Events

Cindy Chavez is an American politician who serves as a Santa Clara County supervisor representing close to 400,000 residents in Downtown, East, and South San Jose. She is also the Vice President of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Her public service career began in the 1990s as a policy analyst for health care, public health, human services and transportation for the Board of Supervisors. She served two terms on the San Jose City Council, where she was also Vice Mayor, and also served on the board leadership of public agencies such as the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, and executive director of Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. She is a graduate of San Jose State University, is married and has a son in high school.

Chris Garcia joined the Computer History Museum in 1999. As Curator, Chris provides information on artifacts, develops content for exhibits, assists in donation review, gives talks, tours and writes articles for CORE—the official publication of the Museum. He specializes in the history video games, personal computing, computer music and art, and computers and technology in literature. In his spare time, Chris is a fan of science fiction and edits a number of fanzines, including The Drink Tank (Hugo Award winner, 2011).

Andrew Gunther PhD
AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST... WHO SPEAKS YOUR LANGUAGE
English is my native tongue, but I speak science. I picked it up over 35 years working in my field.
Being fluent in both languages allows me to guide, inspire and advise people who believe there’s a lot at stake for this planet and everyone on it.
We’ve known about the physics driving climate change since the 19th century. It’s time to have a conversation about what a 21st century response looks like.

Rotarians and potential members will enjoy a beautiful night talking, eating, drinking, riding the train & carousel at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos.

For years Rotary has invested in this very park from installing cement tables, to helping laying foundation of railroad, to designing and building the outdoor BBQ, revitalizing the carousel, to even buying a laptop for a homeless person that called this park home. Rotarians take pride investing in their local community so events like this have even more meaning.

Caroline Cocciardi  writer and filmmaker began an independent study on Leonardo da Vinci, while living in Rome. Her 20 year research lead to a da Vinci discovery. 

Overlooked for centuries yet visible to the naked eye Cocciardi detected that the minute interlocking embroidered knot pattern on Mona Lisa’s dress deviated from the decorative embroidery of the day.  The Mona Lisa Knot was a mathematical pattern based on its angular crossing patterns.

In the process of looking in Leonardo’s codices for his preliminary sketches of The Mona Lisa Knot, she discovered he had dedicated a lifetime to his knot art works. Her newly released art book, “Leonardo’s Knots” will introduce you to a facet of the Renaissance painter that was overlooked for centuries yet was present in his artworks: his passion for intertwining knots. She has lectured for many institutions and museums about Leonardo da Vinci’s knot art.

In 2009, Cocciardi’s documentary, “Mona Lisa Revealed” was featured at the Carmel Film Festival documenting engineer Pascal Cotte, inventor of the multi-spectral camera that uncovered five centuries of secrets within Leonardo’s iconic Mona Lisa. Cocciardi represented Cotte’s Mona Lisa photographs in a worldwide Leonardo exhibition. 

Although the field of genetic counseling has been around for over 30 years, many people are unfamiliar with the role of genetic counselors in medicine. Genetic counselors are health professionals with specialized graduate degrees and experience in the areas of medical genetics and counseling. We work as members of a health care team, providing support and information about genetic conditions. 

Genetic counselors identify families at risk for birth defects or genetic disease, investigate the problem present in the family, interpret information about the disorder, analyze inheritance patterns and risks of recurrence, and review available options with the family. Genetic counselors also provide supportive counseling to families, serve as patient advocates and refer individuals and families to community or state support services.

Prior to coming to Kaiser Permanente, I completed my Bachelor of Science in Biology at Mesa State College of Colorado and my Master of Science in Genetic Counseling at the University of Wisconsin,  Madison.  In both Colorado and Wisconsin, I volunteered for various organizations including a local domestic violence shelter and a rape crisis line.

Within the Kaiser Permanente Genetics Department, I see patients for a variety of adult and pediatric genetic concerns; however, my primary specialties include prenatal genetics, cardiovascular genetics, and Huntington's disease predictive testing.  As a genetic counselor, my goal is to help my patients understand complex genetic information and provide support in decision-making. 

Paul Johnson, was named superintendent of Los Gatos Union School District in May 2018.  He was previously superintendent of the Mill Valley School District in Marin County for seven years. He was also superintendent of the Loomis School District near Sacramento.  He started his education career in 1987 as a teacher in Riverside and also worked as an assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent.   He and his wife Debbie made the move to the Bay area.  

In 1973, I settled in Los Gatos with my husband, Ira, and quickly became involved in community issues. I was a member of the Los Gatos Planning Commission between 1980 and 1988, often serving as either Chair or Vice-Chair. During my tenure, the Commission developed new zoning ordinances, the Hillside Plan, the Downtown Specific Plan, and a revised General Plan to protect our hillsides, historic homes, neighborhoods and local businesses.

I am a native of Northern California and grew up on a farm in Stockton where I went to the same one-room school house that my father had attended. I moved to the Bay Area and obtained the following degrees and credentials:
 B.A., English, University of California at Berkeley 1966
 Secondary and Community College Teaching Credentials, San Jose State University 1968 &
1974
 M.A., Political Science, San Jose State University 1974
 J.D., magna cum laude, University of Santa Clara School of Law 1978
 Harvard Law School, Mediator Certification 1994
 Harvard Law School, Negotiation Certification 1995

Formerly a high school English teacher, I have been an attorney since 1978. I serve as Special Counsel to the law firm of Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel where, in addition to my civil litigation and mediation practice, I am regularly appointed by state and federal courts to resolve disputes without trial as a judge pro tem, a special master, a judicial arbitrator and a mediator. For three years, I have been selected by my Northern California colleagues as a "Super Lawyer," and, in 2003, my volunteer services to the legal profession and the community earned me the Bar Association's highest honor, the Bryl Salsman Award.

In 2007/08 and in 2012/13, I served as Mayor of Los Gatos and during my tenure on our town council, I have represented Los Gatos on regional bodies including the Association of Bay Area Government (ABAG) General Assembly, the Guadalupe West Valley Water Shed Advisory Committee, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Commission, the Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee, and the Santa Clara County Cities Association City Selection Committee.

Additionally, I have served on the Town Council’s Policy, General Plan, Finance, Conceptual Development and North 40 Advisory committees, and Highway 9 projects.
All that I do for our Town is a product of the passion I have always had for our community as reflected in the following Sunset magazine passage written in 1915:

"To see Los Gatos is to love the town. To enjoy the privilege of a few days' or weeks' stay within the gates of that beautiful city of 3,500 souls is to wish to come again. And to become a permanent resident there is to lie in paradise, if such there be on this earth.”

Born in San Francisco, Rayme Waters grew up in Northern California and the city of Linköping, Sweden. Her short stories, from the collection The Island of Misfit Girls, have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Dzanc Award and awarded a story South Notable Story distinction. Rayme’s debut novel, The Angels’ Share, is the story of a young woman rebuilding her life while working at a small Sonoma County winery. She lives with her family in Palo Alto, California where she is working on her next novel, Quicksilver.

John Markoff   
“Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots”

John Markoff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote for The New York Times’ science and technology beat for 28 years, where he was widely regarded as the paper’s star technology reporter. He is currently a Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has been a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism, and an adjunct faculty member at the Stanford Graduate Program on Journalism. In 2013, Markoff was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Explanatory Reporting “for its penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies that illustrates the darker side of a changing global economy for workers and consumers.”

His books include: The High Cost of High Tech (with Lennie Siegel); Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (with Katie Hafner); Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw (with Tsutomu Shimomura); What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry; andMachines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots. Markoff is currently working on a biography of Stewart Brand.

Markoff continues to work as a freelance journalist for The Times and other organizations and volunteers at the Computer History Museum.