Speakers

Reminder: Our weekly meetings now take place at the Lanam Club.

Our own Jean Leider will present on her recent Rotary District 7930 Rotaplast Mission to Cebu, Phillippines.   

The March 2025 mission to Cebu marked Rotaplast’s 20th visit to the region. It was supported by District Governor Tom Hankard (7930), under the leadership of Past District Governor Terry Resendez Curran, who is set to serve again as District Governor in 2027 when another mission is planned.

The Rotary Club of Andover contributed $1,600 in support of the Cebu mission.

Susan Stott has been an AVIS Trustee since she retired from Phillips Academy.  She was also a founder of Andover Community Trust, which has developed 13 permanently affordable homes in Andover.

AVIS is an all volunteer organization and Susan’s primary responsibility has been for land acquisition. The two largest acquisitions in the last ten years have been 26 acres of the Franciscan property along the Merrimack River and 11 acres near Tewksbury along the Shawsheen River.  Now her biggest challenge is the permitting and funding for the All Persons Trail in the Goldsmith Woodlands, the subject of her presentation.  She will also share what she has learned while working on this project for the past two plus years.

Angelina Berube is the Andover and North Andover reporter at The Eagle-Tribune. She has been at the newspaper since July 2022, covering New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley during that time.

Berube has covered a wide range of topics in the community and enjoys writing features about the people who make her communities vibrant. The job keeps her on her toes with different stories to write each day.

Berube has experience with sports reporting as a former high school and college hockey player. She writes about the Professional Women's Hockey League Boston Fleet's players and its games in Lowell for The Eagle-Tribune in addition to her daily news reporting.

Great Dog Rescue New England is a nonprofit, shelterless, all-breed rescue group headquartered in Massachusetts. Our group is comprised of volunteers all over New England who love dogs and want to help those that end up homeless through no fault of their own. Loyal and loving dogs turn up every day in New England and Southern shelters, as owners turn them in or they’re found roaming the streets after being dumped.

Great Dog is dedicated to animal rescue. In addition to our primary goal of helping homeless and abandoned dogs find loving forever homes, we:

– DONATE money to spay and neuter clinics in the south to help solve the problem of pet overpopulation.

– ENGAGE IN COMMUNITY OUTREACH activities with local schools to help educate children and young adults about animal rescue, responsible pet ownership, proper pet care, etc.

– ADOPT DOGS to agencies that train dogs to assist the physically disabled and hearing impaired (many dogs that were abandoned are now helping people lead independent lives).

We are proud of the work we do with the dogs and in local communities.

Karla is the Executive Director at Stone Hill at Andover and has been with the community since November 2018, before the building opened. As Executive Director, Karla ensures the community is in compliance with state, federal and safety requirements.

Karla is also an esteemed Rotary member!

Judith Hull has worked for Community Heart & Soul since 2021 as a coach and market development consultant. Judith notes: “I really believe in Community Heart & Soul as an effective tool for long-lasting change because it is a resident-driven process that emphasizes the positive. Stories that residents contribute about why they love their communities builds new relationships, trust, and a strong foundation for long-term planning.”

Her experience with community work is long-standing and she considers facilitation, listening, critical thinking, and teamwork important strengths. She is a member of both the Northern New England and the Massachusetts Chapters of the APA.

Judith taught for several decades in professional schools of architecture where attention to urban planning and community development are fundamental to the curriculum and where she honed her skills as a facilitator in leading classroom discussions. She received a B.A. from Binghamton University, an M.A. from UMASS Amherst, and holds a PhD in the history of architecture from Columbia University.

Tom is a Senior level financial and operations professional with over 37 years of for-profit and non-profit experience. His areas of expertise include financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, non-profit governance, banking compliance, cash management, system implementations, policies and procedures documentation, grant management (federal and private), internal control reviews, board presentations, organization assessments, audit management, organization formation and dissolution, and IRS non-profit application completion and submission. Prior to joining CLA, Tom worked for a professional services firm, for nine years, that specialized in working with Non-Profit organizations. He held positions as CFO, Treasurer and Executive Director for many of the Non-Profit Association clients for a Professional services firm (including Senior Vice President for the firm managing four departments), that managed more than 70 Non-Profits (primarily Associations), around the world. Prior to that Tom held positions as Director of Finance and Administration for a social services non-profit and CFO of a long-standing non-profit preservation society. Tom currently works with a variety of nonprofit industries: Associations, Human Services, Community Development, Religious and Tech groups. 

At Neurowaves Brain Wellness Center, we specialize in advanced neuromodulation treatments for a variety of conditions, including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction, and other neurological and sensory disorders. Our approach, Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy (MeRT), is a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical, and highly personalized treatment designed to address the unique needs of each patient.

A well-planned garden completes the story of your home, it looks beautiful, smells beautiful, and sounds beautiful. It can even taste beautiful. It’s a place you come to at the end of the day to relax, play, eat, and connect with the people in your life. 

Our mission at Samantha’s Gardens is to spread joy and happiness to our clients and throughout our communities. We don’t just want to landscape your home, we want to transform it into an environment you will love.

The kind that has the power to transport you.

Claudia has been part of One Wish Project from the beginning. While Hannah was busy making the most amazing birthday cakes in their Andover home, Claudia assisted Hannah with all the things that a 14-year old girl could not do herself. Claudia opened a bank account to accept donations, drove Hannah to the supermarkets for cake ingredients and the toy stores, and of course, accompanied Hannah to all the shelter deliveries.  As the organization continued to grow and Hannah was beginning the transition process to college in the Fall of 2020, One Wish Project became a volunteer-based organization and Claudia took over the day-to-day responsibilities of the organization. Today, Claudia is One Wish Project's Executive Director focusing on Strategic Development and growth.

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As the founder and senior principal trainer for LeadSMART Training Solutions, Peter took his first lead safe training in 1997 while operating his design/build remodeling firm in the greater Boston area. Trained as a cabinetmaker, his love of residential remodeling became his specialty in the design/build field of residential construction.

Seeing a need in the construction industry in the area of lead remodeling, Peter founded LeadSMART Training Solutions, Inc., in 2011. Teaching both the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (RRP) and Massachusetts Lead Safe Renovation (LSR) Standards, Peter later expanded the LeadSMART educational offerings to include certification courses in OSHA safety standards and respirator use, as well as Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License (CSL) renewal.

Peter feels strongly about helping smaller firms find the profitable side of jobsite compliance. As a result, he utilizes his 30+ years of business acumen in residential construction and remodeling to offer onsite consultations, built proprietary contractor business builder courses, and enjoys holding private training sessions to address the unique needs of the client’s organization. Using his vast knowledge of regulations, he has written client employee OSHA Safety Plans — and helped keep them on the profitable side of jobsite compliance.

Peter has spoken to many contractor groups in both educational and motivational formats. His honest, forthright speaking style as well as his knowledge of the industry and regulations, has garnered high praise from the audience. 

In September 2022 the members of Ballard Vale United Church (BVUC) in Andover, MA, launched the town’s first 24-hour self-serve community pantry. After two years, the pantry has evolved into a hub of food rescue and a vital resource for over 1,000 members of the community.  After learning that about 20% of children are food insecure in Andover, Glen McLeod, former church moderator before focusing on the ministry, had the idea to run a food pantry out of the church. He envisioned a place where anyone in the community could take, or donate, food at any time.

The pantry is open 24/7 and is available to anyone in the community. Donors and recipients alike visit daily. The group follows USDA guidelines to ensure the food offered at the pantry is safe for eating.

Like many people, I watched with a mix of sadness and anger as Russia’s totally unjustified invasion of Ukraine unfolded in February 2022.  The indiscriminate shelling of remote farming villages, the deliberate bombing of civilian targets, the blatant aggression, the heartbreaking scenes of elderly people fleeing their homes – for me it felt like I was watching something akin to Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 at the start of World War 2, only this time it was in real time.

​My initial instinct was to donate to a charity in Ukraine, which I did.  But for some reason, writing a check and stopping there just didn’t seem to be enough.  This time, I felt a call to action like never before.  I didn’t know how to help out, but I knew one thing: doing nothing was NOT an option.  I had to go there and help out in some way, but how?

I have just returned from a 1 year stay in Ukraine, my 7th trip there since the beginning of the war. While there, we sourced and delivered essential humanitarian aid to the hardest-hit areas of the country, often not far from the front lines, where other NGO’s won’t go because of the risk.  I have done numerous talks for Rotary Clubs in NH and MA, including Manchester North, Bedford, Exeter, Dover, Portsmouth, Salem, Goffstown, Hollis, Hopkinton and others.