Altrusa to learn about Our American Roots lecture series in Oak Ridge
Altrusa International of Oak Ridge's program for Wednesday, Jan. 24, will provide an overview of the Our American Roots lecture series that will be presented February through May. The lecture series program began last year in Oak Ridge.
"This program series has been created to provide a unique opportunity for residents of Oak Ridge and the local area to meet, discover, learn, and share history, culture, and personal stories about ethnically and racially diverse cultures," according to the Altrusa news release. The series is co-sponsored by the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning. Presentations are free to the public and will be in the Wamp Auditorium at the CNS New Hope Center. A story giving details of the program will be published in The Oak Ridger next week and also posted to oakridger.com.
The in-person Altrusa meeting will be at the DoubleTree hotel, 214 S. Illinois Ave., and will begin at 11:30 a.m with a time to socialize. The buffet opens at 11:45 a.m. A short business session will begin at noon and the program will follow. Reservations should be made by sending an email to: altrusareservations@gmail.com by noon Monday, Jan. 22. The public is also invited, but asked to make a reservation to attend.
The speakers for the Altrusa program will be Ruby Miller and Bonnie Carroll..
In addition to being a member and past-president of Altrusa International of Oak Ridge, Miller is a member and past-president of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club (ORBRC). She is also currently a board member of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning (ORICL) and is co-chair of the Our American Roots program, which is co-sponsored by ORBRC and ORICL. Originally from South Carolina, she worked for Union Carbide and later Martin Marietta in Oak Ridge, holding various positions, including associate director of public relations and manager of small business and socioeconomic programs. In 1990, she started her own State Farm Insurance Agency. Active in her community and profession, she has held leadership positions in Rotary and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors of Tennessee, among many others.
In addition to being a member of Altrusa, Carroll is chair of the Peace and Social Justice Committee of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club (ORBRC) and she is the treasurer of the Our American Roots program. She is the founder of Information International Associates (IIa), which is headquartered in Oak Ridge. She has a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University in New York City, where she was born and raised. In 1971, she was hired as a librarian by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After that she joined the newly established Environmental Information Systems Office. Eventually, she was named coordinator of ORNL’s 24 information centers. Subsequently, as president of IIa, she has served in leadership positions in many national organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Altrusa to learn about Our American Roots lecture series in Oak Ridge
