Dr. Michelle Thaller is the Assistant Director for Science at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Michelle has a Bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. After a post-doctoral research fellowship at Caltech, Michelle became particularly interested in public outreach and science communication and served as the public outreach lead for the Spitzer Space Telescope at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before moving to Goddard Space Flight Center, where she is the Assistant Director of Science. Michelle was one of the regular hosts of Discovery Science Channel’s “How the Universe Works,” and also hosted the podcast “Orbital Path” on public radio. She has received several high-profile awards for online science journalism and science leadership. NASA’s science themes include Earth science and climate change, the sun and space weather, solar system exploration, cosmology and the deep universe.
I sincerely wanted to thank you again for the generous support from your club to help us advance Wondrous Learning Center activities at the Eastpines Community Building! Your financial contributions helped us undertake several of the activities referenced below, including purchasing hands-on games and other training materials and supplies for the refugees attending the IRC Summer Academy and our July 30th Neighborhood Day event. For example, we purchased several pop-up tents for the July 30th event to provide shade for attendees and exhibitors which were enormously appreciated. As you can see in the following, we're continuing to advance a variety of activities, including a chess game day this weekend and a professional development and career day in September. We'd welcome any further inquiries and engagement from your club. -- Anthony Bloome
On Saturday, July 30th, in collaboration with the Metamorphosis Community Project and Eastpines Community Association, mEducation Alliance hosted the Wondrous Learning Center Neighborhood Festival in Riverdale, MD. This event underscored the Alliance's commitment to supporting refugees, including those in the U.S. At this event, the organizers featured representatives and tables from 10 community-serving organizations sharing resources with the 100+ attendees who participated from the surrounding community. In addition to all the information booths, participants of all ages had a variety of activities to choose from: a bounce house, balloon animals, a raffle, book and educational game giveaways, and even juggling lessons! To welcome so many of our Afghan refugee friends who joined us, we served traditional Afghan food cooked by Afghan women living in the nearby apartment complex. The mEducation Alliance plans to host even more events and training activities at the Wondrous Learning Center, particularly those replicable in other formal and informal settings globally.
Rotarian Dr. Stephanie Urchick, has been selected by the Nominating Committee to serve as the RI President in 2024-25. A Rotarian since 1991, Dr. Stephanie Urchick has served on the RI Board of Directors and also as the Chair of its Executive Committee in 2020-2021. She is a member of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA and has served Rotary as a TRF Trustee, Chair of the Rotary Strategic Planning and TRF Centennial Celebration Committees, member of the Atlanta RI Convention Committee, International Training Leader, RRFC, President’s Representative, District Governor, and District Delegate to two COLs. Stephanie’s professional background is in the higher education, consulting, and entertainment industries. She received her doctorate degree in Leadership Studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has been recognized and awarded by TRF and numerous community and international organizations.
It's a new Rotary Year and Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Club has a new location! Join us on Thursday, July 7, at 6:30pm for our first meeting at Lakewood Country Club.
When I met him at the district conference in April, Anthony (Tony) Bloome gave a very nice presentation on his nonprofit’s work supporting the learning of Afghan refugee kids in our area. He is also the incoming president of the Washington Global club in DC (new club – 3 years). For those of you not at the meeting yesterday, attached are a picture of Tony presenting and one of his posters. -- Nabil Bedewi
Potomac-Bethesda Treasurer Phil Meade gave Normandie Farm staff members a special $600 donation.
Nancy Mason and Bob Nelson gave an overview of the Rotary District Conference. The next Rotary District Conference will be held at the Bethesda Hyatt Hotel April 20-23, 2023
JoAnn Hill, Author, gave a presentation on “Secret Washington, DC: A Guide to The Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure” at the Rotary Club Meeting on February 17, 2022.
Dr. Michelle Thaller is the Assistant Director for Science at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Michelle has a Bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. After a post-doctoral research fellowship at Caltech, Michelle became particularly interested in public outreach and science communication and served as the public outreach lead for the Spitzer Space Telescope at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before moving to Goddard Space Flight Center, where she is the Assistant Director of Science. Michelle was one of the regular hosts of Discovery Science Channel’s “How the Universe Works,” and also hosted the podcast “Orbital Path” on public radio. She has received several high-profile awards for online science journalism and science leadership. NASA’s 
science themes include Earth science and climate change, the sun and space weather, solar system exploration, cosmology and the deep universe.
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