World Water Summit 17
SATURDAY,
June 21st
8:00 – Noon
Full breakfast at 7:45 am
Mountain Daylight Time UTC -6
Event Fees
- Registration Fee: $45 USD
- Rotaract Members: $20 USD
- Seating limited to 100 attendees
Featuring
Mike McGovern
Chair International PolioPlus
Committee at Rotary International
Dr Olha Paliychuk
District Governor-elect
d2552 Ukraine
Aziz Memon
Chair National PolioPlus
Committee Pakistan
Dr. Ann Marie Kimball
Dept of Epidemiology
Univ of Washington
For inquiries about your registration or the event, please email: info@wash-rag.org
From Source, System, Storage, Sip to Sanitation
The WASH Rotary Action Group’s World Water Summit unites global leaders to explore how WASH prevents polio and other diseases. This year’s event spotlights proven tools, emerging trends, and scalable solutions for lasting impact. Experts will share insights on WASH in healthcare, schools, and communities, ensuring safe water access and stronger public health systems. Through discussions, case studies, and interactive sessions, participants will gain actionable strategies for sustainable disease prevention.
Mike McGovern
Mike McGovern has served as the chair of the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee since October 2014. He also represents Rotary on the Polio Oversight Board which governs the global polio eradication initiative partnership and chairs its Finance and Accountability Committee.
Mike is the global chair of the Rotary Leadership Institute and formerly chaired the Rotary Leadership Institute of Northeast America.
He joined Rotary in 1986 as a member of the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA. After serving as a district governor in 1999-2000, he served in many Rotary positions including as a director and vice president of Rotary International and as a trustee and vice chair of the Rotary Foundation. He led Rotary’s rezoning efforts in 2007-2008 and in 2017-2018, was chair of the RI Membership Committee, and has chaired the Rotary Action Group for Family Health and AIDS Prevention.
He served his entire career with the Town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine USA beginning as an intern in 1977 and serving as town manager for 31 years until his retirement in 2016. Mike led Maine’s cities and towns as president of the Maine Municipal Association and served as the president of the Maine Town and City Management Association.
Aziz Memon
Aziz Memon is chair of the Kings Group, a conglomerate of five companies that is one of the leading textile and ready-made garment manufacturing and exporting groups in Pakistan. He is also chair of the board of the Karachi Garment City, a project of the government of Pakistan. Memon’s other roles include honorary consul general of the Republic of Suriname in Karachi, president of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan, and president of the United Memon Jamat of Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to community development and helping the underprivileged.
Since he joined Rotary in 1995, he has been widely recognized for his leadership in polio eradication. Memon has served as member of the International PolioPlus Committee and chair of the Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. He has worked closely with Rotary’s partners and stakeholders, including UNICEF, WHO and its Expanded Programme on Immunization, government officials, religious scholars, celebrities, business leaders, and Rotarians from around the world. He was one of four polio eradication activists to receive the Louis Pasteur Medal by the Institut Pasteur. His other RI leadership positions have included training leader, committee member, and RI president’s representative. Memon says his favorite Rotary project was working with his club to raise over $285,000 to fund an English-language instruction school for 4,000 children.
Memon has received the Service Above Self Award, the International and Regional Service Awards for a Polio-Free World, and The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award and Citation for Meritorious Service. In recognition of his community and humanitarian services in the health sector, the president of Pakistan conferred the Pride of Performance Award on Memon in 2011. He and his wife, Samina, are members of the Arch Klumph Society.
Dr. Ann Marie Kimball
Ann Marie Kimball is an American physician. She is known for being the pioneer of electronic disease surveillance for infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics. She is currently a Professor Emerita in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington,[1] a Consulting Fellow at the Chatham House Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs,[2] and was a Strategic Consultant in Global Health at the Rockefeller Foundation. Kimball served as a technical and strategic lead for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation infectious disease surveillance strategy formation.
Kimball’s research on global trade and emerging infections has earned her a Fulbright New Century Scholars award and a Guggenheim Scholars award. She is the author of two books, entitled Risky Trade: Infectious Diseases in an Era of Global Trade, and Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism.[3] She has also done extensive media work with television, radio and the press.[4] Kimball brought important innovations to international infectious disease surveillance through the founding of the APEC Emerging Infections network advanced electronic disease surveillance and networking in the Asia Pacific.[2]
Kimball is a Fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine.
Michael Fernando
Michael Fernando was District Governor in D1200 (in South West England) when the war in Ukraine broke out, during 2022. As a Paediatrician (Pediatrician), he helped a club in his District obtain medical supplies to fill a lorry driving to Ukraine, through the International Rotary Fellowship of Healthcare Professionals.
Borys Bodnar from RC Ukraine Unity was helping with logistics for Rotary in Ukraine and asked Michael if knew of anyone who could help Rotary in Ukraine with water. Through the ‘Magic of Rotary’ Michael was able to put Borys in touch with key players in HANWASH (the Rotary project to provide clean water to Haiti), as well as WASH RAG. Through this process, Michael ended up chairing the Ukraine International Rotary Water group, which has worked on water projects in Ukraine, including mobile water filtration units, water filter provision and a multi country Disaster Response Grant to provide a Reverse Osmosis Unit in Mykolaiv. The group includes leaders of the Ukraine District WASH team, Mark Gitelman and Borys Bodnar, as well as Past RI Director Katerina Kotsali-Papadomitriou.
Michael is chair the World Water Summit for WASH RAG. On a different note, Michael has also worked with projects to train trainers in Neonatal Resuscitation (Helping Babies Breathe) in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
WWS17 TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Saturday, 21 June 2025 Calgary
REGISTRATION / COFFEE / NETWORKING
WELCOME
PLENARY #1
Rotary Action Group Panel
moderator: Pat Merryweather-Argus Board Chair WASH-RAG
BREAK / NETWORKING
10:40a
Keynote Speaker;Dr.Anne Marie Kimball, Dept of Epidemiology, Univ of Washington
Followed by Q&A
11:00a
Keynote Speaker; Uvindu Abeysekara, Rotaractor
Followed by Q&A
Keynote Speaker; Dr Olha Paliychuk, District Governor-elect, d2552 Ukraine