Carmen Wu on June 27 was installed as 2023-24 president of the Rotary Club of McLean during a ceremony and dinner held at the McLean Community Center.
Former District Gov. TinTin Nu Raschid inducted Wu and the club’s new officers, who included Vance Zavela (vice president), Cecilia Duran Closs (president-elect), Janine Frank (secretary), Sam Agarwal (immediate past president), Michael Arietti (treasurer), and Paul Sawtell (sergeant-at-arms).
The club’s board of directors includes Carol King (administration), Deborah Jackson (membership), Joann Berkson (public image), Courtney Nuzzo and Ceclia Duran Closs (service grants), Michael Falcone (service projects), Matthew Melton (liaison to McLean Rotary Club Foundation), Bob Jansen and Lynn Heinrichs (youth services), and Lois Wilson (international service).
”We achieve so much more collectively than we could individually,” Wu said in her address to the club. “Our service projects, locally and globally, have been many and wide-ranging – including all the major Rotary areas of focus: maternal and child health, disease prevention and treatment, education and literacy, economic and community development, clean water and sanitation, the promotion of peace, and protection of the environment.”
Wu, who is serving her first stint as the club’s president, said she especially is passionate about issues related to fighting hunger and food insecurity.
Since March 2020, the Rotary Club of McLean, through its foundation, has awarded grants to several organizations, including Chesterbrook Residences, EduTutor VA, Every1Can Work, Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center, Homestretch, Global Woman PEACE, Foundation (Liberia), Indego Africa (Rwanda), Langley Residential Support Services, Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, McLean Cares, McLean Project for the Arts, Rebuilding Together, Share of McLean, Safe Community Coalition, Strategic Water Alliance (Honduras and Zambia), Timber Lane Elementary School, and Virginia Hospital Center Medical Brigade (Honduras).
The club also annually awards college scholarships to local high-school students and under-served students in STEM education through the David Gordon Louis Daniel Foundation.
