Events

 Join us as Dr. Sandra Dackow presents an update on The Hershey Symphony Orchestra and a look at the impact Covid-19 is having on arts organizations and arts education.

Photographing History for Preservation 

Professional photographer Doug Nicotera will present an overview of the National Park Service’s Heritage Documentation Program and take you on a journey to several national historical landmarks to demonstrate how he photographs history for the government’s oldest preservation program.

Former Hershey Rotarian Pato Silveyra will share how Rotary helped her to become a Scientific Leader.

Patricia (Pato) Silveyra is currently at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Associate professor and Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar, Dr. Patricia Silveyra was appointed director of the Biobehavioral Lab.

Silveyra joined the SON from Penn State University, where she started her career as basic and translational science researcher. Silveyra received her Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by a Rotary postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State College of Medicine. In 2013, she took a research faculty position as Assistant Professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Penn State University, where she was a scholar of their Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers on Women’s Health (BIRCWH) NIH K12 program. In 2018, she was promoted to Associate professor of Pediatrics at Penn State, where she maintains a position as adjunct faculty.

Silveyra serves on a number of national boards and committees, including the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD), and the recently formed “New Voices” program of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). She is also a member of several professional organizations including the American Thoracic Society, The American Physiological Society, and the Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Oya Dursun-Özkanca (University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D.) is the Endowed Chair of International Studies and Professor of Political Science at Elizabethtown College, USA. Her research interests include Turkish foreign policy, transatlantic security, European Union, South East Europe, and peace operations. She is the author of a new book, Turkey–West Relations: The Politics of Intra-alliance Opposition, published by Cambridge University Press in November 2019. She is also the editor of two books – The European Union as an Actor in Security Sector Reform (Routledge, 2014) and External Interventions in Civil Wars (co-edited with Stefan Wolff, Routledge, 2014) as well as a number of scholarly articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Civil Wars, European Security, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, French Politics, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. She served as a Visiting Fellow of Research on South Eastern Europe (LSEE) at London School of Economics (LSE) in 2013, and received grants and fellowships from Georgetown University, the London School of Economics, the European Commission (multiple grants), the University of Texas at Austin (multiple fellowships), Deutscher Academischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the European Union Studies Association, and the Elizabethtown College (multiple grants). She is the inaugural recipient of the Kreider Prize for Teaching Excellence at Elizabethtown College (2015), and the recipient of the Richard Crocker Outstanding Service to Students Award (2018, 2020).

The Trump Presidency:  The Politics of a divided America 

 At Franklin and Marshall College, Dr. Madonna is Director of the
Center for Politics and Public Affairs, Professor of Public Affairs, and
Director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. He joined F&M
in May 2004.
 For more than 30 years, Madonna has taught and written about his
two academic specialties: the American presidency, and American
political parties and political behavior. As a pollster in recent years,
he has written extensively about voters and voting behavior. He holds
a Ph.D. in political history from the University of Delaware.
 Before joining the faculty at Franklin and Marshall, Dr. Madonna was
Professor and Chair of the Government Department and headed the
Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Millersville University.
 Director and Adjunct Professor, University of Pennsylvania’s
Harrisburg-based evening division, Master of Governmental
Administration Program, 1980-1986. He administered the evening
division graduate program of approximately 125 graduate students
pursuing advanced degrees in government.
 Madonna founded the Keystone Poll in 1992, the oldest survey
produced exclusively in Pennsylvania. In 2008, the Keystone Poll
was renamed the Franklin and Marshall College Poll. In this
capacity, he is the pollster for the Philadelphia Daily News, Times-
Shamrock Newspapers, WPVI-ABC6 (Philadelphia), WGAL-TV
(Lancaster), Harrisburg Patriot News/Pennlive, LNP, The Pittsburgh
Tribune Review, WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh), and The Reading Eagle -
media partners for the poll. He has also polled for KYW-TV

(Philadelphia), Fox, 29-TV (Philadelphia), CN8-The Comcast

Network, WITF-TV (Harrisburg).
 In 2008, Franklin and Marshall College began a partnership with
Hearst TV to conduct national polls. Hearst owns 26 television
stations, manages two others, and owns two radio stations. Madonna
directs the poll.
 He is also the host of Pennsylvania Newsmakers, a weekly statewide
news and commentary program. He co-writes (with Michael Young)
a bi-weekly political commentary column, “Politically Uncorrected,”
originally for Capitolwire.com and later for Politicspa.com, the state’s
leading political website. The column appears in many state and
national newspapers and frequently appears on two national websites:
stateline.org and realclearpolitics.com.
 He is a regular analyst for WGAL-TV (Lancaster/Harrisburg).
Madonna is a regular panelist on WPVI’s-TV (Philadelphia)
commentary program, Inside Story. He is a frequent guest on many
talk radio programs throughout the state and nation. He has also
provided election coverage for WHYY-TV, public television in
Philadelphia, WPVI-TV (Philadelphia), The Pennsylvania Cable
Network, and WITF-TV. Madonna was also a regular panelist on The
Peoples’ Business, a weekly news and commentary show broadcast
throughout Pennsylvania on public television during the 1990’s.
 A frequent political analyst and public affair's commentator,
Madonna has also provided analysis to the New York Times, the
Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal,
U.S.A.Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, the
Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the Christian Science Monitor, National
Public Radio, CNN, ABC News and CBS News, to name a few.
Madonna has appeared on CNN's Inside Politics, CBS News, ABC
News, C-Span, Fox News, MSNBC and NBC News. He has also
contributed to political web sites for MSNBC, the Hill Newspaper,
RealClearPolitics, Stateline, and Fox News.

John was encouraged to join rotary by a very special and long time member of the Longwood Rotary Club, Ethel Ann Murphy, his Mom.

Born in Philadelphia, John grew up in northern Delaware and Southern Chester County.   Having met his wife while attending Shippensburg University, and having lived in Norristown for the first 2 years of their marriage, John and Karen moved to Karen's hometown of Mechanicsburg, PA where they continue reside.
 
John has been in the mortgage lending industry for most of his career.  In his current role as manager at Fairway Independent Mortgage, he leads a team of over 20 professionals in multiple offices across the region.
 
In addition to being an active member since 2007 and having served as President of the Rotary Club of Mechanicsburg North in 2017/18, John has been involved in leadership in a number of organizations throughout the years. He served as President of The Pennsylvania Association of Mortgage Brokers from whom he was awarded Broker of the Year in 2003, as President of The Mechanicsburg Chamber of Commerce, as President of The Downtown Mechanicsburg Partnership, as a Director of the Mechanicsburg Area School District Board of Directors, as a Board Member of Leadership Cumberland, in the leadership line for Eureka West Shore Masonic Lodge, Leadership involvement in the Boy Scouts New Birth of Freedom (He was awarded his Eagle Scout with a Bronze Palm in 1978) and currently serves as a Councilman on the Mechanicsburg Borough Council. 
 
John has been a long-time volunteer for Junior Achievement, serves on the Mechanicsburg Area Foundation and has created and taught classes for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and PA Department of Banking.
 
John and Karen who have been married for over 30 years, have two children, Jonathan and Maggie who are both pursuing their respective post graduate dreams.