Rebecca is an experienced government relations professional with a career spanning nearly 25 years in various state and public sector positions. Prior to coming to Michigan State University, she represented the University of Michigan for 11 years as the Director of State Relations, focusing most of her time on state appropriations and on elevating research and academic freedom through strong collaborations with university academic and administrative units on the various intersections with state policy. 

 

Through her direct efforts, she was successful in securing base appropriation increases for the university as well as Capital Outlay support for such purposes as University of Michigan's School of Dentistry, a joint project between the College of Engineering and School of Information as well as other critical research projects. She has successfully worked to enhance campus engagement and collaboration with a wide range of government and non-government organizations beyond higher education.

 

Before her time at University of Michigan, Rebecca spent 12 years as a chief of staff and communications director in the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives. During her time in state government, Rebecca championed mental health advocacy, worked to enhance domestic violence and sexual assault prevention policy, and increased higher education funding support.

 

Rebecca was an East Lansing resident for more than a decade earlier in her career, and during that time chaired the East Lansing Planning Commission, where she worked to implement transportation zoning requirements and liquor license approval procedures. She is a proud Spartan alum with strong agricultural and land-grant experience, having earned her Bachelor of Science from MSU.  

Lansing Rotary’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee has been actively working on the goal of reaching out to communities in Lansing that perhaps we haven’t connected with in the past. Think, “build goodwill and better friendships” and “be beneficial to all”. Lansing Rotarians recently staffed a table at two summer events: The first was for Lansing’s Juneteenth Celebration on June 19. If you’re uncertain or don’t know what Juneteenth is, Lansing’s 2025 Juneteenth Telegraph has more information and you can connect to it here.

 

Lansing Rotarians also staffed the Rotary Tent at Lansing's Pride Festival on June 28. If you're uncertain or don't know what the Lansing Pride Festival is, you can learn more about it here.

 

 

Our Rotary District provided the tent, and Rotary Banners. Lansing Rotary looked so official! In my experience, if you need help, ask a Rotarian and if it is within their power, they will step up to the plate! In the most general of terms, Lansing Rotary's diversity equity and inclusion committee's goal is to reach out to Lansing and provide the opportunity for people to learn more about Rotary and specifically Lansing Rotary, who we are, what we do. A number of past local grant recipients came up to the table and were happy to relate what our Foundation grants meant to them. This was our first year doing this. Lansing Rotary was received with open arms and our volunteers who staffed the events answered questions about Rotary. Goal achieved! We hope to continue this next year and also to attend other events. If you know of an event that you think would benefit by having Lansing Rotary attend, let us know.

The following members have recently elected to resign from our club.

At the Club Board of Director's Meeting on Tuesday, June 17th the board set the quarterly dues at $145 and the meals will be $180 per quarter in effect starting with our fiscal year of July 1, 2025. This is the first quarter and invoices will reflect the increase next week. Exempt members will be billed the $145 for dues and $20 per meal for guests and exempt members when they attend. Thank you,

President Chris Swope, he lets me call him Prez One Ten, is the first of his name to lead the club into a new year. Prez One Ten put us on our feet at precisely 12:30, demonstrating leadership qualities we’ve come to expect from our presidents. His command of the 4 Way Test is unparalleled. Cathy Zell deconstructed the 4 Way Test for her Reflection: Think of the test as a mirror, not a window; we’re not here to judge others, but rather to measure ourself and our thoughts, words and actions and whether or not they are authentic and consistent with the 4 Way Test. A thought provoking Reflection, thank you.

 

With Hari Kern’s help, but without the guidance of any words on the screen, we sheepishly sang America the Beautiful (which turned 130 just a week ago). We had about 4 guests, nobody famous or infamous and as for the health of the club, in Johnny Bench’s vernacular, “No runs, no drips, no errors.” Thank you Camron Gnass for introducing The Player as today’s special music. The Player, Anthony Jones, did four hip hop numbers for us. Notable lyrics/titles include: Good intentions ain’t worth a thing if it don’t lead to nothing; Vallejo, an origin story; We’ve Come too far to go back now; and 20 days into 2025 , I’m not doing a lot, it’s time to go. At 22 his presence was nothing short of impressive. Imagine the courage it takes to be a black man in America today, to stand up before a predominantly white audience and sing your truth. I doubt many of us could pull it off as well.

 

Lisa Smith introduced our speaker of the day, Steve Japinga (many of us are old enough to have known his father Don from his MSU football heyday in the 60’s or his presence as an East Lansing fixture for decades). This wasn’t 40 year old Steve’s first visit to Lansing Rotary; he had fond memories of coming as a student guest from Lansing Catholic Central back in his high school years. Talk about full circle.

Steve is the SVP of Public Affairs with the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and gave us a thumbnail sketch of local, state and national activities they monitor and educate their membership on. The LRCC policy positions are driven by membership. This includes everything from the recently passed 2025 OBBB and advocacy by Michigan businesses for Federal Research (Federal) to upcoming ballot initiatives relating to minimum wage and sick leave (State) and the rewriting of the Lansing City Charter (local). We presently have a governor who is local to the Lansing Region, but the next governor won’t be and that impacts how much love ($$) the region sees when it comes to upcoming legislation. Steve fielded a number of questions from the audience, was given a token of appreciation by Prez One Ten and our meeting was concluded.

 

Kevin Schumacher's email is:  schumacher@glassenrhead.com