District 7080 Annual Conference 2025 - Saturday, October 4th
Our agenda features outstanding speakers from around the world and across our district!
Joe Dittmar
Joe Dittmar is a recently retired 46-year veteran of the insurance industry, leaving the industry from his role as Vice-President – Commercial Underwriting for Swyfft Insurance. He has held senior management positions at numerous major insurance companies.
A native of Philadelphia, PA, he has resided and done business in NYC, NJ, Philadelphia, Chicago, DC, Richmond and Durham NC. He now spends his days doing “retirement things” while at his home on the beach in Lewes, DE!
On September 11, 2001, Joe was attending a normal business meeting with representatives of various commercial insurance carriers at the NYC offices of Chicago- based AON Corporation- on the 105 th floor of Two World Trade Center.
One of only seven survivors of the meeting of 54 insurance executives, Joe‘s sharing of his experience of that day gives an informational, historical, inspirational and even motivational insight into one of the most incredible events in US and World history. Joe is Lewes, DE resident, devoted husband and a father of four, grandfather of five and is a founding member of the Naperville 9/11 Memorial Commission.
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DG Ramesh Ferris
Ramesh Ferris is a polio survivor and Rotarian who resides in Whitehorse, Yukon Canada. He has a bachelor’s degree in social work, and is the past president of the Rotary Club of Whitehorse Rendezvous.
Ramesh is a major donor of the Rotary Foundation, and is the Rotary 5370 District Governor for 2025-2026.
He is a past Rotary End Polio Now Coordinator for Zone 28. In 2008 Ramesh hand-cycled 7140kms over 6 months from Victoria, BC to Cape Spear, NL in program called Cycle to Walk to raise funds and awareness for polio eradication, education, and rehabilitation.
Over the past 18 years Ramesh has volunteered in partnership with Rotary International, The Gates Foundation, Global Citizen, United Nations Foundation, and the World Health Organization to promote our shared global goal of ending polio.
He has shared Rotary’s End Polio message with countless heads of state, many world leaders, and celebrities around the world. He has spoken to delegates at the United Nations in New York City and to many Rotarians at various Rotary International Conventions, Zone Institutes and District Conferences around the world. Ramesh has provided the polio vaccine to children in Karachi Pakistan, Kabul, Afghanistan, and in his birth country of India.
He is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee award, the Yukon Commissioner’s award for volunteer public service, and Rotary International’s service award for a polio free world.
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David Nairn
David Nairn is the former Artistic Director of Theatre Orangeville. For the past 50 years, David has enjoyed a professional directing and acting career that has taken him to the four-corners of the earth. He has worked in virtually every major theatre and province in Canada as well as in Hong Kong, Alaska, Rio de Janeiro, Houston, Bali, Detroit, Devil’s Island, Bermuda, St. Maartin, Chicago and the Falkland Islands!David’s recently concluded his 26th Season as Artistic Director of Theatre Orangeville; a season that was his final one at the helm of that fully professional theatre company, but he has now assumed the position of Artistic Director Emeritus, a supporting role that will allow him to further develop and promote Theatre Orangeville programs such as Creative Partners On Stage. David will be speaking on C.P.O.S. which has paired Theatre Orangeville and Community Living together since 2003 in support of neurodiverse adults.
In his time at Theatre Orangeville, David directed more than 90 plays and musicals, many of them world premieres, and he remains passionately and fiercely dedicated to the creation, development and production of Canadian theatrical works that enchant, enrich, entertain, and deepen our understanding of ourselves as a community, and as a nation.
David is also currently the Associate Artistic Director of the Bequia International Theatre Festival, located in St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
David is a proud recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award and the Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Award, both presented in recognition of his volunteer contributions to his community.
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Natalija Vojno
Fostering foresight, empathy, and imagination to develop pathways for mutual gain. Natalija Vojno mediates, designs, and facilitates processes that help people identify their common values and pathways towards more livable futures. Her multi-partial approach guides clients to develop solutions for mutual gain. She brings to the table the ability to convene business, government, and civil society leaders as well as disgruntled
neighbours, roommates, and siblings.
neighbours, roommates, and siblings.
Natalija is a peace innovator who comes to the field of mediation with a decade of experience helping diverse groups align on environmental priorities and actions – be it North America’s Great Lakes or the Nile River.
Her past as a watershed campaigner, speechwriter for Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, and global youth network leader inform her practice. Years of collaborating with distributed teams of stakeholders, across multiple time zones and sectors, have honed her ability to help people move forward
across their differences. She works across scales to open up the heart of a conflict.
across their differences. She works across scales to open up the heart of a conflict.
Her post-war homeland of Bosnia & Herzegovina inspired her lifelong desire for social cohesion. As a result, she co-founded a peacebuilding project in the Balkans called Naša Gora. Approaching conflict transformation from a creative lens, she has piloted
values-based community-building projects and is an UNLEASH Innovation Lab fellow.
values-based community-building projects and is an UNLEASH Innovation Lab fellow.
She was trained in community mediation by St. Stephen’s House, cross-cultural dialogue by Soliya, as well as advanced mediation by Ken Cloke and Aaron Wolf. Her negotiation training is from the Clingendael Institute in the Hague and MIT’s Lawrence Susskind.
Natalija holds a BA from the University of Toronto, an MSc in Water Resources Management from UNESCO-IHE, in the Netherlands and an MA in Public Policy from ICU, as a Rotary Peace Fellow in Japan. Her research focuses on natural resources policy and participatory water governance processes.
Natalija grew up in Toronto by the banks of the Humber River on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
Portfolio:
- mediation and conflict coaching;
- interaction design;
- cross-cultural dialogue facilitation;
- strategic-foresight processes;
- creative concept development; and
- youth empowerment
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The 2025 District Conference offers a energizing agenda that’s packed with information and insights. Our goal is to inspire members to find new ways of working together within Rotary, so we can build even stronger communities locally and across the world.