Deborah Simon, Rotary District 5520 global grants coordinator, will speak to the Roswell Rotary Club this Thursday.
Deborah was raised in Guatemala as the daughter of missionaries. During her childhood, she became aware of the need for health care and studied nursing at the University of Oregon.
She has worked in several hospitals around the country and served as director of a home health hospice agency. She recently retired from Presbyterian Espanola Hospital.
Deborah is best known in District 5520 for coordinating Rotary global grant projects in Guatemala, which she has been doing since 1997.
She was a member and past president of the Espanola Rotary Club. Deborah joined the Santa Fe Rotary Club in 2013. She was awarded the Service Above Self Award by District 5520 in 2007. In 2015 and again in 2016, she was honored by Rotary Zone 27 as 1 of 15 people worldwide to receive the Rotary Alumni Global Service Award. Most recently she was made an honorary member of two Rotary clubs in Guatemala.
In 2004 she established a nonprofit organization called United by Friendship, which focuses on partnering with Latin American communities to work on projects Rotary does not fund, such as schools and clinics.
Each year, Deborah leads a team of volunteers to Guatemala to do needs and sustainability assessments, check on the status of our past projects and select a new global grant project.
