Events

Faithful Paws Pet Therapy is a nonprofit, volunteer-run and organized group of certified therapy pet teams serving the Greater Houston area. They provide training, AKC Canine Good Citizen testing, support, and insurance for members who volunteer with their dogs, cats and rabbits in animal assisted activities.

Founded in 1997 by Connie Richards, they connect certified therapy pets with individuals in schools, hospitals, senior living communities, and other facilities that request our services.

Their mission is to bring unconditional love to people they visit through the healing power of pets.

Morning meeting at Picos

Olivia Brady was one of the West University Rotary Club's Youth exchange students for the this past year. She'll present to the RAH group.

Join the University of Houston chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UH) as we share our international humanitarian engineering efforts. We will present Project PURE, our ongoing clean water distribution initiative in rural Guatemala, and introduce plans for a new water sanitation project in Ecuador aimed at improving community health outcomes. In addition, we’ll discuss the mission of EWB-UH on campus, how we engage students in impactful nonprofit engineering work, and how financial support can help us grow our alumni network and strengthen long-term partnerships between UH and communities in need.

Shawn Schulze was named as Regional Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Gulf Coast Region in January 2024. Prior to this appointment, Shawn was the Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Region. Initially, Shawn joined the American Red Cross in 2018 as the Regional Chief Operating Officer for the Colorado and Wyoming Region and has served in interim roles as Executive Director for Southeastern Colorado as well as the Colorado and Wyoming Service to the Armed Forces and International Service Director.

Madison Lawrence is Regional Planning and Situational Awareness Manager.  She is responsible for the program delivery, capacity building and readiness for preparedness, damage assessment, planning and FSI.  As well, she helps to identify leadership and leads instructor training, engagement and development for preparedness and planning activities.  Madison directly oversees and leads local volunteers in various preparedness and planning activities.

Tommy Britt is a board member of Big Bend Conservancy. He received a degree in criminal justice from San Houston State. He was a policeman with the Houston Police Department for 35 years and was a sergeant. He was in the gang task force and was president of the Houston Police Petroleum’s Union for 16 years. Big Bend Conservancy is governed by a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors that reside across Texas.  The Board decides the organization's priorities for funding, projects and partnerships in collaboration with park staff. This diverse group has collectively served on multiple boards across the state, have visited the park for decades and bring a determined focus to creating a legacy of fundraising for Big Bend.

Michael Hart began photographing at age eight and completed his first paid assignment at 14. Since the late 1970s he has run a commercial photography business in Houston, traveling worldwide for corporate, design, and advertising clients, while now focusing primarily on personal work that highlights design, composition, light, and space. His book Biggio: The Final Game is in the Baseball Hall of Fame library, with an image in the MFAH’s Sonia and Kaye Marvins Portrait Collection. His photography has earned recognition through exhibitions and awards from the Allegany National Photography Competition, SE Center for Photography, Texas Photographic Society, Visual Arts Alliance, the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, A. Smith Gallery, and APA Los Angeles’ Off The Clock (2025).

Representative Ann Johnson is a former Chief Human Trafficking Prosecutor, current teacher,
and small business owner who works as an attorney in our criminal justice system for victims of
sexual exploitation and those who cannot afford a lawyer. Ann Johnson is a Houston native
elected to serve as State Representative for Texas House District 134 in 2020, and re-elected in
2022 and 2024. During the 89th legislative session, she serves on pivotal House Committees,
including as the Vice Chair of Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, Calendars, Public Health, and
the Subcommittee on Disease Prevention & Women’s & Children’s Health. Ann has successfully
cut through the gridlock in Texas to pass legislation to provide life-saving healthcare, address
public safety, reform our criminal justice system, and increase access to mental health
resources for our most vulnerable.

Have you ever looked at abstract art, scratched your head, and felt utterly confused? As an
artist, Mallory Agerton will share ideas on how to understand abstract art and enjoy it. In addition, she will talk
about a few of her paintings, and will bring some special tools that she uses to apply paint.

Ms. Agerton is a Signature Member of the National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS); and an Associate Member, Oil Painters of America, (OPA). Her works have won numerous awards, including the Best Painting Award--NOAPS Best of America national juried exhibition, Signature & Masters Division, Principle Gallery, Charleston, SC, in 2023.  She was the featured artist in Southwest Art magazine, April/May 2022, and exhibits her work at the Ella Walton Richardson Fine Art gallery in Charleston, SC, and the Foltz Fine Art gallery, Houston, TX (Realist landscapes only).  Her educational accomplishments include being a Graduate of Creative Visionary Program (CVP) with Nicholas Wilton and Faculty, 2024; completing the Abstract Painting Workshops with Jenny Nelson and Larry Moore; being a Graduate of The Landscape Atelier, 2015; completing Post-Graduate studies at the Art Students League, New York, NY: 1976-1978; and receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas, Austin: BA in 1976 where she was a member of the Friar Society.

Reginald DesRoches is Rice University’s eighth president. He also serves as a professor of civil
and environmental engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering. As president,
DesRoches is the chief executive officer of the university and its 8,800 plus students, eight
schools and more than 900 faculty. He previously served as Rice's Howard Hughes Provost and
William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering. Before his appointment at Rice, DesRoches
served as chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
DesRoches’ top priorities are to position Rice as the world’s premier university for both
teaching and research and to enable the university to reach a new level of distinction nationally
and internationally for world-class teaching, impactful research, award-winning scholarship and
insightful creative work.

He is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, Philosophical Society of Texas, and is a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and the Structural Engineering Institute. DesRoches is also a
Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the Academy of
Distinguished Alumni in Civil Engineering at his alma mater Berkeley and was named an
honorary alumnus of Georgia Tech.

DesRoches was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and grew up in Queens, New York. He earned his
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a
Doctorate in Structural Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

DesRoches is married to Paula DesRoches, a highly accomplished healthcare professional, nurse
practitioner and administrator recognized for her leadership in occupational health. Paula is also
a university associate at Rice. The couple has three children, Andrew, Jacob and Shelby, who
graduated from Rice in 2023.

DEMYSTIFYING PROBATE: Judge Simoneaux, the presiding judge of Harris County Probate Court #1 will the explain the probate process, address some misconceptions, and introduce the club to one of the most powerful courts Rotarians might not know about — the highly specialized Probate Courts—of which there are only 25 in 12 of Texas’s most populous counties.

I’m Courtney Boudreaux, Advancement Director at Blood Cancer United, where I lead strategic fundraising initiatives and work closely with donors to ensure their contributions directly support our mission. With seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector, I specialize in building meaningful relationships and translating generosity into measurable impact.

Blood Cancer United is the world’s largest nonprofit health organization dedicated to creating a world without blood cancer. Since 1949, it has funded lifesaving research, provided free support services, and advocated for patients and families affected by leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood cancers.

As a Houston native and cancer survivor, my work is deeply personal. I bring both professional expertise and lived experience to the fight against blood cancer, advocating for hope, healing, and progress. Outside of my role, I’m a proud wife and mother, and I remain committed to serving my community with purpose and heart.