Events

Nathan Tollett serves as Vice President, Citywide Convention Sales at Visit Houston where he is responsible for creating long term strategies to maintain Houston’s position as a premier meeting and convention destination. Most recognized for his creative client experiences, Nathan believes in providing targeted and customized solutions for all potential opportunities.

Tollett began his hospitality career as an event manager at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center in 2002. He was the primary point of contact for the facility, assisting many major conventions in hosting and executing successful events. Following that, Tollett accepted a job as a national account executive with Visit Houston, where he booked a variety of significant meetings and conventions in the corporate and association market.

Completing his first tenure at Visit Houston, Tollett then spent nearly two years as a national sales manager for the Las Vegas property, The Golden Nugget. That experience helped him round out the “hospitality trifecta”—giving Tollett the background from the facilities, destination and hotel perspective to better understand all of the aspects of the convention sales process.

Tollett rejoined Visit Houston as Director of Sales in 2009 and for the last eleven years has overseen the daily operations of the citywide sales team.

Meeting News honored Tollett as "Ones to Watch: 30 under 30” and he was also recognized in Connect Magazine as “Future Leaders of the Meeting Industry, 40 under 40” in 2011, and received the 2015 Maritz Global Events Supplier of the Year award.

Tollett holds a bachelor's degree in speech communications from Texas A&M University.

Greg Funderburk currently serves as the Minister for Pastoral Care at South Main Baptist Church. Before this, he practiced law in Houston for 21 years. Greg is the author of  The Mourning Wave, a historical novel about the Galveston storm of 1900, which was named as one of Kirkus Review’s best debut novels of 2020. He’s also the author of Let It Be Said We’ve Borne It Well, a series of hopeful essays written during the pandemic, and published in 2021, and Hurdles: An Authentic Pursuit of God in a Post-Pandemic World, published in 2022. His fourth book, Following Creation: A More Sacred Path from Monday and Sunday will be published in May 2024 by Smyth-Helwys. Greg and his wife, Kelly, who works as an attorney for Bank of America, celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2023. They have two sons, both raised in West U. After graduating from HSPVA, Hank attended USC and now works for Disney in Los Angeles. Charlie attended Strake Jesuit and is now a sophomore at Baylor University studying media and communications. 

On Apr 19, 2024, at 10:00 AM, Mike Woods <

            Jeffrey A. Kottler is one of the most prominent authors and presenters in the fields of counseling, psychotherapy, health, education, and advocacy. He has written over 100 nonfiction books about a wide range of subjects, a few of which were made into Hollywood feature films.

Jeffrey has been a psychologist, researcher, and educator for five decades, having worked in a variety of settings. Jeffrey is Professor Emeritus of Counseling at California State University, Fullerton. He currently lives in Houston where he works on projects related to refugee trauma with the Alliance for Multicultural Services.

            This talk, Unexplored Mysteries of Everyday Human Behavior, is based on his most recent book with the same title.

Join us for our 2024 Large Club of the Year celebration and awards ceremony. Families welcome. 

Kim McPhillips is originally from Michigan. She has worked in the chemicals industry for 35 years at Dow, NOVA Chemicals and currently at Shell. She has experience in business leadership, corporate strategy, supply chain, sales and marketing that have been global in nature and holding several positions outside of the U.S. including Latin America and Canada. Kim originally joined Rotary while living in Midland, Michigan to give back to the community. When she moved to Houston Texas for the first time in 2000, she joined the West U Rotary Club and was an active member for 5 years before moving for her career. She and her husband, Jay Anderson, moved back to Houston in 2019 and she rejoined the West U club. She is looking forward to continuing to serve this club with gratitude. In her free time, Kim enjoys travelling, theatre, golfing, church activities, cooking and entertaining.

Jane Shapiro ventured to Houston from the Boston area back in the 1980’s. She received her degree

from Boston College and holds a certificate as an Assisted Living Administrator and is licensed

as a Pre Need Planning Advisor.

She has enjoyed being part of the Houston community for the past 40 years. She’s been

affiliated with several healthcare organizations in providing training/development to

employees, building relationships within the medical and religious community, counseling

families seeking senior living options, to her current role at Houston Jewish Funerals and

Distinctive Life Cremation and Funerals.

She has worked for HCA, US Physical Therapy, Aetna Health Plans, the Alzheimer’s Association,

Brazos Towers and Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services.

She takes pride in volunteering at the Evelyn Rubinstein JCC, Seven Acres, WU and Bellaire Sr.

Centers, Weekly YMCA and is a member of Jewish Federation’s Business and Professional

Group, River Oaks Women’s Breakfast Club, Houston Area Continuity of Care, Houston

Gerontological Association, Houston Jewish Chamber of Commerce, Houston Women’s

Chamber, Bellaire Business Association and lifetime member of Hadassah.

Having joined Houston Jewish Funerals and Distinctive Life Cremation and Funerals back in

2018, she was tasked with educating and sharing the importance of Pre Need Planning to

families in our community.

Jane shares, that it’s truly a calling, a mitzvah and a gift to impart her knowledge and

understanding while bringing her life experiences, passion and empathy to those in need.

Mary Kay Jackson, the daughter of local Rotarian Dan Clinton, was raised in Houston and holds civil engineering degrees from Texas A&M and Stanford University.  After a brief stint in the oil industry, Mary Kay practiced civil engineering in Atlanta, Georgia, for 20 years designing water infrastructure for municipal clients. 

In 2006, Mary Kay moved to Ghana, West Africa, and joined the staff of the Methodist Church Ghana to create their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program.  In 2017, she returned to Houston and joined the staff of TMS Global, where she currently is the Director of Strategic Initiatives. She continues to maintain an active water ministry in Ghana.

Over the past 18 years, Mary Kay has constructed 300 boreholes for villages, clinics, and schools in Ghana.  She served for 9 years as the Managing Director of Pure Home Water, a Ghanaian social enterprise that manufactures ceramic pot filters for household water treatment.  During her tenure, Pure Home Water constructed its manufacturing facility and grew from 4 to 25 employees, mostly local women potters. To date, Pure Home Water has provided over 30,000 filters to households in Ghana, including as part of two Rotary grants.