Wendy Diamond is a Social Entrepreneur, Humanitarian, Endangered Animal and Rescue Advocate, World’s Premiere Pet Lifestyle expert, Best-Selling Author, and TV Personality. She is heralded and recognized as a pioneer in the animal world; dubbed “Martha Stewart of the Milk Bone Dish” by The New Yorker, and crowned the “Canine Queen” by Forbes. She founded Animal Fair Media with a specific mission to save disenfranchised animals in shelters, and endangered wildlife globally, by promoting animal welfare and rescue, healthy pet lifestyles, and responsible breeding. Since its beginning, the number of animals euthanized annually has dropped by 58 percent, from 12 million to 4 million. Wendy has authored several best-selling books including: Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from the Dog, What I Learned from the Cat, My Cat’s Life, My Dog’s Life, How to Understand Men Through Their Dogs, How to Understand Women Through Their Cats and It’s a Dog’s World: The Savvy Guide to Four-Legged Living; A Musical Feast and All Star Feast. With the help of Lucky, her first adopted dog, and Baby Hope the second one, Wendy holds 3 Guinness World Records. Lucky Diamond is The Animal Photographed with the Most Celebrities with 363 celebrities. Baby Hope had the most expensive pet wedding in history raising money for a wing at the Humane Society of New York. Wendy herself received a Guinness for the longest curtsey relay in 5 minutes of 314 curtsies. Recently she launched Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) at the United Nations in 144 countries, which is a day to celebrate, support and empower women entrepreneurs and women owned businesses globally. Wendy has received countless honors and titles including the 2016 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Grand Marshal of Barkus, & Chairwoman of the Katrina Pet Memorial. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for the United Nations Millennium Development Goal Achievers, Grey Muzzle Foundation, Social Innovation Forum/United Nations and World Entrepreneurship Day.

Jonathan has been fortunate to pursue two careers unified by a single passion — to promote informed decision-making in a complex world. He began as a journalist for several respected news organizations, working in the 1970s and 1980s for the Des Moines Register in Iowa, Reuters and Dow Jones in London and the International Herald Tribune in Paris. At Reuters in the 1990s, he served in several senior editorial posts, including Global Editor at Reuters Television, the first worldwide TV network dedicated to market-moving financial news. He also helped integrate traditionally separate news units in the new position of Manager of Multimedia News Production. As news organizations and other information providers embraced digital production, media consumers struggled to cope with floods of easily published but poorly defined content. Information overload became a common complaint. Jonathan helped pioneer new techniques for organizing, classifying and linking information for more effective Web-based search, navigation and delivery. Eventually, he set up his own information architecture consultancy in 2003, InfoArk Ltd., to assist a variety of organizations, including global companies, UK government agencies and influential charities. He has worked for Unilever, Cambridge University, Times Newspapers, the National Health Service, Oxfam International and children’s charity Barnardo’s. Additionally, he has been a member of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce (RSA).

Keith has had an illustrious career in investment advising. He built up DeGreen Wealth Management, which he sold in 2006 with $640,000,000 of assets under management. After flunking retirement, he took a three year world-wide sabbatical. Keith then developed a portfolio management program and has pioneered world-wide market and sector investing through the growing universe of low-cost, U.S. traded, exchange traded funds (ETFs) with DeGreen Capital Management. He has authored The Emerging Markets Book, now in its second printing. Keith also hosts Arizona’s most popular personal finance show, which is now in its 21st year. After high school, Keith would receive the Purple Heart in Vietnam and attained the rank of Sergeant with the United States Marines. Additionally, he was Arizona’s Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1988 and was a candidate for Governor in 2005 but withdrew due to a family illness. Besides holding a Certified Financial Planner license, Keith earned a law degree when he returned from Vietnam.

Judge Fuhry is an accomplished attorney who has combined his law practice with a long history of service to the community. Dave graduated Summa Cum Laude from Kent State University in 1974 and the Ohio State University College of Law, Juris Doctorate in 1977. For 18 years he taught business law courses for KSU. In 1985 he was elected a Parkman Township Trustee and appointed Magistrate of the Chardon Municipal Court-à position he held for 20 years. He has served as President and Treasurer of the Geauga County Bar Association, as well as numerous other community organizations. He initiated the Geauga County Settlement Day in 1988 aimed at resolving legal disputes by mediation prior to protracted litigation. The program continues to this day with the cooperation of the County’s judges. He presently is serving a 6-year term as Judge of the Geauga County Common Pleas Court. David has been married to Mary Lou since 1980. Their four children: Louise Ann, David, Stephen and Martin range in age from 17 – 24. Dave enjoys bicycling, local and American history, raising fancy poultry, hunting and fishing.

Following his graduation from Purdue in 1980, with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Richard took a job with Phillips 66 Company in Pasadena, Texas. His 26-year career with Phillips, now ConocoPhillips has taken him around the world and placed him in charge of several billion-dollar projects. As a vice president he is currently heading the future capital projects program in Australia and the Timor. The venture centers on liquefied natural gas, which is an alternative to using gas pipelines and has been a new focus for the energy giant ConocoPhillips. From 1999-2004 he was the project and construction manager for a $1.3 billion dollar contract executed in Venezuela that employed a labor workforce of over 7000 people. While in Venezuela, he served as president of the school board at an international school in Puerto La Cruz. Despite his travels, Richard has remained active, including holding the positions of deacon at his church and president of his community association in Houston. While in Chagrin, he lettered in cross-country and track, and was awarded the Bausch & Lomb Science Award. Richard fondly remembers Skip Riegel his scoutmaster and former Sands Elementary principal. Under Mr. Riegel’s leadership he went on to earn his Eagle Scout rank and then work as a scout camp counselor for five summers in high school and college. Richard also enjoyed the time he spent in four years of high school musicals working under Harold Loesch and Molly Macknin. He credits the Chagrin Falls School System and Purdue University for providing him with a solid educational foundation. Richard relies upon his faith to persevere through the difficult times. He is grateful to his wife Paula of 23 years and their three great kids; Ben, Sarah and Jordan for their support. In his free time Richard enjoys golf, although not a golfer, travel, hunting, fishing and reading.

Allison’s career in journalism started as co-editor of the 1969 Zenith and has taken her around the country and brought her many accolades. She graduated with honors with a degree in journalism from Iowa State University in 1973. She has served as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and freelance writer. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, LA Times, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire and Saveur, among other publications. Her work at the San Jose (CA) Mercury resulted in a Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. She co-authored with her twin sister Peggy “Food Finds: America’s Best Local Foods and the People Who Make Them.” This led to interviews on the Larry King Show, CNN, The Today Show, etc. The book was sold seven years ago to the Food Network resulting in the TV show that currently airs. In 1996 she was awarded an endowed chair at Iowa State University, and in 2002, was given an unprecedented second endowed chair. Allison was the speechwriter and aide for the Governor and Lt. Governor of Iowa, before moving to California in 2000. Last year, she joined the Communications Department of the University of Southern California as the senior writer/editor, and was named USC’s Faculty/Staff Mentor of the Year. She joins her sister Peggy in the CFAA Achievement Hall of Fame. Allison and her husband Scott Kirkpatrick have been married for 33 years. They have two children, Miles, a college graduate and golf professional and Nora, who majored in acting at UCLA. They have always had many cats and dogs, but are currently down to one ungrateful cat, Checkers, who rules the house. Allison’s interests include: architecture with an emphasis on vintage commercial buildings, old neon and diner signs, as well as quilts and textiles.

Walt Ettinger’s climb to the top of the medical profession is replete with accomplishments. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1978, he has taught at Wake Forest University School of Medicine since 1985. He has more than 100 of his articles and reviews published. His three books include “Fitness After 50: It’s Never too Late to Start,” published in 1996. Twice he has been listed in “The Best Doctors in America” (Geriatric Medicine), in 1994 and 1996. In 1993, he received the Henry Christian Memorial Award for outstanding abstract in aging research. Currently, Dr. Ettinger is Director at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

The breadth, depth, and sheer quality of Peggy Engel’s literary works were recognized long before this former majorette marched to Washington. A 1973 honors graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, she won several awards for investigative reporting for the Lorain (Ohio) Journal and the Des Moines Register. She was the youngest person to win a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard Univand ersity, where she studied law and occupational health at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and M. I. T. In 1981, Peggy joined the Washington Post, where she was a reporter and editor. Her work was nominated four times for a Pulitzer Prize. An adjunct journalism professor at Georgetown University, she has been published in magazines such as Esquire, Ladies Home Journal, and Glamour. She has appeared on the Today Show Larry King, As the executive director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, she guides a program that awards fellowships to some of the country’s best reporters, editors, and photographers. Among her books is “Ballpark Vacations,” a guide to America’s exceptional baseball parks. Her investigative reporting for this project included her husband, two children, 25,000 miles, and nearly 100 major and minor league ballparks.

David Farris traces his success to the supportive atmosphere of the Chagrin Falls School System. Much involved in athletics and drama during his years at CFHS, his successes have reached dramatic proportions. Since 1987, he has been Chief Operating Officer of Beneficial Corporation, a $15 billion, New York Stock Exchange-listed financial services holding company. He is also President and Chief Executive Officer of Beneficial Management Corporation, a subsidiary. Subsidiaries of the company provide financial services through their various consumer-finance, banking, and insurance operations located throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland. A graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Graduate School of Business, he is a director and past president of the National Home Equity Mortgage Association. He is a chairman of the New Jersey Ballet Company, and also chairman and a trustee of CHEMcare, a Westfield, N.J. support group for cancer patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatment. After being graduated from CFHS, David stayed close to home for a while. He earned his undergraduate degree in business from Kent State University, and he was president of the Chagrin Valley Jaycees. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Kent State University Foundation.

A former sailor in the United States Navy, Richard Draz weaved his love of people, water, and physical education into a coaching career paralleled by few. A graduate of Kent State University, he has been referred to as “a living legend” in the swimming and water polo circles of southern California. From 1962 until 1986, he was the head swimming coach at Crawford High School in San Diego. He has received numerous awards. In 1986, the National High School Athletic Association presented him the “National Coach of the Year” award for being the top swimming coach in the United States for that year. In 1990, the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association honored him with the “National Outstanding Service” award. He is listed in the book, America’s Greatest Coaches, by Michael Koehler. His dual meet record at Crawford in boys swimming was 253-38-1, which included 21 undefeated league championships. His boys’ water polo teams were 334-106-1, which included 13 league titles. Since 1986, he has been the head swimming coach and head water polo coach at San Diego Mesa College. Richard remembers the caring and supportive attitude the Chagrin teachers had for their students, qualities which he has carried proudly as a teacher-coach in his adopted homeland.