Events

In 2017 Marin County, CA had the seventh highest rate of per capita homelessness in the entire country. However, from 2017 to 2019, Marin reduced overall homelessness by 7%, chronic homelessness by 28%, and San Rafael, Marin’s largest city, witnessed a 30% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. No one could have expected what happened next. A global pandemic. New federal legal rulings around homelessness. The rise of encampments. Come learn about all things homelessness in Marin County.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Andrew Hening moved to San Jose, California in the summer of 2010 through AmeriCorps VISTA for a year of service as the Project Homeless Connect Coordinator for Santa Clara County. Following that role, he took a position with Downtown Streets Team (DST), a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit that provides volunteer work experience opportunities for people experiencing homelessness.   In July of 2013, Andrew launched DST's first team outside of Santa Clara County in San Rafael. In March of 2016, Andrew became the City of San Rafael’s Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach, where he has worked with an amazing team of local partners to envision, develop, and implement the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), Coordinated Entry, the Marin Mobile Care mobile shower program, and Opening Doors Marin, a countywide housing collaborative.  As of June 30^th, 2021, Andrew has left his role with the City of San Rafael and is now leading Opening Doors.

Andrew lives in Richmond, CA with his wife and daughter.  Andrew has a BA from the University of Virginia and an MBA for UC Berkeley. He is also an avid backpacker, having completed the John Muir Trail and parts of the the Yosemite High Route.

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. 

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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. She has taught American Government on the honors high school and community college level for many years. She served as a member of the Springfield City Council for eight years and worked as a special assistant to Charles Ryan, mayor of Springfield, multiple terms. She co-founded and chaired the Massachusetts Arts Advocacy Committee and was a member of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. She was a member of the Springfield Rotary Club for several years.

Barbara sang alto in the Springfield Symphony Chorus for more than forty years. As a self-described opera buff, she will lead a discussion of an opera performed by the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York. The opera will be chosen 10-14 days before our meeting and will be available to be viewed by meeting participants in advance of the meeting. The Met offers free viewing of a number of their performances, including the opera we will be discussing. Come prepared with questions!

More details about this special presentation will be provided soon.

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