William T. Harris
President & CEO, Space Center Houston
Manned Space Flight Education Foundation

On October 23rd join us to hear directly about how Space Center Houston inspires Innovation and Service.

William T. Harris oversees the strategic direction of the space exploration learning destination, Space Center Houston. With approximately 450 employees and contractors, Space Center Houston is the No. 1 international attraction in the greater Houston area, generating a $118.7 million annual economic impact. The center is a nonprofit, Smithsonian Affiliate, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, and was named "Best Museum in Texas" by USA Today.

Joining the foundation and center in April 2016, Harris has more than 37 years in nonprofit leadership including senior positions at museums and universities, where he led numerous multimillion-dollar fundraising campaigns, principal and major gifts, marketing, communications, government relations and strategy development. In March 2023, Harris was appointed by President Biden to the National Museum and Library Sciences Board where he will advance, empower and shape policy for America's museums, libraries and related organizations.

He serves as the chair of the board of directors and executive committee of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). He is also a member of the board of directors and chair of the grants committee for the QueensCare Charitable Foundation, is a member of the board of directors for the Greater Houston Partnership and serves as board vice president of the Association of Science Museum Directors (ASMD).

Space Center Houston's shared purpose is to bring people and space closer together. Over 1.1 million visitors and more than 250,000 students and educators visit each year to connect with the significance of space exploration to pursue a path in STEM or follow along as incredible feats of human spaceflight continue to make new discoveries. Space Center Houston is owned by the Manned Space Flight Education 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and generates an annual $118M economic impact to the Greater Houston area. Space Center Houston is a Smithsonian Affiliate, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center and a Certified Autism Center. Learn more at spacecenter.org.

Celebrating Service Above Self in the Next Generation

Join the Rotary Club of Houston and District 5890 Governor Tom Kelchner as we highlight five impactful youth service programs that demonstrate the Rotary motto — Service Above Self — in action:

• Interact
• Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE)
• Camp Enterprise
• Rodeo Calf Scramble
• Burnett-Bayland Committee

This special program will include the installation of officers from the RCoH-sponsored Interact Club at Houston Academy of International Studies (HAIS). Incoming 2025–26 Interact President Flor Castro will share their club’s plans and activities for the coming year.

As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program, meet our 2025–26 inbound student, Kritsawat “Bombay” Sangsook from Northern Thailand, who will give a presentation on his home country.

Since 1986, RCoH has inspired high school juniors through Camp Enterprise, an immersive weekend in business and leadership development. Learn about the 2026 Camp at Camp Allen, now accepting student applications and volunteer planners! Learn how you can volunteer at the Camp and make a lasting impression on a student. 

Hear firsthand from a past Rodeo Houston Calf Scramble participant about this life-changing scholarship opportunity proudly sponsored by the Rotary Club of Houston.

And discover the legacy of BBRC, Rotary’s oldest continuously operating committee (est. 1919), which partners with the Harris County At-Promise Youth  to provide career & life-prep programs — including robotics, entrepreneurship, meditation, and financial literacy.

Come learn how you can be part of shaping the future for Houston’s youth — and the world.

Story Practicum – Unearthing You

This Story Practicum invites attendees to "hold and show their stories" through practices and tools of presence, inner listening, and story shaping. Nothing holds a person in its palms like stories; nothing shapes them like stories’ fingertips.

The Youth learn to:

Hold their stories with compassion and awareness

Listen to their inner narratives with curiosity

Shape those narratives into forms that empower healing and growth

Led by Fulbright Specialist and Anthropologist Marlon F. Hall, this practicum is an embodied, story-centered experience designed to help students not only survive—but *thrive.* Through guided reflection, film, and embodied exercises, participants become both storytellers and story-listeners of their own lives. The aim is for students to unearth who they are, deconstruct what they do, and remember why they must succeed—using the ancient technology of story as both mirror and map.

15-30 youth are expected to attend

9:30-10:00 AM-  Setup

10:00- 11:30- Workshop

11:30-12:00- Lunch

A criminal background check is required.

Please contact: Mercedes Agodio BBRC Chair 2025-2026

Join us for fun and fellowship at our monthly RCoH After Hours social event.

This is the evening before Bombay turns the big 17.  You may even get a slice of cake.

The Veterans Committee of the Rotary Club of Houston invites you to participate in the “Veterans Day Celebration: Honoring All Who Served Our Country” at the Cloudbreak “Veterans” Community.  Our Rotary Club will provide food, beverages, games, and fellowship to our veterans who currently reside at Cloudbreak.  Come out and celebrate the military service that these men and women provided to our great country.   Space is limited—so please register on-line.

The Cloudbreak Community is one of several active developments that provides supportive housing for homeless and at-risk veterans in nine cities across five states.  Owned and operated by Cantwell-Anderson, Inc., the Cloudbreak Community in Houston—originally a Days Inn Hotel—has housed nearly 3,000 veterans in transitional and long-term housing since 2003.  The mission at Cloudbreak is to assist “each veteran to overcome life’s obstacles and attain his or her potential through mutuality, dignity and respect for all.” 

Join Team Rotary Club of Houston / Lombardi Award to give cancer the boot!

President Joel Levine (832-641-1859) will be leading the event on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. 

MD Anderson's Boot Walk to End Cancer is a 1.2-mile walk in the Texas Medical Center — or in your own neighborhood. This 10th annual fundraiser provides support for patient programs, research, prevention and education at MD Anderson, and 100% of funds raised by participants directly advance MD Anderson's mission to end cancer.

There is no registration fee and no minimum fundraising requirement.  When you register for Boot Walk, you will receive free online and mobile fundraising tools, as well as staff support to help you raise funds and awareness among your friends, families and communities.

On Saturday, November 15th, put on your favorite pair of boots - cowboy, rain, combat or other (sneakers) - and join thousands across the country for this year's Boot Walk.  All ages are welcome to participate.  There is fun for the entire family!

Together we can give cancer the boot!

Become part of Team Rotary Club of Houston / Lombardi Award

Donate to Team Rotary Club of Houston / Lombardi Award

Timeline:

• Registration Opens: 8:00 a.m.

• Opening Ceremony: 8:45 a.m.

• Walk Start: 9:00 a.m.

• Celebration:  9:20 a.m.

Free Event Day Parking:

Fannin South Transit Center / 1604 West Bellfort Avenue, Houston Texas 77054

Free METRORail ride to and from Registration

Truth or Consequences-To vaccinate or not

Paul Klotman, M.D., FACP
Baylor College of Medicine
President & CEO

Since September 1, 2010 I have had the privilege of serving as President and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine, one of the world’s leading health science universities.

My position as the leader of Baylor College of Medicine has highlighted to me the need for radical change in academic medicine. Through the application of scientific principles across all areas of the College, we are creating new models for how we manage and operate the College; deliver care focused on value and on the individual; and conduct research. As we develop these new models we are changing the way we educate the next generation so that they will be prepared, not only to work with new approaches, but to continue to evolve our models for changing times. We are redefining academic medicine.

In the laboratory my work has blended both basic and clinical research in molecular virology and AIDS pathogenesis. I have mentored over 50 clinical fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and students in my laboratory, most of whom are now independently funded, including four who currently serve as chairs of medicine and four others who lead major institutes or centers. Among other achievements, the work in my laboratory, led to development of the first small animal model of HIV-associated nephropathy using transgenic techniques.

Throughout my career, enhancing medical education has been a driving force. As Chairman of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine I led a redesign of the residency program that helped make it one of the top internal medicine programs in the country. At Baylor, I am working with the leadership of all four schools to strengthen and expand medical and scientific education from kindergarten through post-graduate training.

Ultimately the goal of all we are doing at Baylor is to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Houston and the world. Achieving this requires engagement in the world outside academia to shape and encourage adoption of new policies. Toward this end, I work with our local and national governments as well as Baylor’s affiliated institutions and serve on many local and national boards and committees, including the Greater Houston Partnership, the American Association of Medical Colleges, and the boards of several companies.

If you have experienced grid lock trying to drive through River Oaks to see the elaborate winter wonderland decorations-we have you covered! Mister McKinney's Houston History Bus Lights Tour will drive you past the over 100 homes that voluntarily create spectabular light displays starting November 20th. 

We have all 20 seats on the first tour of the season and will create a wait list in case there is enough for another group of 20...RSVP quickly. All ages love this tour. I have personally taken many visitors for this ride and highly recommend it.

Supporting cancer research for over 50 years.

http://www.lombardiaward.org

BEAR ... BE A RESOURCE FOR CPS KIDS

The BEAR will provide lunch for participants.

Rotarians and friends will separate gifts by age to create gift bags according to CPS children's wish list.

BEARing Gifts provides holiday gifts to children involved with Child Protective Services who otherwise would have no holiday cheer at all. Over 14,000 children were served with our help last year!

Let's do it again this year! Bring your donation of new, unopened toys to the Warehouse on Thursday December 11th, 2025.

*Located at the end of the Brookwood Business Park next to Oaks Dads’ Club (baseball fields).

A View from the Texas Business Court

The Inaugural Year: Progress & Momentum

Judges: Sofia Adrogué and Grant Dorfman 

Hon. Sofia Adrogué

Governor Greg Abbott appointed Sofia Adrogué to be one of the inaugural judges of the Eleventh Business Court Division, effective September 1, 2024. The Eleventh Business Court Division is composed of the counties of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, Montgomery & Wharton. A native of Argentina, Sofia is a former Senior Trial Partner with Diamond McCarthy LLP, a 10-year+ Texas Super Lawyer, Best Lawyer, & Latino Leaders “U.S. 25 Most Influential Hispanic Lawyer” & “Most Powerful Woman in Law.” She envisioned & serves as the Editor of the TEXAS BUSINESS LITIGATION treatise (5th Edition) & has published and/or spoken on over 250 occasions. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School Owner/President Management Program, an alumna of HBS (U.S. Keynote Graduation Speaker for HBS OPM 37, ostensibly the first woman, & U.S. Class Representative), & a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, magna cum laude, & Rice University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, both on full academic scholarships.

Having handled matters arising in Texas, across the U.S. as well as in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, among other venues, she has obtained favorable judgments and settlements on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in U.S. state and federal courts and in alternative dispute resolution (ADR— mediation & arbitration) proceedings. Sofia has served on THE ADVOCATE Editorial Board, the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, the CLE, Mentor & Professionalism Committees of the State Bar of Texas as well as the CLE, HOUSTON LAWYER & the Professionalism Committees of the Houston Bar Association, among others. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation & the Houston Bar Foundation. She has also served as a Member of the Houston First Board of Directors as well as the City of Houston Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board.

She has received over 40 awards, including the `2025 Greater Houston Woman’s Chamber of Commerce Pioneering Leadership in Justice Award; the 2024 L.I.F.E. Mother’s Day Award; the 2023 UHLC Hispanic Law Heritage Wall of Honor recognition; the 2022 Top 30 Women in Houston Award; 2021 World Affairs Council of Greater Houston Global Leader of Influence; 2020 Comcast Hispanic Heroes Award; a Greater Houston Women's Chamber “Hall of Fame” Inductee; a HOUSTON CHRONICLE Channel 11 “Texas Legend” & 10 “Extraordinary Latinos” (Inaugural List) ; National Diversity Council “Most Powerful and Influential Woman of Texas” & one of the “Top 50 Women Lawyers”; a UH Law Center Immigration Clinic Arrival Award & a Houston Jaycees “Outstanding Houstonian”; a Texas Jaycees “Outstanding Texan”; and a U.S. Jaycees “Outstanding Young American”; among others. Sofia has been recognized for her public service by the City of Houston with a proclamation of July 10, 2004 & December 18, 2018, as “Sofia Adrogué Day.” 

Hon. Grant Dorfman

Governor Abbott appointed Grant Dorfman to the new Eleventh Business Court Division in Houston on June 14, 2024, and he has been elected by his colleagues to serve as the Administrative Presiding Judge for the initial two-year term of the Court. Judge Dorfman previously served as Judge of the 129th and 334th District Courts of Harris County. In between his terms of judicial service, Judge Dorfman worked as Senior In-House Counsel in charge of litigation for Nabors Industries, the world’s largest land-based drilling contractor; an Of Counsel attorney with Sheehy, Ware & Pappas; a mediator and arbitrator, and state court visiting judge; and, most recently, as the Deputy First Assistant to the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A native Texan, Judge Dorfman graduated from Brown University with an A.B. in Honors History magna cum laude and was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. He also obtained a Master of Studies (M.St.) in History and Political Philosophy from Oxford University and a J.D. from the Yale Law School. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, prior to taking the bench, practiced commercial litigation for ten years with two Houston law firms: Susman Godfrey and Ogden, Gibson, White & Broocks.

Judge Dorfman currently serves on the boards of the University of Houston Law Review, HSPVA Friends (supporting the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), and the Texas Association of Retired, Senior and Former Judges. He has in the past served as a member of the faculty of the National Judicial College and as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center. A life fellow of the Houston Bar Foundation and a sustaining life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Judge Dorfman is also a member of the Federalist Society and the American Law Institute, and served as an officer on the Houston Bar Association’s Communities in Schools and Professionalism Committees; an ASTAR (Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource) Judge; judicial liaison to the HBA Securities Litigation & Arbitration Section; and served on the State Bar Pattern Jury Charge Committee and the Supreme Court Code of Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee.