizations across the Greater Sacramento region to work toward a shared vision of prevention, early intervention, and healing. Attendees will gain insight into how coordinated efforts spanning nonprofits, schools, service providers, and community leaders can reduce duplication, close service gaps, and create a more responsive and compassionate system of care. This talk also offers an honest look at the challenges that come with collaboration, including aligning priorities, building trust, and navigating complex systems. Through real-world examples and lessons learned, participants will better understand what it takes to move from siloed efforts to true partnership, and why the impact is worth it. Ultimately, this presentation demonstrates that while collaboration is not always easy, it is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent and heal childhood trauma at scale. To learn more, go to: The Alliance website: https://www.defendingthecause.org/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAllianceDTCInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealliance_dtc/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-alliance-defending-the-cause-of-kids-and-families-bb1497228/

Dr. Jaime Banks: Millions of people now use artificial intelligence for emotional connection, treating them as confidants, collaborators, friends, or romantic partners. Public discourse is dominated by dystopian narratives and alarmist headlines about these AI companions, while the scientific data about user experiences paints a different picture. In this presentation, Dr. Jaime Banks will examine how "moral panics" may be distorting our understanding of AI companionship. Acknowledging the imbalanced public narratives, we will cover what current science actually suggests about these relationships' positive and negative impacts and where there are open questions about how AI can meaningfully advance humans' wellbeing. Our speaker, Jaime Banks (Ph.D., Colorado State University), is the Katchmar-Wilhelm Endowed Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and Director of the iSchool’s LinkLab. Her research is animated by questions of human-technology relations, especially those with AI, social robots, and videogame avatars. Her current work, funded by the NSF and Army Research Office, focuses on the dynamics of realizing benefits from AI companionship and on how humans judge AI when it behaves badly. To see Dr. Banks' recent publications, go to: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=e2LNDdIAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate Syracuse U iSchool's 'Infoversity' podcast with Dr. Banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scbERi7PJFQ

Imagine being unable to ride your bike, what would you miss the most? Would you miss feeling the wind in your hair? When we ask people what they associate riding a bike with, they all say the same word… Ole is the founder of Cycling Without Age and an Ashoka Fellow, and Pernille is a cycling activist. To learn more, go to: Website: https://cyclingwithoutage.org/ Finn Larsen paradise is right here on earth: https://vimeo.com/134717099 Ice fishing on three wheels: https://youtu.be/hUwzykY_QJM The right to relate, the story behind Cycling Without Age:

The world faces a problem of accelerating water scarcity combined with the considerable limitations of conventional coastal desalination. The Norwegian company Flocean, backed by strong US partners such as Xylem and Burnt Island Ventures, introduces a new approach to seawater desalination designed for resilient, low-impact, and cost-competitive drinking water supply. To the rescue is a subsea desalination system: operating at 400–600 meters depth where seawater is naturally clean, cold, and already pressurized. By leveraging these conditions, the system cuts energy use by ~30–50% versus conventional sea water reverse osmosis, reduces pre-treatment needs and coastal land requirements, and avoids chemicals and concentrated brine discharge. This presentation covers the path to scale—standardized, modular plants delivered as ""water-as-a-service,"" including the first commercial deployment, Flocean One, in the second quarter of 2026. Our speaker, Alexander Fuglesang, is an ocean technology entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Flocean, a Norwegian company developing subsea desalination systems that turn deep ocean water into drinking water. He holds a business degree from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and previously worked as a venture capitalist in London. Raised around advanced pumping systems and a large industrial workshop, he developed a deep understanding of rotating machinery. His connection to the ocean is equally deep: he has training in marine biology, has sailed across the Atlantic, and is an active seaplane pilot and scuba diver. To learn more, go to: https://flocean.green

Grain of Hope is an initiative started by six people in rural Australia to ship 500 tons of wheat to Sudan in response to the hunger crisis there. If successful, it will feed thousands of people and test a powerful idea - that progress doesn’t have to begin with scale or big institutions. Sometimes it can begin quietly, with a handful of ordinary people who refuse to look away. Both guests are from Leeton, a small rural town in the heart of the Riverina on Wiradjuri Country, about five hours west of Sydney. They are part of the six-person founding team behind Grain of Hope, which is sending 500 tons of Australian wheat to Sudan in response to the global hunger crisis. Rob Houghton is a third-generation irrigator, and his property produces chickpeas, popcorn, cereal crops and cotton. Ken Dachi is the Multicultural Affairs Advisor at Leeton Shire Council where he stewards settlement programs for refugees and migrants. He’s previously worked in international development and is originally from Kenya. To learn more, go to: https://fixthenews.com/p/grain-of-hope To donate to the cause, go to: https://myriadaustralia.org/services/donate/grain-of-hope/ #hunger #Sudan

The American Cave Conservation Association (ACCA) moved from Richmond, Virginia to the tiny hamlet of Horse Cave, Kentucky in 1986, with the goal of restoring Hidden River Cave and building a national cave education center. At the time, Hidden River Cave was considered the most polluted cave in America. ACCA President David Foster will discuss the challenges of taking on a major environmental cleanup and building an educational facility in rural Kentucky. The project involved raising millions of dollars over several decades and negotiating the ups and downs of local politics, as well as the challenges of surviving and getting the job done in a low-income community. David Foster is the President/CEO of the American Cave Conservation Association, and has worked with the ACCA since 1984. He helped pioneer the development of bat gates, which are protecting federally-endangered Gray bats, Indiana bats, and Big-eared bats at hundreds of cave sites across the U.S. He designed cave management training programs for federal and private land owners, developed widely used education programs and materials, and has cleaned up dumpsites in cave areas throughout Kentucky. David is best known for his work in restoring Kentucky's Hidden River Cave and solving the waste treatment problems that had plagued the cave for decades. Dave directed the planning and development of the American Cave and Karst Center, a national cave education facility which includes the American Cave Museum and the restored Hidden River Cave in downtown Horse Cave. The cave restoration has been featured in Reader's Digest and the New York Times, and is considered one of the best cave restoration success stories in the world. To learn more, go to: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiddenrivercave YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenrivercave1480 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiddenrivercave/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenrivercave

"In this talk, District Governor Geeta Kadambi speaks to what matters about the work of Rotary. Our district includes 63 clubs, and eleven are more than a century old. The world changes, and yet Rotary keeps building communities, finding solutions, and training leaders, all under the banner of the Rotary motto, Service Above Self. As people of service, Geeta encourages us not simply to have an impact with our service, but also to make the stories of this service all the more visible to people locally and globally. Invisibility cannot be a strategy for the future; people want to belong and know that their contributions matter. So we are challenged to know what we care about and what problems we would like to solve. This is the conversation we can have with each other and all those seeking meaning in how they use their time. For the bio here, we'll do something a bit unusual with this recording, and bring in Aggie Freeman, one of our newest members (though not new to Rotary) to share her story of knowing Geeta: "It is truly my pleasure—and on a personal level, a very special privilege—to introduce our 2026–2027 District Governor, Dr. Geeta Kadambi, at today's e-Club zoom meeting. "Geeta and I share a Rotary connection that goes back more than a decade. Geeta joined the Niles Rotary Club of Fremont in 2015, just one month before I did. That is where we first met and began our Rotary journeys. It makes today's opportunity to introduce her as our District Governor especially meaningful to me. "Geeta's Rotary journey since then has been remarkable. She went on to become Charter President of the Rotary Club of Fremont Bridge and has served District 5170 in numerous leadership roles, including District International Service Chair, District Membership Co-Chair, and Area/Assistant Governor. She chaired the Avenues of Service event in 2023 and was recognized that same year as District 5170 Rotarian of the Year. International service has been an important part of Geeta's Rotary life. Her areas of particular interest include disease prevention, education, clean water, and preventable blindness, and she has participated in 11 Rotary Global Grants around the world.

Can a city be sexist? Definitely. For decades, urban design policies have overlooked the needs of women and other marginal groups. The French city of Nantes is trailblazing efforts to make itself a "non-sexist" city, from redesigning public spaces like school playgrounds and installing breastfeeding stations, renaming streets after women, reallocating spending and inaugurating France’s leading center to counter gender-based violence. Our speaker, solutions journalism reporter Peter Yeung, recently visited Nantes to see how efforts were progressing and to what extent other cities can learn from it. Peter Yeung is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Paris, France, who covers a broad range of beats including climate, global health, migration, human rights, biodiversity, Indigenous cultures, and cities, often through a critical, solutions-orientated lens. He specializes in on-the-ground reporting about under-covered issues involving and giving a voice to the world’s most marginalized groups. Peter has worked and written for a number of leading media outlets including The Guardian, National Geographic, The BBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The LA Times, Reuters, The Financial Times, Wired, CNN, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg. To learn more, go to: https://reasonstobecheerful.world/nantes-france-non-sexist-city/ https://www.peter-yeung.com/

Angel Flight West and the 1,800 pilots who volunteer their time and the cost of the flights so that complete strangers can get to life-saving medical appointments for free. These passengers need to travel hundreds of miles to reach their critical medical treatments, or are unable to afford the cost of flying, or face a long drive which itself could be life-threatening. Hear about the impact that these flights have had on several of our passengers. You'll learn the story of one pilot, who has flown a particular passenger more than 300 times. For the passengers, the flights are life-savers. For the pilots, "every flight is a rewarding journey that reminds us how fortunate we are, and the importance of helping those in need." Our speaker, Clay Ross, recently became the Northern California Wing Leader for Angel Flight West, an organization whose volunteer pilots provide free medical transportation to patients in need. He has been flying patients for more than five years and is very passionate about the mission and the organization. He is excited to share some of his experiences with Angel Flight West, and to use his new role to help expand the impact of the organization and serve more people. Clay is an instrument-rated private pilot who has been flying for more than 40 years. Outside of Angel Flight, Clay has been a very active volunteer in the Scouting America organization, serving as scoutmaster for a decade, and in leadership roles in the scouting district and council for seven years. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout as a youth and is committed to mentoring today’s youth to be strong leaders and good citizens. In recognition of his service, he has received the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver Award, one of Scouting's highest honors. To learn more, go to: Angel Flight West: https://angelflightwest.org/ Watch a passenger testimonial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLfwVqRKCDI Watch "Flying with Angels": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgGd-Lkp9Kg Air Care Alliance: https://aircarealliance.org/

The Record Clearance Project (RCP) promotes justice by providing needed services to those who cannot afford them to foster rehabilitation and reduce recidivism, boasting a 99% success rate in court. To do this, the RCP's legal services program informs people regarding their legal rights to a clear record and provides the legal assistance necessary for them to achieve the second chance that the law promises. The RCP's Path to Expungement Service Navigation Program provides guidance as people leave custody to move forward with their lives. As undergraduates make a difference in the lives of others, they gain the experience and motivation to promote social justice. The RCP is the only legal services clinical education program in the nation taught at the undergraduate level. Emily Benson recently graduated from San José State University with a degree in Justice Studies and a concentration in Criminology. With a passion for community activism, she began volunteering as a teen first responder in high school, working with the San Diego Police Department for two years to support victims in the aftermath of tragedy. Through a semester-long study abroad program in Greece, she volunteered with a local non-profit organization that helped Syrian refugees rebuild their lives. Her experiences have deepened her commitment to social justice both domestically and internationally. Emily is grateful to make a positive impact through her involvement with the Record Clearance Project. Project Assistant Sandra Carrillo is a first-generation college student, who graduated in Fall 2024 with a major in Criminal Justice and minors in Psychology and Forensic Science. Born in Los Angeles but raised in Mexico, Sandra is fluent in Spanish. Sandra seeks to uplift those who are underrepresented in the community and to provide the support they deserve but often lack. Sandra works with the mentoring program, teaches Computers and the Internet courses in Spanish and English to formerly incarcerated participants, and helps with legal services presentations and other RCP work as needed. To learn more, go to: https://sites.google.com/sjsu.edu/sjsu-rcp-landing-page/home To learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to https://rotary.cool

Funda Erdin shares her journey from over 25 years in corporate roles to building her own technology-driven product from the ground up. Drawing on her experience in product, program, and customer success management, she walks through how an idea rooted in personal values—wanting better transparency around health, sustainability, and everyday choices—evolved into GreenIt. Along the way, she reflects on how passion, persistence, and years of experience came together with the support of AI to turn an idea into reality, driven by a genuine desire to help people make more informed choices. Funda also explores the growing role of AI as a powerful enabler, especially for individuals and small businesses who want to build, experiment, and bring ideas to life without traditional barriers. This talk is about more than one app—it’s about rethinking what’s possible, using technology to create impact, and taking the first step toward building something meaningful. Funda Erdin, is the founder of GreenIt, a platform she created to help people make more informed everyday decisions, both for their health and for the environment. After more than 25 years in corporate roles across product management, program management, and customer success, she decided to build something of her own. Throughout her career, she worked closely with developers, turning ideas and business needs into real products, and that experience became the foundation for what she’s building today. GreenIt started from something very personal: wanting not just healthier options, but also to support companies whose environmental values she could trust, and to better understand what happens to products after we’re done with them. Using her product background and the help of AI, she brought that idea to life. Today, she’s on a mission to use technology to connect people, create real impact, and help small businesses grow and succeed by giving them a stronger technological foundation. To learn more, go to: https://www.greenit.app https://anka-technologies.com

Seacology may be one of the most successful and innovative nonprofits you've never heard of. For over three decades, Seacology has been successfully saving island cultures and communities across the world. By focusing on Seacology's "win-win" model, our speaker, Max Rojas-Domke, will highlight how community-identified needs can be turned into multi-generational conservation wins, fostering long-term wins for communities who need them now. As Individual Giving Manager, Max is eagerly one of the first people you'll typically meet on Seacology's staff. With a background in education and consulting, Max delights in highlighting Seacology's win-win approach to island conservation. Joining Seacology a little under three years ago, Max focuses on connecting Seacology's supporters to the impact they've facilitated. So when he's not meeting with donors or facilitating conversations, you can find him enjoying the beaches we all love. To learn more, go to: https://www.seacology.org/ (Seacology main page) https://www.seacology.org/projects/ (interactable map of all Seacology projects) https://www.seacology.org/projects/ (travel with Seacology to see our impact firsthand) https://www.seacology.org/donate/ (donate to support Seacology)

HANWASH and partners are working with and supporting local stakeholders to deliver safe, affordable, and sustainable water and sanitation to everyone in Haiti. Our speaker, Fritz Pierre-Louis, is a dedicated Rotarian with over a decade of service, notably as Past President of the Rotary Club of Leogane from 2017 to 2018. Currently, he chairs the steering committee for HANWASH in District 7020, where he has been instrumental in enhancing water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives since 2020. He is a past Assistant Governor, and his enthusiasm for Rotary's possibilities is evident through his participation in numerous District Conferences and Rotary International Conventions. Born in Leogane, Haiti, and educated in Connecticut, Fritz is an electro-mechanical engineer who returned to Haiti to foster development and create job opportunities, founding several companies that have generated over 2,300 jobs. After the 2010 earthquake, he served as Haiti Country Director for Waves for Water, providing potable water access to over 250,000 families in 11 countries. A proud Paul Harris Fellow and fluent in four languages, Fritz leverages his skills to connect with diverse communities and drive impactful initiatives. To learn more, go to: https://www.hanwash.org/

The Kelsey is a Bay Area-based nonprofit with a national impact, working at the intersection of housing and disability. The Kelsey both builds and advocates for accessible, affordable, and inclusive housing—what they call "disability-forward" housing. You will get an overview of The Kelsey's work, sharing how The Kelsey came to be, why this work matters, its current projects and impact, and how to get involved. Micaela Connery is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Kelsey, a national nonprofit pioneering disability-forward housing solutions that are affordable, accessible, and inclusive. She launched this work alongside her cousin and co-founder, Kelsey, a passionate advocate for access and inclusion who lived with multiple disabilities. Their shared vision continues to shape the organization’s mission and impact. Since founding The Kelsey in 2018, Micaela has led the organization to develop over 200 disability-forward homes, unlock nearly $190 million for inclusive housing, and scale its influence to reach thousands of advocates and homes nationwide. As a Fellow at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, she published leading national research on housing and disability, laying the groundwork for The Kelsey’s model. Her commitment to inclusion began early—as the founder of Unified Theater, which she launched at age 15 and scaled to schools across the country. Micaela is recognized as an Ashoka Fellow, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur, Mitchell Scholar, and Harvard Social Innovation and Change Initiative Fellow. A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, the University College Dublin Smurfit School, and the University of Virginia, she is a leading voice on inclusive design, housing innovation, and community-based living. Through The Kelsey, she is advancing a bold vision: communities where people of all abilities and incomes live side by side—with dignity, equity, and belonging. To learn more, go to: The Kelsey's website: https://thekelsey.org/ Top 12 Moments from The Kelsey's work in 2025: https://thekelsey.org/eoy-recap-top-12-moments-of-2025/ Voices from the Community (hear directly from The Kelsey's residents): https://thekelsey.org/voices-from-the-community/