Roderick Brown, Rotaract HOC Pre-Convention Chairman

Roderick is in the director’s chair for the LA 2008 Rotaract Pre-Convention. Roderick is no stranger to Rotaract. In addition to his current title, he is also serving a second term on the Rotary International Rotaract Committee, representing the United States, Canada and Caribbean and beyond. Roderick has been heavily involved with USCC, beginning with the 2001 Washington DC Conference. As the Rotaract District Representative in 2003-2004, he played a vital role in the bidding of USCC 2006, held in Los Angeles, where he held the post of USCC Chairman. Roderick has also represented District 5280 at Rotary International Conventions in Barcelona, Brisbane, Chicago, and Salt Lake City. Roderick is just as dedicated to the club level as he is to Rotaract on an international level. At California State University, Dominguez Hills, he founded the university’s first Rotaract club, serving posts as Vice President and President. He went on to found South Bay Rotaract, also serving as the club’s President. During his senior year of high school, Roderick served as a SCANEX International Exchange student in France. Besides his involvement in Rotaract, Roderick has also attended RYLA as a counselor for the past 8 years and is a Paul Harris Fellow.

Roderick works as a Strategy & Process consultant for the Hitachi Consulting Company. During his time as a consultant and business endeavors he has built broad industry experience in the areas of customer service, training, business operations, change management, accounting, and procurement practices. His core strengths include communication, negotiation, presentation, cultural understanding, and acts in a transactional leadership manner. Roderick has a Bachelors of Science from California State University Dominguez Hills in Business Administration with a concentration in Management and Human Resources.

Valerie Sindal, Social Chair

Valerie Sindal is heading up the L.A. social scene for Rotaract. She is a triple threat as the 2008 Rotaract HOC Social Chair, 2008 USCC Rotaract Symposium Social Chair as well as the 2007-08 Rotaract District 5280 Social Chair. Valerie’s reach is international as well. This year, she is spearheading the “Rebuilding Nias Adopt A School Program” for tsunami-affected areas and has pledged to raise $20,000 with her club, West LA Rotaract and District 5280. Valerie has a long history with Rotary. As a founding member of West LA Rotaract, one of the first community-based clubs in Los Angeles, she immediately effected change. In her second year as President in 2004-2005, she led a Tsunami Relief project for the victims in Banda Aceh and Nias, Indonesia, raising over $10,000. Valerie is also a USCC veteran. As a 2004 USCC attendee in Washington, D.C., she played a pivotal role in securing the bid for District 5280 to hold the 2006 USCC Conference in Los Angeles, where she was appointed Social Chair.

Valerie is currently the Small Business Division supervisor and Executive Project Manager at The Design People, Inc., a website design studio. She has done extensive design work at UCLA, where she graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Design/Media Arts from the School of Arts and Architecture. During her 3 years at UCLA she has worked as an editorial assistant at The Getty Museum Publications, the pioneer of UCLA's Design Workshop Program in conjunction with her role as Adobe's UCLA student representative.

Megan Cotugno, Communications Director

Megan Cotugno is the star catcher as the Communications Director for LA 2008. She is the immediate Past Rotaract District Representative. During her year as DRR, she focused on leading District 5280 in the largest single project the youth have ever taken on: fundraising $21,000 for a container of wheelchairs to be sent to Costa Rica via Rotary’s partnership with the Wheelchair Foundation. In heading this effort, Megan draws on her past experience with wheelchair distributions, having traveled to Mexico 3 times in the past 6 years on wheelchair missions with her mom, a member of the Rotary club of Cupertino (D-5170). Megan has also been heavily involved with USCC, serving on the USCC 2006 and USCC 2007 planning committees. Megan has also served as a speaker and facilitator for the Salt Lake City Rotaract Pre-Convention and USCC 2007. In her home club, South Bay Rotaract, Megan led the club as President in 2005-2006, and is the current club Secretary.

Megan holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, where she met her husband, and has her graduate degree from Stanford University. Since 2003, she has worked as a survey researcher for the RAND Corporation, applying her methodological expertise to a range of topics in RAND’s research agenda, including education policy, health care, and military strategy. Outside of RAND and Rotary, Megan is an avid runner and 2 time marathoner. She was featured in The Rotarian magazine for her fundraising efforts as she ran the Chicago marathon.

Kim Low, Finance Chair

Kim Low is leading financial operations for LA 2008. Kim’s involvement with the Rotary family first began in 1997 as an Interactor at El Segundo High School. It continued throughout her four years of high school where she became Interact president her senior year. To date, she has been greatly involved with RYLA. She not only attended as a student in 2000, however, since then, she has returned as a counselor and also attended International RYLA in 2005, in Chicago. She joined the USC Rotaract Club in 2003, and later joined the South Bay Rotaract Club in 2005, which she is currently the Social Chair. Kim was the District Executive Aide for District 5280 in 2005 and also a member of the USCC 2006 planning committee. She has been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel around the world meeting international Rotaractors at Interota 2005 in Munich, Germany, and EUCO 2007, in Milan, Italy.

Kim graduated from USC in 2005 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences. Since graduation, she has been working at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as a research associate and fulfilling prerequisite courses to attend pharmacy school. One day she hopes to be working in a hospital as a pharmacist.

Tori Hettinger, Service Project Coordinator

Tori Hettinger is coordinating the Rotaract Service Project in the Hollywood Hills for LA 2008. Tori first got her feet wet in the International arena by attending USCC 2004 in Washington, DC. In 2006, she acted as the USCC Director of Conference Services and Fundraising. Tori has attended Rotary International Conventions in Chicago and Salt Lake City, where she was a speaker and facilitator at both USCC 2007 and the Rotaract Pre-Convention. In 2005, Tori attended Interota in Munich, Germany as the District Rotaract Representative. She is also active on the home front. She is serving as the current President for South Bay Rotaract. While attending UCLA, Tori served as the UCLA Rotaract President in 2004-2005. She also filled the posts of District Rotaract Secretary and Santa Monica College Rotaract Secretary. Tori has been a counselor at RYLA for the past 6 years and was also a RYLA camper while in Interact. One of her defining Rotaract moments was traveling to Costa Rica this year with her fellow club members to deliver 280 wheelchairs to the disabled.

For the past year, Tori has worked for the Rotary District 5280 Office. With a degree in Art History from UCLA, she is pursuing a career in the LA art scene. Her introduction into the art world has included studying art in France as well as interning in the Costume Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her dream is to work as a curator in a European museum, but wants to work her way up in museums in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York first.

Sergei Belokonnyi, Committee Member

Sergei Belokonnyi is a main actor on the LA 2008 set. He became involved with in Santa Monica College Rotaract in Spring 2006 and plans to remain in Rotaract until inception into Rotary. Shortly after joining SMC Rotaract, he was offered an officer position. Sergei also carried unofficial Public Relations director's functions, working to promote club among fellow students of Santa Monica College as well as on the inter-club level. Sergei is the current District Rotaract Public Relations Chair, and enjoys bringing fresh ideas and thoughts to District 5280. As a new member, to both Rotaract and the United States, Sergei is amazed at how organized and dedicated Rotary and its affiliates are in their efforts to help those in need. Coming across the very concept of helping others with no apparent benefits in return, in our ultra-competitive, individualistic society, was pleasantly stunning. Stunning and humbling at the same time. That, perhaps, was one of those moments when he re-evaluated his life goals and aspirations, adding some humane factor to them.

Sergei attends California State University, Northridge and majors in Management. While living in his native Ukraine, he majored in Computer Science and worked in the advertising field. In his spare time, Sergei likes to run, play tennis, lift weights, and read. He also likes a variety of performing arts, including ballet and musicals.

Steven Johnson, Website

Steven is the webmaster for LA 2008. In 2006, Steven was the USCC 2006 Director of Registrations and Web Development. Steven became a Manhattan Beach Rotarian at age 20. He is also on the Manhattan Beach Rotary Board and plays an active role in many Rotary functions. Steven attended the Chicago and Salt Lake City RI Conventions, and will surely stay involved in future RI programs. At age 20, Steven was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the City of Manhattan Beach and brings much volunteer experience to the table.

Steven is a young entrepreneur who started his first business, a small consumer video production company, at the age of 16. At this time, he also became the youngest member to join the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce. By the age of 18, Steven moved his company to Raleigh Studios and made the transition to Corporate Video. Today, Steven is enrolled part time at Loyola Marymount University, where he is pursuing a degree in Business Administration.