In order to help our Bridge Partners to further their objectives, we are offering assistance in a variety of skills related to the success of non-profits via the Bridge Toolbox Series. These webinars are recorded and archived on our website for public use. 

Many nonprofits derive almost all of their funds from cash gifts. This webinar will discuss alternative fundraising vehicles that can enhance charitable giving and are easy, readily available options for donors.

Julie Wilson Sakellariadis '78 and Nick Sakellariadis '73 are the volunteer leaders of planned giving both at Harvard  and at the New York Botanical Garden. Among other topics, they will cover the potential impact of estate gifts, the donation of appreciated securities,  and the power of gifts from IRA’s for those over 70.

Meet Our Bridges is ClassACT HR73’s way to introduce our classmates and extended community to our Bridge Partners by letting them create awareness of their mission as well as solicit volunteer help and/or donations.

Dr. Ron Dieckmann, Harvard ’73, Founder and Executive Director of KidsCareEverywhere along with KCE Board member Dr. Marjorie (Margie) Hogan, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and retired staff pediatrician at Hennepin HealthCare, will discuss the crises, confusion and calamities in low-resourced health systems, precipitated by the abrupt withdrawal of US Agency for International Development (USAID) funds by the Trump administration in July, 2025. USAID had been the world's largest humanitarian aid donor agency for over 60 years. While KCE is increasing trainings and distributions of state-of-the-art software in multiple countries to help medical colleagues, discontinuation of US funding has created massive potholes in global services. Over 3 million children under 5 years old are expected to die in the next three years in these impoverished countries because of cancellation of American support.

Ron and Margie will describe KCE’s mission and vision, its history, and its impact over 20 years. Viewers will learn about mind-boggling health statistics in host countries, and unique obstacles and barriers to medical education in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa served by KCE. The speakers will also share some good news: 2025 program innovations and adaptations by KCE— to promote integration of AI in the software, and to include nurse providers in software training.

RON DIECKMANN '73, MD, MPH
Founder, Executive Director, Kids Care Everywhere

Dr. Dieckmann was educated at Harvard, Stanford Medical School, and the Berkeley School of Public Health. He is a Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Medicine at University of California, San Francisco and was the Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital for 25 years. Triple board certified in pediatrics, pediatric emergency medicine, and general emergency medicine, Dr. Dieckmann has edited five first edition medical textbooks, is a frequent speaker at national and international medical conferences, and has received national awards for service to American medical education and training. In 2003, he co-founded “PEMSoft-The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Software”, a decision-support software knowledge system which is now owned by EBSCO Publishing in Ipswich, MA. His international family travels led him to found KidsCareEverywhere, and to donate medical software to under-resourced health systems.

MARJORIE (MARGIE) HOGAN, MD

Board Director, Kids Care Everywhere

Professor Pediatrics, University of Minnesota
Retired staff pediatrician at Hennepin HealthCare

Biotechnology, Food Imperatives, and Global Agricultural Trade

With Michael Schechtman '73, Ph.D. Cornell University

Agriculture is both a necessity and a contributor to environmental degradation and climate change. Increasing world population and the lack of extra available land puts environmentally sensitive marginal lands at great risk, as do the diets in developed nations and the changing diets in developing ones. Much of the world’s arable lands are devoted to raising animals or to growing crops for animal feed. In order to produce adequate food supplies and protect remaining uncultivated land, farmers need new technologies to produce more food on less land, and do so in more environmentally benign ways, including incorporating new varieties derived from genetic engineering and gene editing as well as new management strategies. Concern around new technologies and commercial self-interest have often led to trade disputes disguised as scientific debates. As more countries incorporate biotechnologies for their own domestic use, technology fears may be lessened but trade competition will persist. Join us as Michael Schechtman '73, PhD, Cornell University and Former Biotechnology Coordinator at the United States Department of Agriculture, will discuss the issues intersecting biotechnology, food imperatives and the global agricultural trade.

Michael Schechtman '73

Ph.D. Cornell University

Michael Schechtman, prior to his retirement, was Biotechnology Coordinator for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for policy coordination on biotechnology matters within USDA and with other Federal Agencies, and serving as Executive Secretary of USDA’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture, whose mission was to advise the Secretary on biotechnology issues affecting the current and future work of USDA. He also had a variety of responsibilities in representing US biotechnology policy internationally, including in biotechnology treaty negotiations under the Biodiversity Convention and in trade negotiations with other nations, including China, and in outreach to numerous other nations around the world. Before joining USDA, he was on the faculty of the Department of Biology at Syracuse University. He is currently a member of a National Academy of Sciences advisory committee for its new Biotechnology Regulatory Fellowship Program.