Events

About Jessie Files

Jessie Files is passionate about using her skillsets to help people suffering or struggling worldwide. This passion has led her to work as an Information Management Officer for the WHO, United Nations in Haiti, Mali, Yemen, and Djibouti. She has also worked as a Geographer, Partnership Specialist and Growth Marketing Manager respectively with the U.S. Census Bureau and Sendwave.

Jessie was born and raised in Haiti. A Fulbright scholarship recipient, she holds a bachelor ‘s degree in Computer Science and a master’s degree in Forest Ecology and Management from Michigan Technological University. She speaks Haitian Creole, French, English, and Spanish. Jessie lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Michael and two daughters, Mikaela and Sofia.

Evie Barnard will talk to us about the Rotary Interact Club at McCallum High School that she founded, and the cool things that they do!

About Evie Barnard

Evelyn (Evie) Barnard is a current senior at McCallum high school. She is the co founder and president of the schools Rotary Interact club, in addition to being the Editor-in-chief of her newspaper. Evie is also involved in other volunteer organizations, including the National Honors Society, National Art Honors Society, and AVID. Next year she plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin as a Journalism major. After college she hopes to obtain a masters degree and eventually work for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. When Evie is not in class or volunteering, you can find her drawing, reading, writing or skateboarding.

Frank Ivy will talk to us about Rotary One and the Rotary International Headquarters in Evanston, IL.

About Frank Ivy

Born and raised in Austin, TX, Frank is a 3^rd generation Austinite.  He is a graduate of Anderson High School and has a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.  He has been married for 35 years to his wonderful wife Alison.  They has two adult children:  Tyler who lives in Round Rock, and Haley who lives in Kennesaw, GA.  Frank has been a commercial banker for 39 years having spent 20 years at community banks, 8 years at large national banks, and 11 years in the Credit Union industry.  Frank has been with Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union for the past 8 years as a commercial real estate lender.

Frank joined the Northeast Austin Rotary Club in January 1996 and became Club Treasurer in July of that year and has been Treasurer for 18 of his 26 years in Rotary.  Frank has served as his club’s Foundation Chair for the past 25 years and is a Paul Harris Fellow +4.  Frank was Club President in 1999-2000 and again in 2014-15 for the North by Northeast Rotary Club in which the North Austin and the Northeast Austin Rotary Clubs merged in 2012.  Frank was inducted into the District’s Roll of Fame in 2010.  Frank has served on the District Board as Assistant Governor for 3 years from 2017 -2021, and Lt. Governor for 2 years from 2021 – 2023.

Mark Kurusz will talk to us about the development of the artifical heart, and the breaktrhoughs that made this life-saving technology possible.

About Mark Kurusz:

Mark Kurusz is the immediate Past-President of the Rotary Club of West Austin, for the years 2020-2021. He is a retired clinical perfusionist (operates heart-lung machine) who continues to do consulting, primarily with Windmill Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., a start-up company that is developing a blood pump for cardiac assist. He has been an author and editor for professional journals since the mid-1970s. He and his wife, Helen, are from New Jersey where they married in 1971 and are the proud parents of three daughters who have brought forth eight grandchildren. They moved to Austin, TX, in 2006 after spending nearly 30 years at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX.

About Ethan Plevak

About Shelly Borton:

About Christine Celis

https://www.celisbeers.com/