Sonoma Speaker Series

We are pleased to say that The Sonoma Speaker Series has hit its stride! We have been selling out every event, and usually have a waiting list. Our e-blasts now go out to approximately 5,000 people, and the guests come from Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties.We continue to develop our Board of Directors, and added three new members in 2024. One of those is Dr. David McCuan, Chair of the Political Science Department at Sonoma State University. David is now taking on the role of on-stage interviewer for some of our more political speakers. In addition to McCuan, we also added Ken Wayne. Ken spent the last 32 years at KTVU and KRON 4 TV, working his way up to becoming the main anchor for the evening news. He's interviewed countless political leaders, entertainers, and other news makers, and now conducts interviews for our organization. And lastly, Liz Jenks has joined our Board. Liz built a thriving business, leading a team of 1,000 independent consultants who generated over $4 million in product sales annually. She has also conducted speaking engagements at women's conferences educating women on conscious consumerism.All of our 2024 speakers were top-notch. We started with Anthony Ray Hinton, who survived 30 years on Alabama's death row for a crime he didn't commit, then hosted Marie Yovanovitch, former US Ambassador to Ukraine. In April, NFL player Fred Warner took the stage, captain of our beloved San Francisco 49ers. He was followed by Andrew Yang, founder of the Forward Party, who ran for President of the United States in 2020. Dr. Adam Gazzaley taught us how the brain works and how to avoid getting distracted. Then Carl Bernstein, co-author of All the President's Men, shared how he and Bob Woodward broke the Watergate story in the Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. We rounded out the year with Ana Homayoun, author, academic advisor, and career development expert specializing in teens and tweens.Our audiences love the events, our volunteers are well-trained and happy in their jobs, our board members are engaged, and each play a pivotal role in the program's success...and as a Speaker Series, we are trending upward as we continue to attract more well-known and accomplished speakers!