Group Study Exchange Team

District #6690

It is with great pleasure that District 6690 Committee Chair Calvin Gebhart presents the 2007-2008 GSE Outbound Team Members who will be traveling to District 2350 which is located to the North and West of Stockholm, Sweden (District Governor:  Ulf Rubarth).

Inbound Team Visit to Ohio:

• Sweden Team dates are March 30^th to April 27^th, 2008 – to the USA!

Outbound Team Visit to Sweden:

• Our USA Outbound Team dates are April 27^th to May 26^th, 2008.

TEAM CAPTAINS:

Team Captain:  Davis Kristopher Powers – Marietta Noon Club

Born and raised in Laguna Beach, California, Davis spent most of his summers in Anderstorp, Sweden, to visit relatives.  He moved to Ohio in 1997 and was inducted in the Marietta noon Rotary in 2006.  Davis is proud to be the third generation President of Skuttle Indoor Air Quality Products, whose main product is manufacturing humidifiers for residential use.  His hobbies consist of scuba diving, traveling, and racing cars.  “I’m really looking forward to coming to the Uppsala Rotary district as the GSE team leader.  I consider Sweden ‘my home away from home’.  Vi ses snart!”

Alternate Team Captain:  Jean Droste of the Circleville Noon Club

Jean Droste, alternate team leader, has just completed a 4-year term as mayor of Circleville.  Other political positions she has held include 12 years on the Circleville Board of Education (president for 5 years), 6 years as Circleville’s Director of Public Safety, 3 years as Governor Celeste’s Director of the Ohio Commission on Education Improvement, and 3 years as Governor Voinovich’s Executive Assistant for Education.  Jean has served on numerous Boards in Pickaway County and Central Ohio (Rotary, Pickaway County Community Action, Higher Education Learning Partnership for Students, Pickaway Progress Partnership, YMCA, AAUW, and Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, Berger Health System Board of Governors).  Jean is the chairman of District 6690’s Ambassadorial Scholar Committee.

Jean has a B. S. and M. A. from the University of Wisconsin.  She has two children; Steve and Lori, and one granddaughter, Serena.

TEAM MEMBERS:

Scott William Culbert was born and raised in Perrysburg, Ohio, just south of Toledo.  After graduating from Ohio State with a degree in Spanish, he took a five-hundred mile walk across northern Spain.  After touring Mayan ruins in Mexico and Central America, he opened a small café on the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres, located in the western Caribbean.  Eighteen months later, Scott sold the café and went to Chile, where he spent three months backpacking through Patagonia.  He came back to the States and earned a Master’s degree in Spanish from Middlebury College.  Scott worked as a Spanish-language interpreter for Mount Carmel hospitals until he started law school at West Virginia University.  Graduating with a Juris Doctorate in May of 2007, Scott is studying for the February Bar and working for Whole Foods Market.  Once licensed to practice law, he would like to work with a firm or a corporation that has interests in South America, but could be just as happy working and living in Columbus. Scott resides in Powell.  Scott is being sponsored by Olentangy Club.

Pamela Ann Justice was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised, since the age of three, in Grove City, Ohio.  She attended Heritage Christian School for several years before the school closed and she was sent on to Southwestern City Schools.  She is a 1990 graduate of Grove City High School and majored in Business Computer Programming at Paul C. Hayes Technical School.  She is a single mother of one daughter, 12 years old.  In 2006, she attended ITT Technical Institute to study Criminal Justice and plans to continue on in studies to obtain her degree at another local school within the next few years.  Previously, she was a contracted employee with Medicare Part B, and has worked in various areas of medical insurance/billing, as well as medical supplies.  She is currently employed by Gap, Inc. Direct corporate offices as a Style Consultant.  She began working for Gap, Inc. in 2003 as a Customer Relations Representative and moved on to complete projects in Customer Support, researching fraud and credit card verification on an international level.  Once she obtains her degree, she plans to work within the Forensics field of local law enforcement.  She is happily residing in Grove City and plans to stay there long term.  Pamela is being sponsored by the Grove City Club.

Anthony DeLong Neff was born and raised in Pickaway County, 45 minutes south of Columbus.  He graduated from The Ohio State University in the fall of 2000 with a degree in Civil Engineering.  Upon graduation, he was employed with the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT, as a transportation engineer.  During his four years at ODOT he managed the design of highway projects including everything from major interchange designs to freeway rehabilitations.  In 2004 Anthony took a job at the Pickaway County Engineer’s Department, where he reviews proposed subdivisions, manages transportation projects involving ODOT, surveys and designs projects for County forces to construct, updates policies and standards as needed, as well as handling various drainage issues around the country.  Anthony is a registered Professional Engineer and will sit for the Professional Surveyors test in the fall of 2008. 

After graduating, he married his high school sweetheart, Karlyn, and had two children; Maraya, who is three years old, and Dylan, who is one year old, and settled back in Pickaway County.  Anthony enjoys being outdoors and loves golfing, boating, playing with his kids, and, when able, snow skiing.  Anthony is sponsored by Circleville Noon Club.

Jason A. Wallace grew up in Circleville, Ohio, and later attended the Ohio State University, where he received a Bachelors of Science degree in Management Information Systems.  He later received his Masters of Business Administration from Franklin University.  He began his career at Nationwide in 1996 as a Facility Analyst and also held positions on the Specialty IT Support Team and the Security Certification & Accreditation team.  He is currently the Team Lead for the Identity & Access Management team, where “single-sign-on” is the buzzword and minimizing the number of times users must enter a password is our job.

Jason also holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library Foundation (ITIL-F) designation.  He has also been a member of the Ohio Army National Guard since 1994 and served a year in Iraq during the majority of 2006.  Jason resides in Grove City and is being sponsored by the Grove City Rotary Club.