Events

Regional Director Jeff Kahrs will give a high-level overview of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regional office which he oversees. Participants will gain a better understanding of how HHS staff and programs operate at the local level to serve Missourians. Mr. Kahrs will also discuss HHS accomplishments and priorities under the leadership of President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the MAHA movement.

Bobbi Jo Reed with Healing House and Kyle Mead with Heartland Center for Behavioral Change

Bobbi Jo Reed found that helping others kept her sober and gave her purpose. Bobbi Jo founded Healing House in 2003 to provide a stable home for women who, like herself, needed a safe place to fully recover after leaving substance abuse treatment.

Kyle Mead assumed the position of President/CEO of Heartland Center for Behavioral Change (HCBC) in August 2019. Kyle has over a 26-year history of serving in various roles at HCBC, previously as Vice President of Behavioral Health Services overseeing all substance use disorder treatment (SUD) programs. Kyle will share the history and services being offered by Heartland Center.

This presentation examines the repetitive rhetorical labor of women workers at the Donnelly Garment Company (DGC) as they resisted the unionization efforts of the ILGWU. In 1937, when tensions with the ILGWU were at their height, over 700 DGC employees penned short letters that asserted their desire to remain free of union interference. Through their epistolary efforts, the workers established their knowledge of the local labor market, described how they used their wages to support their families, detailed the safe working conditions of the DGC factory, and wrote with great affection about the DGC founder, Nell Donnelly Reed.

Speaker Bio: 

Jane Greer is a University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor in UMKC’s Department of English. She focuses her archival research on the rhetorical performances and literacy practices of women and girls in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is particularly interested in the rhetorical practices that allow women to claim greater economic agency in the workplace. In 2023, she published Unorganized Women: Repetitive Rhetorical Labor and Low-Wage Women Workers, 1934-1937 with the University of Pittsburgh Press, and it received an honorable mention in the Winfred B. Horner Outstanding Book competition sponsored by the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. 

My story begins long before I was born. In 1984, following the anti-Sikh violence and genocide in India, my parents' generation was forced to navigate fear, uncertainty, and the difficult decision to leave behind everything they knew in search of safety and opportunity. As the daughter of Sikh immigrants, I grew up carrying the weight of those sacrifices while trying to understand my own identity as both American and Punjabi. In this presentation, I share my family's journey from Punjab to the United States, the challenges of growing up between two worlds, and how those experiences inspired me to found Eye of an Immigrant. Through storytelling, community building, and immigration support, Eye of an Immigrant works to ensure that immigrant families feel seen, valued, and welcomed. This is a story about resilience, belonging, and how the sacrifices of one generation can become the purpose of the next.

Komalpreet Kaur is the founder and executive director of Eye of An Immigrant (EOAI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping immigrant families overcome cultural barriers and achieve their American Dream. She founded EOAI as a junior in high school with a mission to elevate voices, fund pathways to citizenship, and foster a welcoming community. Through EOAI, she launched a storytelling campaign to highlight the immigrant experience and provide critical resources and financial assistance for immigrants seeking a legal pathway to citizenship.

How do you reinvent an institution without reinventing its identity?

As technology, demographics, family expectations, and the pace of change continue to reshape education, organizations face a defining challenge: adapt—or become dated…or worse, irrelevant. Diane Marty will share how Rockhurst High School has strategically evolved its approach to recruitment, student formation, fundraising, and long-term planning while remaining unwavering in its Catholic, Jesuit mission.

Using one school's experience as a case study, participants will leave with practical insights into leading organizational change without compromising core values. The setting may be a high school, but the lessons apply to any mission-driven organization.

Diane - a former Plaza Rotarian who manages to cling to her somewhat tenuous membership in the Plaza Rotary Scotch tasting events - has spent her entire career in the nonprofit world, starting in community development before moving into full-time fundraising in 1998. She served various organizations in-house before starting her own consultancy (Faire Consulting LLC) in 2010. After earning her doctorate in education with a focus on human and organizational development, she accepted an in-house, full-time role with one of her clients, Rockhurst High School. (After all, educational organizational development is a whole petri dish of study for inquiring minds!) With Rockhurst full-time since January 2021, she appreciates the deep community connections, a 5-minute commute to work (except when State Line Road or 95th Street are under construction!), and the chance to learn something new every day. Diane and Kirk (and Zeke, their Bernese Mountain dog) live in Leawood and take every opportunity they can to visit sons Max and George (presently in Chicago and Minneapolis, respectively). Grateful for the invitation to visit with the Club on September 11! 

Anthony Estrada will be speaking on his new grocery store, United Market, at 3110 Prospect Ave.

Anthony Estrada is the Owner-Operator of United Market. With more than 35 years of experience in the grocery industry, Anthony brings deep operational knowledge, leadership experience, and a strong heart for service to every store and community he serves.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Anthony understands the importance of showing up for communities where access, opportunity, and consistency are needed the most. His commitment to service has shaped both his grocery career and his public service, including more than 20 years as a part-time Roeland Park Police officer.