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
Greg Podd, C.P.A., P.F.S.
Rotary Foundation Vice Chair 2025-2026
Rotary Foundation Trustee 2022-2026
Rotary International Vice President 2015-2016
Rotary International Director 2014-2016
Greg is a C.P.A. (Certified Public Accountant) and a P.F.S. (Personal Financial Specialist) having operated his own practice since June 1979. During his professional tenure, he has written four professional continuing education courses and has been a keynote speaker at five national conferences. Greg has taught many courses as a guest professor at Arizona State University in the Master of Taxation program and has made presentations to over 20,000 Certified Public Accountants and Chartered Accountants from the United States and foreign countries. He was also the President and owner of a very large metal fabrication firm for the telecommunication industry and an international healthcare software development firm.
Greg became a Rotarian in May 1982 and is a member of the Evergreen Rotary Club. On an international level, he served a six-year term as a member of the Rotary International Investment Committee and a three-year term as a member of the Rotary International Finance Committee. Greg has chaired five Zone Institutes and served as a Rotary International Training Leader at the International Assembly in San Diego – January 2010 and 2011 (where Pam and Greg served as the Hospitality Host). He also served as a Rotary Foundation Future Vision Training Leader – January 2013. Greg and Pam also served as the Assistant Chief Sergeant at Arms at the International Assembly – January 2012.
On a regional level, Greg served a three-year term as a Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator and a three-year term as a Regional Rotary International Membership Coordinator where he chaired the Rotary International Presidential Membership Conference in Phoenix, Arizona – January 2009. He also served a three-year term as a Rotary Foundation Major Gifts Advisor where he established his District’s Million Dollar Dinner raising over $3,100,000 for the Rotary Foundation in one night. Greg was the Group Study Exchange Leader to District 3790 – Philippines in February 2006. He has also served as the President’s Representative for Rotary International for many years and was his District’s representative to the Rotary International Council on Legislation – 2007.
During the Rotary year 2014 – 2015, in addition to his duties as a Rotary International Director, Greg chaired the Rotary Audit Committee, the Rotary Board Council on Legislation Advisory Committee, and the Service Above Self Award Selection Committee. He also served as a member of the Rotary Board Programs Committee, Council and Board Committee and Rotary International District Governor / Director Allocation Committee. Greg and Pam also served as the Rotary International Director – Elect trainers for the Rotary year ending 2015 and 2016.
During the Rotary year 2015 – 2016, Greg served as the Vice President of Rotary International and a member of the Executive Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Council and Board Committee and the Workgroup to examine Rotary’s current International Convention model. During the Rotary year 2016 – 2017 he served as a member of the Rotary International Election Review Committee, the Rotary International Board Governance Committee, and the Vice Chair of the Rotary International Operations Review Committee. In 2017 – 2020 he served as the Assistant Moderator and Moderator for the Regional Leader Training Institute.
After completing a 6-year term on the Rotary International Operations Review Committee, Greg is currently serving a 4-year term as a Trustee of the Rotary Foundation. In addition to his duties as a Rotary Foundation Trustee, Greg has served as the Chair of the Investment Committee, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Rotary Foundation Finance Committee, Chair of the Working Group to Review Joint Committees, Member of the Committee Selection Task Force, Member of the Rotary Foundation Funding Model Committee, Member of the Strategic Workgroup Committee, Member of the Programs Committee, Member of the Enhancement and Expansion of the Current Grant Model Committee, Member of the Rotary Foundation Participant Experience Committee, Incoming Trustee Trainer and Liaison to the Board of Directors of Rotary International and Joint Technology Committee.
Greg is the recipient of the “Service Above Self Award” and The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service Award. Greg and his wife Pam have been married for 50 years, and have three beautiful children; Kyle (Jessi), Melanie (Matt) and Bryan and four very special grandchildren; Carter, Madison, Payton and Vivian. All members of the family are Paul Harris Fellows with Greg and Pam being Multi Paul Harris Fellows, Paul Harris Society Members, Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member, Bequest Society Members, and Major Donors. In addition, Greg and Pam are both Arch C. Klumph Society Members.