Speakers

Before retirement, Jelan Heidelberg had a long and varied career with IBM. In the late 70's and throughout the 80's, she worked as a systems engineer, supporting companies large and small throughout the Twin Cities. She then switched to working virtually long before it was popular and when the tools were much more primitive. She worked for IBM Rochester and then for headquarters. In her last dozen years at IBM, she managed several software products and had the opportunity to travel the world. She traveled just enough to whet her appetite for more -- more places and more time to meet the local people and learn. Since retirement, Jelan and her husband Jim have criss-crossed the globe. Their latest adventure took them to her 88th country, Rwanda. Jelan joined the Golden Valley Rotary Club in late 2020.

When you want to get your point across, the words you choose matter. You can build understanding and connection through the kinds of words you use and avoid. So says our speaker, Alison Brown Cerier, a content strategist and
writer, who will share six ways to choose words that will make a difference. After a career in medical device, healthcare, and book publishing, she is now a pro-bono consultant, writer, and storyteller for climate organizations. Alison titles her talk “Words Matter: Communicating with a Shared Understanding of What Words Mean”.