Speakers

Mike McCoy grew up in Bakersfield and graduated from North High. He has a Master's in Public Admin from Chico State and a BA and Ph.D from U.C. Santa Barbara. He is a graduate of the Harvard School of Negotiation and was a Fulbright Fellow in Argentina. Mike retired as a school superintendent in 2017 and has served as the Executive Director of the Kern County Museum for five years.  Mike has been active in Rotary for 20 years. currently in the Downtown Club. Mike and his wife Susan have four adult children. They like to travel and collect antiques and stray cats. 

The Bakersfield College Chamber Singers is an elite, auditioned ensemble that performs challenging repertoire of all styles and periods. They perform in at least two major concerts per semester and can be seen at numerous schools, community, and private events. Locally, Chamber Singers are frequently featured on the news, radio, and newspaper for their sold-out performances, service in the community, and representation of the college both nationally and internationally.

Bill Dickinson began his career with the Probation Department as an Extra-Help Group Counselor at Juvenile Hall in 1994. He was appointed as a permanent Group Counselor in 1995, and worked in that classification at both Juvenile Hall and the Kern Crossroads Facility. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Communications from California State University Bakersfield in 1997. In 1998, Bill was promoted to the Deputy Probation Officer classification where he worked in several assignments, including Custody Intake, Juvenile Investigations, and Prevention Services.

In 2004, he was promoted to Probation Supervisor where he began supervising the Placement unit, and later transitioned to supervising the Aftercare unit. In 2012, Bill was promoted to Assistant Probation Division Director, assigned to James G. Bowles Juvenile Hall, where he served until 2014 when he was promoted to Probation Division Director of Juvenile Programs.  In 2018, he transitioned to Juvenile Hall as Probation Division Director where he served until 2019, before being promoted to Deputy Chief Probation Officer of the Youth Services Bureau. 

Bill will become Chief Probation Officer through an appointment by the Superior Court in August of 2023.           

Past BBRC President Randy, now a member of Bakersfield West Rotary, has been leading Rotary projects in Guatamala for several years.  BBRC is a supporter of the current project, medical equipment and a clinic which should be completed 2023, well ahead of schedule.  Come see the difference Bakersfield clubs and Rotary accomplish for the people in Guatamala!

Lisa Bowman is the CEO/President and Co-Founder of Bowman Asphalt, Inc, Lisa has learned a lot from her early days of stripping parking lots, wielding a shovel, answering phones to building a manufacturing asphalt plant division and beyond. She has held almost every position manageable through the growing pains, quick pivots, and the steady development of Bowman Asphalt. She began in 1990 with a loan to purchase a single road striping machine, with herself and then husband as the sole operation. Through hard work, slow and methodical growth and many years of expansive entrepreneurship Bowman Asphalt has grown into a well-respected, multi-faceted, vertically integrated, roads and manufacturing business with over 100 associates.

Bowman Asphalt does both construction of roads and manufacturing of the materials used to build the roads. The company has multiple asphalt plants, crushing recycling plants and a quarry mining operation that provide materials to both Bowman Asphalt as well as many retail customers in the asphalt paving business throughout California.  Lisa realizes that success is not hers alone but has been derived by aligning a great team to support her, the Vice President, and the team of brilliant associates. In fact, her very first employee is still with her today 33 years later.  Together they are the true success behind Bowman Asphalt, and she is just the “grateful leader” as she says. Lisa is a Bakersfield native who grew up in a farming family.

CEO and editor Lois Henry has spent 30 years covering the San Joaquin Valley.

She was raised on a ranch east of Fresno and attended Clovis High School, then Fresno State where she majored in Journalism.

While still in college, she worked the late night and weekend shifts at the Fresno Bee covering cops and writing obits. After graduating in 1989, she worked in the Bee’s south valley bureau covering Hanford and Lemoore.

In 1990, she moved to Bakersfield where she took a job covering eastern Kern County – Edwards Air Force Base and China Lake Naval Weapons Center – for The Bakersfield Californian. Over the years, she had a variety of beats including social services, the oil industry, city government, county government and a stint in Sacramento at The Californian’s capitol bureau.

Henry spent 10 years as a manager, rising in the ranks from Metro Editor to Asst. Managing Editor overseeing the paper’s 80+ newsroom employees. She was the lead editor for the paper’s many award-winning projects.

In 2007, she began a twice weekly, investigative column and was able to focus on one of her passions – water.

Though her column delved deep into this sometimes arcane topic, readers responded with overwhelmingly positive comments.

Valley residents innately understand the importance of water. Henry has helped develop that understanding by untangling the complicated knots of rights, lawsuits, contracts and deals by which water is moved and consumed.

She plans to continue that mission through SJV Water.

Henry lives with her husband, four dogs and two cats in Bakersfield.