Speakers

Speaker	Date	Topic
Kathy Mastako, Researcher and Writier	Mar 10, 2021	Point San Luis Obispo Lighthouse Kathy Mastako has been associated with the Point San Luis Light Station since her retirement from Cal Poly in 2016. At first, she volunteered to work as a docent, leading tours of the light station on Wednesdays and Saturdays for hikers taking the Pecho Coast Trail to the lighthouse, and for visitors coming by shuttle bus. After leading tours for a few months, she decided she wanted to do more research into the lighthouse’s history with particular emphasis on the people who lived and worked there. Her research has resulted in a number of articles published in national and regional publications like Lighthouse Digest magazine, the quarterly journal of the United States Lighthouse Society and the quarterly journal of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society. She also writes a monthly column about Point San Luis for the Avila Beach Life newspaper, contributes to Lighthouse Quarterly, a publication of the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers, and produces the quarterly newsletter for the Point San Luis light station. She attended Georgetown University, where she met her husband, and graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Business Administration. Her first career was spent in Human Resources, first in the nonprofit and public sectors and later, after relocating to Silicon Valley, for high tech companies like Varian, VLSI, and Philips. Kathy and her husband moved to the Central Coast in 2002, planning on retirement. But she soon decided it was too early to retire, so she launched a second “career” providing administrative services for Cal Poly’s Landscape Architecture department. Research and history were never her passions until she realized she wanted to delve deeper into Point San Luis’s past. Her ongoing research informs her tours, gives her an outlet for her writing, and helps educate fellow docents about aspects of the lighthouse’s history they might not have known before. In 2019, she joined the Board of the non-profit, the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers, which has responsibility for the restoration, preservation, maintenance and operation of the light station. Aside from her research and writing, Kathy developed an interactive Zoom tour of the light station to substitute for “in person” tours while the lighthouse is temporarily closed. These Zoom tours are offered to the public every Wednesday afternoon, and to groups by prior arrangement. For some groups, thanks to a generous grant from Mechanics Bank, the Zoom tours are offered free of charge. Kathy’s future plans include authoring a book about the Point San Luis LIghthouse and, post-pandemic, bringing the lighthouse, using Zoom, to those who for one reason or another are not able to travel here to visit it.
John Lindsey	Mar 17, 2021	PG&E Weatherman
Jon Haveman, PhD - Nat'l Economic Education Deleg	Mar 24, 2021	The Economics of Autonomous vehicles Jon Haveman is the Executive Director of the National Economic Education Delegation (NEED). He is a noted California economist, where he has been practicing since 2001. He has a reputation for providing audiences with edible economic information that is readily useful in their work and private lives. Prior to starting NEED, Jon was a principal at Marin Economic Consulting, a founding principal at Beacon Economics and the Director of the Economy Program at the Public Policy Institute of California. He has been a Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, an Economist with the Federal Trade Commission, and held a faculty position in the Business School at Purdue University. Dr. Haveman an expert on economic policy issues and speaks regularly at events across California. His more than 400 talks have covered a wide range of policy topics as well as addressing the state of the U.S., California, and Bay Area economies. Dr. Haveman holds a Ph.D and Master of Science in Economics from The University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.
Greg Fritz - ACTIA - Electric Vehicles	Apr 07, 2021	Electrification of Trucks and Buses Greg has spent his entire 25+ year career in the field of electrification working on both battery packs and power electronics at industry leading international Start-Up, Tier 1 and OEM companies. With strong commercial and technical skill-sets, he is the voice of the customer leading strategy and business development cross organizationally. He is currently the EV Business Unit Manager @ ACTIA Corporation - The US front office for the ACTIA Group, a global company providing battery packs, EV powertrains and fully integrated EV systems with connected services. You can learn more about our company - The ACTIA Group an international company with 24 locations in 16 countries that designs and manufactures on-board electronic systems to meet the challenges of connected, safe and sustainable mobility in particularly demanding customer environments: https://electromobility.actia.com/
Rob Miller, GM & Sam Saltoun, Board Member	May 12, 2021	Woodlands Mutual Water Company