2026 Lone Star PETS Speakers
Plenary Session 1 - Friday Lunch - February 27
Kathryn Fahy
2025 Zones 25B & 29 Institute Chair
2014-2015 District 5970 Governor
Member of the Rotary Club of Iowa Great Lakes, Iowa
Kathryn Fahy has been a Rotarian since 2006 and is a member and Past President of the Iowa Great Lakes Rotary Club in Spirit Lake, Iowa. She is a former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar (1997 Canberra, Australia) and is a Major Donor, Paul Harris Society and Bequest Society member. Kathy has served on the District 5970 Youth Exchange Committee, District Fellowship Committee, Alumni Committee and Ambassadorial Scholars Committee. She was selected in September 2014 as one of 32 young professionals in the United States to attend the inaugural Rotary Young Professional Summit in Chicago. From that experience, Kathy was part of the birth of Rollin’ with Rotary – an endeavor to bring attention to local and international needs by doing massive Random Acts of Kindness and creating large scale community service projects. In October 2015, she was invited back to Chicago to be a part of the Rotary Young Professionals Advisory Council.
Following the completion of her year as District Governor of Rotary District 5970 (2014-15), she was the Zone 28 Rotary Coordinator (2016-17), Zone 29 Rotary Public Image Coordinator (2017-20), a Training Leader at Rotary International Assembly (2019-20), and International Assembly Seminar Trainer (2021-23). She also held the position of Marketing Chair for HANWASH (Haiti National Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Initiative) from 2020-2022. Kathy was also a member of the 2024 Singapore Convention Committee (serving as Promotions Team Chair), a WASH Major Gifts Initiative Committee, and the co-chair of the Rotary International Communications Committee. Kathy recently completed serving as the chair of the 2025 Zones 25B & 29 Institute in Prior Lake, Minnesota.
Kathy has owned and operated K Brand Marketing, a marketing consulting business, since 2006. In addition to managing investors and operators for Farmland Opportunity, LLC, she is an active partner in her family grain farm (DoKare Farms) in north central Iowa and frequently drives the tractor during the planting and harvest seasons.
Plenary Session 2 - Friday Dinner - Friday 27
Tom Gump
Director Elect 2026-2028 - Zones 25B & 29
Rotary Club of Edina Noon Club, Minnesota
Tom Gump is a proud member of the Edina Morningside Rotary Club in Minnesota, USA. Tom is passionate about growing Rotary membership and chairs Rotary International’s Membership Growth Committee. Last year, he served as Aide to the Rotary International President.
Tom is the Director-elect and will serve as Zones 25B & 29’s Director in 2026-28. He is serving on the Zone Realignment Committee for the Americas and co-chairing the Host Organization Committee for the 2028 Rotary International Convention - Minneapolis.
His wife, Catherine, serves as Secretary of the Edina Noon Club. Their son Andrew is President of the Twins Port Rotaract Club in Duluth, Minnesota. The Gumps have hosted seven long-term Youth Exchange Students.
Tom’s all-time favorite part about Rotary is the friends he makes!
Plenary Session 3 - Saturday Breakfast - February 28
Kelly Atkinson
Past District Governor
Kelly C. Atkinson is a native Utahn who has lived in the Salt Lake City Valley his entire life.
In 1986, he became the first member of his party elected to the Utah House of Representatives from his area since the Great Depression. He served in the House leadership from 1990 to 1996. During his ten years in office, the Deseret News named Kelly as "one of the most effective legislators" on Capitol Hill each term he served. That same year, Kelly was approached by Bob Ladenberger, a hospital administrator, to help form a new Rotary Club in West Jordan, Utah. Kelly became a chartered member of the club, established in 1987.
In the centennial year of Rotary, Kelly was the District Governor for Utah. He was the chairman of the House of Friendship for the 2007 Rotary International Convention held in Salt Lake City. He and his wife Penny are both Arch Klumph Society Members as well as members of the Paul Harris Society.
In 2010, Penny, Kelly's wife of 53 years, was elected as the first woman Governor in the history of District 5420. Kelly and Penny are among just a handful of Rotarian couples in the world that have both served as District Governors and the first and only couple to do so in Utah. Together, the Atkinson's have hosted 31 Exchange Students from all over the world. The Atkinson’s have two sons. three grandsons, and one great granddaughter!
Plenary Session 4 - Saturday Lunch - February 28
Louisa Horne
2024-2027 Rotary Membership Coordinator for Zone 28
2019-2020 District 7820 Governor
Member of the Rotary Club of Halifax Harbour
Louisa is an entrepreneur, business leader and doctoral scholar who is passionate about building partnerships and “connecting dots”. A former geologist and teacher, Louisa has been an independent Management Consultant, specializing in leadership development and she is a Strategic Doing Practitioner. She is also certified as a corporate director and business coach. Her work focuses on change management and facilitating innovative initiatives. She recently founded a Community Interest Company focused on supporting seniors as they experience transitions in life – from downsizing and advance planning to coordinating natural burial. She also serves as Election Canada’s Federal Returning Officer for Halifax.
A member of the Rotary Club of Halifax Harbour since 2005, Louisa was inspired to join when her younger daughter was selected to be a Youth Exchange student. She served as District Trainer and received a District Vocational Award, Rotarian of the Year Award and was selected for the District 7820 “Heart of the District Award” given to a PDG who continues to have an impact on the District. A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Louisa led the district’s last Group Study Exchange team to Malaysia and also lead a Rotary Friendship Exchange to New Zealand. She brought a lot of innovative thinking to the DG role which she filled during the first year of the pandemic.
Louisa is known for creative approaches to leadership, and she is always looking for opportunities to increase impact – and irresistibility – of Rotary. She describes herself as a Shift Disturber and, together with her Ro-terrier Beacon (also a PHF), she embraced the idea of flamingos of change and continues to seek opportunities to explore creative ways to “be” Rotary. She has been an RI President’s rep multiple times and has facilitated workshops at three International Conferences, spoken in several over-subscribed RI webinars, and been keynote speaker at numerous President Elect training sessions and other training events, as well as at District Conferences, from Texas and Illinois to Massachusetts and in various Canadian provinces. Her PELs sessions on “Irresistible Clubs” were described as “powerful” and “phenomenal”.
Plenary Session 5 - Saturday Dinner - February 28
John F. Germ
Past Rotary International President 2016-17
Rotary Club of Chattanooga Tennessee
John F. Germ is the retired board chair of Campbell & Associates, Inc., consulting engineers. He joined
the firm as an engineer in 1965 after four years in the U.S. Air Force. He serves on the boards of several
organizations, including the board and executive committee as chair of the Public Education Foundation,
the Board and executive Committee of Orange Grove Center, Inc., Blood Assurance, Inc., and Erlanger
Health System, a 700 Bed Hospital. He also is founder and treasurer of the Chattanooga State Technical
Community College Foundation, president of the Tennessee Jaycee Foundation and Chairman of the
Miracle League of Chattanooga which raised funds and constructed a specially designed playground,
ball-field and multipurpose facility at Warner Park. He is also the Founder of Camp Discovery, a camp for
intellectually and developmentally disabled children and adults.
the firm as an engineer in 1965 after four years in the U.S. Air Force. He serves on the boards of several
organizations, including the board and executive committee as chair of the Public Education Foundation,
the Board and executive Committee of Orange Grove Center, Inc., Blood Assurance, Inc., and Erlanger
Health System, a 700 Bed Hospital. He also is founder and treasurer of the Chattanooga State Technical
Community College Foundation, president of the Tennessee Jaycee Foundation and Chairman of the
Miracle League of Chattanooga which raised funds and constructed a specially designed playground,
ball-field and multipurpose facility at Warner Park. He is also the Founder of Camp Discovery, a camp for
intellectually and developmentally disabled children and adults.
He was Tennessee Young Man of the Year in 1970; Engineer of the Year, 1986; Volunteer Fundraiser of
the Year, 1992; and Tennessee Community Organizations Volunteer of the Year, 2009. He is a recipient
of the Boy Scouts Silver Beaver Award and the Arthritis Foundation Circle of Hope Award. In 2013, the
White House recognized him as a Champion of Change. Germ joined Rotary in 1976 and has served
Rotary as President of Rotary International 2016-17, vice president, director, Foundation trustee 2008-
2012 and 2018-2022, serving as chair 2021-2022. Chair of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, which
raised $228.7 million for polio eradication. Germ has served on numerous RI and TRF committees
including Chair of the TRF Finance and Investment Committees. He also has served on the RI President
Nominating Committee four times, serving as Chair three times. He is currently serving as the Chair of
the Countdown to History Committee which raises $50 million per year for the eradication of polio. He
served on the International Polio Plus Committee, and on the committee to select a new Peace Center in
the MENA region. He negotiated an agreement and extensions with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where Rotary will provide 50 million dollars annually to the eradication of polio and the BMGF will provide Rotary a match of $100 million for the eradication of polio. This is a three-year grant. He has
served as Aide to the President and Aide to a Trustee Chair, COL Chair twice, and Board Advisory Chair
for the COL in 2016 and 2022. John has received RI’s Service Above Self Award, the PolioPlus Pioneer
Award, The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. He
and his wife, Judy, are Benefactors and members of the Arch Klumph Society of The Rotary Foundation.
They have four children and six grandchildren.