Speakers
| Speaker | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Coach Laura Beeman | Oct 13, 2022 12:00 PM |
Title IX and Womens' Sports
 For over 25 years, Laura Beeman has been a standard-bearer in the profession of women’s basketball, leading by example on and off the court while winning championships and helping young ladies full fill their dreams of earning a college education. In the past 10 years, she has upheld her standard at the helm of the University of Hawai‘i, bringing the program back to prominence. Most recently, putting the program in the national spotlight and one to keep an eye on.
In 2016 she led the Rainbow Wahine to its first conference tournament title in 20 years, earning a spot in the NCAA Championship tournament. She did it again in 2022 but made history by coaching the first team in program history to win both the Big West Conference regular-season and conference tournament championship. The 2021-22 campaign was one for the record books for UH as Beeman won her second conference coach of the year honor at UH, and saw its first-ever conference player of the year winner in Amy Atwell. Later, Atwell became only the second player ever from the program to be drafted to the WNBA as she was selected 27th overall by the Los Angeles Sparks.
In her 25 years of roaming the sidelines, Beeman has accumulated over 550 wins, including over 160 at UH. She has been inducted into two Hall of Fames for her contributions to the game and has been named “Coach of the Year” six times while serving as the head coach at two programs. At UH, she has coached 22 All-Big West selections and led the ‘Bows to a total of five national post-season selections.
A native of Bernardino, California, Beeman has a bachelor’s degree in business from CS San Bernardino University, along with two master’s in education, one being from the University of the Redlands in Counseling, the other in Physical Education from Azusa Pacific.
Reminder: This hybrid meeting will be held at Assagioʻs Restaurant >> Reserve and pay for your meal (Assagioʻs Restaurant) >> Univeristy of Hawaii Womens Basektball schedule 2022-2023 |
| Title IX Series: Judge Sabrina McKenna | Oct 20, 2022 11:50 AM |
How Title IX Shaped My Life
 As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in public schools and universities, the Ala Moana Rotary Club is proud to host a speaker series on this all-important law. Our first speaker is Judge Sabrina McKenna, who was one of the first beneficiaries of Title IX. As a member of the University of Hawaii Wahine Basketball team, her scholarship ensured her education and opened her eyes to a career in law. She graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1978 and from the William S. Richardson School of Law (WSRSL) in 1982. She then worked as an associate at Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel, as Corporate Secretary and General Counsel to Otaka, Inc. (a Japan-based international business organization), as an Instructor in Business Law at UHM’s Shidler College of Business, and as an Assistant Professor at the WSRSL. She became a state District Court judge in 1993, then a Circuit Court judge in 1995, presiding over criminal, domestic violence, and civil cases, and served as Senior Judge of the Family Court on Oʻahu until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2011. Justice McKenna is a Judicial Advisory Board member of the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School's Law & Economics Center Judicial Education Program and lectures throughout the world on various topics. Her honors include the American Bar Association Stonewall Award, the National Asian Pacific Bar Association Daniel K. Inouye Trailblazer Award, designation as an Association of Corporate Counsel Foundation Global Women in Law & Leadership Honoree, designation by the Jindal Global Law School (Delhi) as an Eminent Jurist and Honorary Adjunct Faculty Member, the Hawaii Women Lawyers Outstanding Judicial Achievement Award, and the University of Hawaiʻi Distinguished Alumnus Award. She is a mother of three adult children. She enjoys karaoke, walking for exercise, travel, and hanging out with her children and friends. >> More about Title IX |
| Shellilyn Marie | Nov 10, 2022 11:45 AM |
Helping Abandoned Children
 Even after having to be stitched from rape at seven years old, no one batted an eye about the neglect and torture in our home extending over 14 years. I still have memories of hogties, fist fights, belt lashes, beatings, burns, extension cords whips, sexual abuse, trafficking and more, at the very hands of our such loving foster parents. From birth to 18 years, as a biracial child, I was raised in an all-white foster home with more than 170 children that were abused and beaten. I have finally been able to learn to overcome the PTSD it has caused and write my story with the creativity possible to share these experiences, influence others by my testimony, and describe how this suffering has transformed my life to understanding love. I have been firsthand witness to some of the perversion by our governmental agencies, police, and the abuse by people in power; this is a huge problem that extends on every level of government. These experiences have sparked a deep passion to help support other children that have been victim to trafficking. I put myself through college and worked in healthcare management before I decided to start managing my own dreams, which then led to the registration of my non-profit organization: L.I.F.E.H.O.U.S.E. Our work includes the removal and placement of children, aftercare of children, and development of life skill programs and educational resources for the children we serve. We have worked with courts, police, other safe houses, even coming face to face to pimps to confront, protect, help rescue girls from their grasps. In April, 2020, “Learning to Love” was also published to help raise funding for our organization. This autobiographical novel shares these experiences and my journey to find self-love, sanity, hope, and life, while also exposing the corruption of the government systems of child welfare and trafficking. Reminder: This hybrid meeting will be held at Assagioʻs Restaurant >> Reserve and pay for your meal (Assagioʻs Restaurant) |