Programs


​Sonoma County Forum offers an exciting array of speakers including leaders in business, education, health care, the arts, and local government. Our speakers provide an excellent way to gain knowledge of the community and learn about its vast resources. Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 8am at the Epicenter, off of Piner Road, west of Coffey Lane in Santa Rosa.
Scroll below for information about upcoming 2024 speakers.
For biographies of past speakers, by year, click here.

Upcoming Speakers

October 3, 2024
Leslie Lukacs, Executive Director, Zero Waste Sonoma
element_settings.Image+Text_94464494.defaultLeslie Lukacs
Join Leslie Lukacs, Executive Director of Zero Waste Sonoma, as she shares the agency’s pioneering efforts in managing resources through zero waste practices. Learn about innovative strategies that divert materials Sonoma County’s landfill while maximizing reuse, recycling, and composting. Discover how these practices contribute to climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration and gain insights into local material recovery and management programs. Leslie will highlight practical solutions implemented by Zero Waste Sonoma to protect natural resources and engage the community, all with the shared goal of creating a thriving, sustainable region free of waste. Leslie has served as Executive Director of Zero Waste Sonoma, a regional government Agency, for the past 5 years.  With over 20 years of experience in the solid waste and resource management industry, Leslie has a distinguished career marked by her leadership and innovation.
October 17, 2024
Author Caroline Paul, "How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age"
element_settings.Image+Text_94464494.defaultCaroline Paul
New York Times bestselling author Caroline Paul's latest book "Tough Broad" encourages women to remain adventurous as they age. Caroline has always filled her life with adventure: From mountain biking in the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent, mid-blizzard, on Denali, she has never been a stranger to the exhilaration the outdoors can hold. Yet through it all, she has long wondered - -why aren't women, like men, encouraged to keep adventuring into old age? This is the premise of “Tough Broad”.  In an article she wrote about her mother taking up cycling in her 60s, Paul said, "Most older women don’t join bike groups. Instead, we begin to pull back on physical activities, risk taking or novel pursuits. Too dangerous for our failing body and mind, we are told in ways both subliminal and overt, and we believe it.  In my quest to understand healthy aging. I met a 93-year-old hiker, a 74-year-old BMX biker, an 80-year-old scuba diver and a slew of boogie boarders in their 60s, 70s and 80s. I walked on the wing of a plane at 3,000 feet in the air. But I also went bird-watching. Adventure, it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder and can be had by almost all of us, despite physical restrictions, financial constraints or limited backcountry know-how."  Come and meet Caroline and be inspired by this remarkable woman.
​
November 7, 2024
Understanding Artificial Intelligence
element_settings.Image+Text_94464494.defaultPaul Hollingworth
Artificial Intelligence (AI)  is much in the news, but what is it really? And what isn't it? Where did it suddenly come from? How does it do what it does? What does it mean for the future - what's the promise of it, and the threat. Paul studied physics at Durham University in the UK. He went back to do a master's in microelectronics, where he met his wife Jenny in 1986. He has worked for companies in the microchip business since then in fields ranging from design, software, marketing and general management. He has worked for the last 11 years for a company in SoCal, started by a friend and with only 13 people when Paul joined in 2013. The company is now a public company that employs nearly 1,000 people globally and develops microchips for the Automotive industry, helping to add automation and to make cars "essentially uncrashable".

2024 Program Schedule
Speaker 
Jan. 4
​Maraskeshia Smith, City Manager, City of Santa Rosa ​
Jan. 18
Dr. Angélica Garcia, Superintendent/President, Santa Rosa Junior College
Feb.1
Sarah Tendall, Roseland University Prep Mentor Program
Feb. 15
Wendy Davies, Treasure House
March 7
Max Shupe, Associate Head Coach, Healdsburg Prune Packers
March 21
Argo Thompson, The California Theatre
April 4
Jeff and  Susan Mall, Volo Chocolate
April 18
Carol Ellis and Kelli Cox, Sonoma County Beekeepers
May 2
Jeannie Perales, Sonoma Botanical Garden
May 16
Elita Damron, The Miss America Organization
June 6
Angel Minor, Conservation Corps of the North Bay
June 20
Dr. Brien Seeley, "Effective Climate Action Demands Ending Wildfires"
July 4
No meeting: Happy 4th of July!
July 18
Meghan Langhals and Iris Romero, Anova School and Autism
August 1
Transcendence Theatre Company
August 15
Marika Ramsden, Fire Safe Sonoma
Sept. 5
Andrew Bradford, Santa Rosa Symphony
Sept. 19
Carla Rodriguez, Sonoma County District Attorney
Oct. 3
Leslie Lukacs, Zero Waste Sonoma
Oct. 17
Caroline Paul, New York Times-bestselling author of "Tough Broad: How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age"
Nov. 7
Paul Hollingworth, Understanding AI
Nov. 21
Lauren Hibdon, Family Services Manager, Alzheimer's Association
Dec. 5
Julie Johnson and  Merher Karvarah Siegle, Sonoma County Library
Dec. 19
Holiday Party (members only)
Sonoma  County  Forum
PO Box 4193
Santa Rosa, CA 95402