SPEAKERS
Kathryn Sullivan
Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions, she was the first American woman to walk in space on October 11, 1984. On June 7, 2020, she became the first woman to dive to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's oceans. She was Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 6, 2014. Following completion of her service at NOAA, she was designated as the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Among her many accomplishments, Kathy also served as President and CEO of COSI Columbus. Kathryn is author of Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention and To the Stars!: The First American Woman to Walk in Space (children)
Ela
Pandya
Ela Pandya is a healthcare administrator by profession. Her strong desire to work towards gender equality and improving the status of the invisible women on the streets of India remained unfulfilled, when her life changed suddenly, due to her arranged marriage, at age 23, to a general surgeon in NYC. The idiom, "when there is a will, there is a way" came true for her when she was asked to join Zonta Club of Porterville (even graciously allowed to bring her 9 and 6 year old kids to program meetings), in 1994. She has served in various capacities in Zonta; as a Director, a Club President, an Area Director, as D9 Nominating Committee member 2018-2020, and as D9 UN Chair since 2016. She served on Zonta International Advocacy Committee in 2018-2020 and continues to do so in this biennium. She has been the Co-Convener of the Zonta USA Caucus since 2018.
Donna Pollard
Donna successfully advocated for improved legislation in her home state of Kentucky to put an end to child marriage through parental consent and continues to advocate for this protective change both nationally and internationally. She most recently traveled to Finland as the keynote speaker for the Zonta International Centennial Conference shedding light on the devastating implications of child marriage and critically needed global reform.
As a survivor herself, Donna founded Survivors’ Corner, a nonprofit that empowers those ready to share their survival experiences with the goal of breaking abusive cycles. Her journey through the trauma of child marriage and exploitation can be accessed through the A&E Documentary, "I Was a Child
Bride". Donna has been interviewed by Fox News, US News and World Report, PBS, CBS News, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and several well known magazines and newspapers.
She has given numerous keynote speeches as well as testimony before legislative committees.
Katherine
Cleland
Katherine Cleland is past Chair of the Zonta International Public Relations and Communications committee, and member of Zonta USA Caucus, leading work on the Equal Rights Amendment and the StopChildMarriages PSA campaign. She currently serves as Advocacy Chair for Zonta District 8, and is a member of the Zonta Club of Everett, WA. She also serves as the Public Policy Chair for AAUW-Seattle.
Katherine owns and operates Cleland Marketing, a strategic and digital marketing consulting firm helping non-profits and small businesses thrive. She is a marketing specialist for Small Business Development Centers, where she especially loves working with women and minority owned start-ups to get traction and funding. She is also a trainer in digital marketing and communications for 501Commons, helping Washington state non-profits increase their skills.
She lives in Seattle with her husband, Todd, and is raising two delightful and challenging rescue dogs.
Megan
Fischer
Megan Fischer, CEO & Founder of Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank/Tidal Babe Period Bank,
started Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank in 2015 after learning diapers weren’t covered under any government assistance programs. She has grown the organization into one of the largest basic needs banks in the country, and with a team of 4 staff and hundreds of volunteers, distributes more than 2.2 million diapers and 550,000 period products annually from a 16,000 sq ft facility in Cincinnati. Megan is a Miami ’08 alumnae with degrees in Journalism and Creative Writing, and worked in higher-ed publishing before leaving the corporate world to run her nonprofit full-time. She currently serves on the board of Cincinnati-based Leadership Council for Nonprofits. Megan is also a graduate of BOLD (Board Orientation & Leadership Development) Class 3 and a member of C-Change Class 15.
