ENGAGING SPEAKERS
November Pyramid Meeting
Thursday, November 6th
Our November speaker will be Dr. Hans Kersten, Attending Physician at St. Christopher’s Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics, Drexel University of Medicine. Dr, Kersten will be speaking about the Reach Out and Read program at St. Chris’ and their plans to build a children’s library in the hospital.
Dr. Hans Kersten is board certified in pediatrics. He was the medical director for the GrowClinic (for children with failure-to-thrive [FTT]) and is a pediatrician at St. Christopher’sHospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA.
Dr. Kersten is a member of the Mayor’s Lead Poisoning Primary Prevention Task Force in Philadelphia, is an advisory committee member of Reach Out and Read Greater Philadelphia, and is the Chair for American Academy of Pediatrics’ Clinical Practice Guideline on Faltering Weight.
Dr. Kersten became an assistant professor of pediatrics in 1997 at Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM) after completing his residency at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children (SCHC), was promoted to associate professor in 2006, and to professor in 2014. His scholarly activity includes research on lead poisoning, development and implementation of competency-based educational programs in direct observation and EBM as well as FTT. He has lectured on tattoos and piercings, lead poisoning and environmental health, delinquency, FTT, and EBM in the Philadelphia region and beyond.
He has led recent efforts for SCHC to become “hunger-free” by screening for food insecurity throughout the hospital, providing resources for families, organizing food drives, improving fresh food access by starting the Farm to Families program at the hospital and the Philly Food Cart in the lobby. He has led efforts to screen and address social determinants of health (SDoH or health determinants) over the last 15 years at SCHC. This work has helped SCHC become a respected leader in providing comprehensive care for at-risk families. Now, he is leading efforts to develop a more unified approach to the care of children and families through a health equity lens and has published Health Equity Reports highlighting work to address health inequities at SCHC. Finally, he has established a basketball tournament to sustain efforts to promote literacy across the SCHC enterprise.
He was recognized by the Coalition Against Hunger with the Pat Temple-West Award for innovative efforts toward building a hunger-free community. He has also received the Celebrate Literacy Award from the Delaware County Reading Council, the Vincent Zarro, MD, PhD Community Outreach Award from DUCOM, has been selected as a “Best Doctors”, and been elected to DUCOMs Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society.
Thursday, November 6th 6:00 PM
Pyramid Club
December Meeting - Speaker TBA
Thursday, December 4th 6:00 PM
PAST SPEAKERS
2025
Octobert 9, 2025, 6 PM Pyramid Club
Our October speaker was Jan Biros, District Governor for Rotary District 7450, which encompasses more than forty clubs throughout the Philadelphia and Chester County area. During her talk, Jan shared her goals as District Governor. She emphasized the importance of collaboration and cooperation among clubs. She observed that many clubs tend to operate independently and hopes to foster greater partnerships to amplify Rotary’s overall impact.
September 4, 2025, 6 PM Pyramid Club
Our September speaker was Ryan Ogle, Championship Director for the PGA of America. Ryan spoke about the upcoming PGA Championship that will be held at Aronimink Golf Club in May 2026. Ryan gave an overview of what goes into planning the PGA Championships, the number of people and companies involved, and the economic impact on the local community.
Interested at speaking at one of our meetings? Apply here.