Rotary Club of Milwaukee Tuesday Speaker Series

This week in Memorial Hall, Rotarians welcomed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Thomas Gibson, who was inaugurated as the university's 10th chancellor on September 25, coinciding with UWM's 70th anniversary. Chancellor Gibson shared insights from his first full year at UWM, reflecting on what he has learned about the university, its students, faculty, and the broader Milwaukee community.

This week in Memorial Hall, fellow Rotarian Dr. Marissa Jablonski, Executive Director of the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, explored the impact of single-use plastics on water quality and local ecosystems. Marissa highlighted how reducing single-use plastics at home and in the workplace can improve water quality and reduce harm to local ecosystems. She also shared practical steps individuals and businesses can take to make a difference.

This week in Memorial Hall, in recognition of the United Nations' 81st anniversary, Joe Cirincione discussed the enduring importance of the UN as a global forum for world leaders to address the most pressing challenges facing humanity. He explored the need for international cooperation on issues including artificial intelligence, pandemics, terrorism, poverty and nuclear war. Cirincione, who has 45 years of experience in national security and foreign policy and is widely regarded as a leading expert on nuclear weapons policy, shared his perspective on why a revitalized United Nations remains essential to solving problems no nation can address alone.

This week at Rotary, we welcomed Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, former U.S. diplomat and Chargé d'Affaires to Cuba, for a conversation with Mary McCormick on diplomacy, the United Nations and U.S.-Cuban relations. During his 28-year Foreign Service career, Ambassador DeLaurentis focused on Western Hemisphere affairs and multilateral diplomacy. He served as the first Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana following the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba in 2014.

This week at Rotary, we heard from Lianna Bishop, Executive Director of the Zilber Family Foundation, about the Bridge Project, Milwaukee's unrestricted cash assistance program for new and expecting mothers. In 2024, Milwaukee became the first city outside New York to adopt the model. The first cohort of 122 Bridge Project mothers saw housing instability drop by two-thirds and food insecurity fall by a third. Lianna shared how a partnership of philanthropy, a national nonprofit, private donors and the City made the program possible, and what comes next as Cohort 2 grows to reach nearly 200 more moms. 608/5000