Shadi Mokhtari is Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University. She specializes in human rights, Middle East Politics, and Political Islam. She talked mostly about the creation of Israel and the resulting victim status of the Palestinians. Prior to WW2 Palestine was made up of mostly small farms. As a result of the 1948 war, Israel was created and Palestinian farmers were displaced. Israel was attacked in ’67 and ’73 and occupied Gaza and the West Bank. Professor Mokhtari said that Americans view Israel’s security concerns and she sees the human rights concerns of the Palestinians. In the absence of a two state solution, Israel keeps expanding with new settlements and building more walls which separate Palestine into unconnected partitions thus violating their human rights.

The N Bethesda and Chevy Chase Rotary Clubs in partnership with Cornerstone Montgomery and Barwood Taxi have supported a taxi service for persons with disabilities to travel to work, through a Rotary District 7620 grant. This program, which became active in October 2014, has helped a total of 12 Cornerstone Montgomery clients become newly employed, 4 employed clients with travel safety issues get to work safely and 17 clients get to job fairs or interviews to date. The program has received local and Pennsylvania media attention and requests for presentations at PA Rotary Clubs and the National Conference on Ending Poverty in Washington, DC. We need additional Corporate and Montgomery County funding support before the District Rotary grant runs out in July 2015.

Bruce Quinn is Rockwell Automation’s senior executive in Washington, DC, responsible for Government affairs, communication and strategic business development at the state, federal and global levels.  Bruce is  a registered lobbyist.  Rockwell is a leader in products and services in automated manufacturing applications.  Bruce’s office monitors Congressional legislation and competitor offerings; advises Rockwell management on Corporate social responsibilities and partnerships with other companies and universities.  After bilgeing the first semester of college, Bruce joined  the Army and became  a medic master sergeant eventually delivering babies in Nicaragua.  Quinn speaks Mandarin Chinese and Spanish and has a bachelor’s and Masters degrees in business and education.