Speakers

One of the most important and least known duties in the Marine Corps and in all the other US military branches is the Casualty Assistance Call Officer. Headquarters Marine Corps utilizes a nationwide network to identify Marine officers and senior enlisted members for this duty. Once assigned, these Marines' primary duties is to notify the next of kin of fallen Marines. Once notification is made, these Marines are responsible for follow-up visits to explain military benefits and to provide military honors if requested by the family. These assignments are some of the most difficult in the Marine Corps. Every Marine in this duty understands this is the very least they can do to honor the service of fallen Marines and help families deal with the loss of their loved one. "Honoring the Fallen" explains this process and why it is so important to those serving and their families. 

Col Lange is a 1970 graduate of the University of Southern California and was commissioned a second Lieutenant following completion of Officer Candidate School in May 1971. His 30 year career as a Marine artillery officer included a wide range of operational, staff, and command billets in each of the Marine Corps’s four divisions.  Col Lange was involved in the evacuation of Vietnam in 1975 and served on the staff of the 2d Marine Division during the first Gulf War in 1991. Col Lange also served more than eight years as a manpower planner at Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C. 

After retiring from the Marine Corps in 2001, he joined the staff of the Military Officers Association of America where he became the lead lobbyist on military surviving spouse issues in the Government Relations Department.  In June 2006 Col Lange was named as the Deputy Director for the Council and Chapter Affairs Department and became the Director in December 2006. Col Lange Retired from MOAA in January 2013 and now resides in Anthem, Arizona.     

In 1912, just four years after Muir Woods was established, a small group of European immigrants bought a small
plot of land on the shoulder of Mt. Tam for their hiking club. Called the Tourist Club, it is the San Francisco
branch of Die Naturfreunde (Friends of Nature), which was founded in 1895, in Vienna, Austria. It has grown
into a community of over a half million members. Their motto, “BERG FREI”, affirms that the mountains and
nature belong to us all.

Gareth Loy, the chair of the Club’s History Committee, will share not only the history
of the club’s role in the environmental movement, but also many fabulous, long-forgotten images of Mt. Tam,
the Sierras, and beyond, drawn from the Tourist Club archives.

In this provocative presentation about our new tech-based reality, Alexis Wichowski considers the unchecked rise of tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla - what she calls "net states" - and their unavoidable influence on their lives. Rivaling nation states in power and capital, today's net states are reaching into our physical world, inserting digital services into our lived environments in ways both unseen and, at times, unknown to us. They are transforming the way the world works, putting our rights up for grabs, from personal privacy to national security.

Alexis serves as Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Innovation for the City of New York and teaches government, media and technology at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Prior work includes the American Red Cross, the U.S. Department of State's Office of eDiplomacy, and the permanent mission of the United States to the United Nations. Outside government, Wichowski has worked in media impact research, information architecture development, academic book indexing, web coding, theater production, foreign sitcoms and pretzel vending. Wichowski holds a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Albany's College of Engineering & Applied Sciences and a BA in Chinese from Connecticut College, completed in three years cum laude. She lives in Brooklyn with her family and reads science fiction voraciously.

Barbara Garvey is a life-long resident of Springfield, Massachusetts and sang in the Springfield Symphony Chorus for more than 40 years. As a self-described opera buff, she will prepare a review of the works of Giuseppe Verdi and describe the action and plot of one of his most popular operas, La Traviata.

When originally scheduled, Barbara was to show an excerpt of an opera available for free at www.metopera.org, but now their previously-performed operas are available for paid subscribers only. Barbara encourages us to check out that website!

Enriching Lives Through Music provides youth with an immersive music education and resources that inspire and empower them to pursue their dreams. Jane Kramer, ELM Executive Director, will update us on the significant growth of ELM programs, even during Covid.

Jane has played music since the age of 7, mastering the oboe and the English horn. She also has a Ph.D. in Urban Policy and Planning from U.C. Berkeley and has consulted for public sector and nonprofit organizations with a focus on vulnerable adolescents. She is the Founder of Enriching Lives Through Music and, in 2016, received the 2016 Marin County Humanitarian Award. In 2018 she was honored to enter the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. Jane will discuss the ever-growing programs of ELM and their impact on the children who participate.

Fernwood Cemetery in Mill Valley, CA, is the first Green Burial Cemetery in California. Kate Lane and Skip Dailey will discuss what "green burial" is, the many ways it makes burial environmentally friendly and why it has become an increasingly popular choice for burial.

TBA

Why do river otters matter? To you, to all of us, and most importantly, to the waters and land we share and depend upon? How do we connect every community in Marin (and beyond) to conservation? Part of the answer lies in the positive message of the return of river otters after decades of absence. I will talk about how River Otter Ecology Project aims to leverage otter charm to show that we humans are able to correct past mistakes for a better future. And I am interested in your thoughts and experience with community efforts to support conservation, and will leave time for that discussion.