Mark Totten was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he lives today. He served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan from May 2022 - January 2025. He previously served as Chief Legal Counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor for the State of Michigan from 2019-2022. Prior to entering government service, Totten was a law professor at Michigan State University from 2008-2018, where he taught criminal law and criminal procedure. From 2011-2013 he served part-time as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney handling criminal appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan. He was a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and began his career as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Appellate Staff, in Washington, D.C. Totten received his B.A. from Cedarville College and his law degree and a Ph.D. in ethics from Yale University.
The U.S. Attorney is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the Western District of Michigan. The District covers 49 counties, including the western half of Michigan’s lower peninsula and the whole of the upper peninsula. The main office is in Grand Rapids, but the District also has a staffed office in Marquette and unstaffed offices in Lansing and Kalamazoo. As U.S. Attorney, Totten managed a team of approximately 42 attorneys and 48 support staff. At the national level, Totten served as a member on several U.S. Department of Justice bodies: the Terrorism & National Security Subcommittee; the Civil Rights Subcommittee; and the Environmental Justice Subcommittee.
We have an opportunity to volunteer with the Greater Lansing Food Bank on Wednesday, February 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. We will be helping sort food at their regional warehouse that will get delivered to local food pantries. The location is 5600 Food Court, Bath, Michigan. Please contact Jason Brunette if interested. Email: Jason.Brunette@martincommercial.com
A top priority for Rotary is growing and diversifying our membership to make sure we reflect the communities we serve and are inclusive of all cultures, experiences, and identities.
We're creating an organization that is more open and inclusive, fair to all, builds goodwill, and benefits our communities.
To help us achieve our goal, the RI Board of Directors passed a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement:
As a global network that strives to build a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, Rotary values diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, color, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Rotary will cultivate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture in which people from underrepresented groups have greater opportunities to participate as members and leaders.
A total of $45,000.00 was approved by the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation Board for International Grants from the committee. Each week we will highlight one of the non-profits receiving our checks.
Samuel Omogo Foundation. https://samuelomogofoundation.org/
The project addresses the need for clean water for schools, churches, and villages in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Since 2012, this has been accomplished wholly by donations and the subsequent installation of water-wells that serve an entire village, school, church, or hospital. The communities served all suffer from extreme poverty and lack for basic human needs. Women and children are typically responsible for the provision of household water (for cleaning, cooking, drinking, and hygiene). Those responsible for fetching water spend between 1 to 3 hours walking, each way, to obtain water. They may then wait between 15 minutes to 5 hours for their turn at the water source. Most water sources are contaminated with sewage, animal dung, and plant debris. Water-borne illnesses from contaminated water cause approximately 407 deaths in children under age 5, per day (according to 2017 data), in Nigeria. Consequently, many women are unable to seek employment and children are unable to attend school. Without access to this basic need, the population remains in extreme poverty. Access to clean water results in substantially reduced cases of water-borne illnesses, children are free to attend school, and women can seek employment. All of these are needed to support a population seeking a path out of poverty. SOF is seeking funding for additional wells. To date, all wells provided (504 since 2012) have been funded by donations. The villages, schools, and hospitals applying for wells each year far exceed the funding capabilities of SOF. With additional funding from a Rotary grant, more communities can gain access to clean and safe water. They received a check for $5,000.00.
Rotarian: “Say something funny about me in there!”
KVBS: “Working on it.”
Rotarian: “Wow, that’s such an exciting job!”
KVBS: “I know, I live for this.”
Rotarian: “How do you come up with such funny stuff?”
KVBS: “Just listening to you folks and it bubbles to the surface. Better out than in I always say.”
Rotarian: Can you make a short story that includes all your notes from today’s social hour?
KVBS: I was having a drink outside a sauna bar in Mohawk, Michigan. They were serving pasties of course and I said no gravy but give me a bucket of beer and a sixer to go, it’s for my grandpa. I was 12 at the time and already self-employed singing depressing show tunes from Les Miserables to the locals who’d been raised on a steady diet of Hee Haw, fatherless children and the Price is Right.
A comparative debate about swimming laps in the community pool versus World War II marines storming Pacific island beaches was interrupted when a fight broke out. A local football hero was chatting up my main squeeze. She was oblivious until a cheerleader threw a chair. True story, straight out of the Book of Mormon or maybe it was Hamilton or Shucked? I’m guessing a board member might know the answer. I’ll ask her next time I see her, but didn’t catch her name. She must be new.
I often get melancholy in bars, thinking wow, this is somebody’s work place. How wild is that? Listening in on conversations, picking up bits and pieces here and there, working at a party filled with spilled drinks, sadness and gladness all at the same time. Totally belonging to the place, yet an outsider at every table. Talk about Severance and the work life balance.
I couldn’t help but notice the banker with an ice cube bigger than a golf ball floating in a deep mahogany pond of bourbon. The banker looked at me and laughed a banker’s laugh. I tried to make small talk that a banker would appreciate but all I could muster was that I had a nephew who made ice cubes as a hobby. The banker was not impressed.
The end of our short storied trip to an Irish pub involves a presidential question. Would the president like something old? Something new? Something borrowed or something blue? It doesn’t have to be the same old Friday roast. We could try something completely new, improved different. She blushed and said “surprise me, ask my husband, here’s his number. He’s got the goods and silly photos.” I empathized with her husband trying to pick out a place to take her out to dinner for Valentine’s Day.
Rotarian: Wow is that what you’re thinking about when you’re at Rotary?
KVBS: Yes. Even when I’m there with you, I’m somewhere else.
Email for Kevin Schumacher: schumacher@glassenrhead.com
helping sort food at their regional warehouse that will get delivered to local food pantries. The location is 5600 Food Court, Bath, Michigan. Please contact Jason Brunette if interested. Email:
