The Membership Committee is pleased to welcome eight new members who joined our club in February.

• Roger Fraser – Reinstatement (Sponsor: Collyer Smith)
• Elliott Greenberg (Sponsor: Bonita Singal)
• Christopher Lemon (Sponsor: Joyce Hunter)
• Brandy Merritt (Sponsor: Joyce Hunter)
• Karen Pancost (Sponsor: Bonita Singal)
• Jacob (Jake) Phillips (Sponsors: Kate VanHorn and Agnes Reading)
• Shannon Polk (Sponsor: Joyce Hunter)
• Max Wisgerhof (Sponsor: Mary Avrakotos)

Below are the bios for Christopher Lemon, Brandy Merritt, Jake Phillips, Shannon Polk and Max Wisgerhof. Roger Fraser, Elliott Greenberg and Karen Pancost will be introduced in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you see someone with a yellow ribbon, please introduce yourself.

Christopher Lemon

In his time at Ann Arbor Area Community foundation (AAACF), Christopher has overseen grantmaking initiatives to support programmatic and cross sector solution building to support older adults, youth ages 6 -18, racial equity, and economic empowerment.  This has been through competitive grant making and collaborative efforts with other funders and elected officials.

Christopher owns a 35-acre farm in Dexter that supports the community with low-cost produce.  He is also a coach for the women’s Varsity Lacrosse Team for Dexter High School.

Christopher’s 19-year-old son is attending Michigan State University and majoring in Nursing and Bio Chemistry.  Christopher’s parents Roy and Sue Muir live in the community and are very engaged in the nonprofit sector.

Brandy Merritt

Brandy is a servant leader whose career and volunteer work align with Rotary’s mission of creating lasting change globally and locally.  As a Communications Director at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation and in leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, she has advanced equity by uniting stakeholders and building strong community connections.  Through Jack and Jill of America, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. and Links, Inc. she has fostered youth development and cross-cultural collaboration locally and globally.  She also volunteers when traveling, which is a reflection of her deep commitment to service and embodies Rotary’s values of taking action for community impact.

Brandy has been married 33 years to her husband, Len, and is the proud Mom of two high school boys. A senior and future doctor at Greenhills and a freshman and aspiring attorney with Early College Alliance (ECA) at Eastern Michigan University.

Jacob (Jake) Phillips

Jake was born and raised in Jenison, a small town outside of Grand Rapids. He received Bachelor in General Studies (BGS) a highly interdisciplinary degree that allows students to combine and explore multiple subjects from the University of Michigan in 2021. He works at NOMA, a commercial real estate service located in downtown Ann Arbor. He lives in Ypsilanti with his wife, Joana, and their two cats Thorbert and Stormy. In his free time, he enjoys watching anime and apocalypse films/shows. He also likes to cook and try different things. He is looking forward to growing deeper roots in our community with Rotary to help effect positive change.

Shannon Polk

Shannon is the President/CEO of the Ann Arbor Area Foundation.  Shannon has significant experience as a former Rotarian who has served on the Board of Directors, speakers committee, and membership recruitment.  Shannon will bring her organizing, planning, and financial skills to our club.

Shannon has been married for almost 18 years to Jon, an attorney, and they have a lovely precocious 12-year-old daughter, Lara who attends 6th grade at Greenhills.

Max Wisgerhof

Max has lived in the Ann Arbor area for the past eleven years since retiring from Henry Ford Hospital as their Senior Staff Physician in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2014. During his tenure he mentored students in the medical school and in medical residency training, in addition to working in conjunction with Jewish Family Services to guide physicians trained abroad seeking medical certification in the U.S.

For a number of years, he also Chaired the Human Rights Committee of the Hospital reviewing the ethics of medical research proposals and human studies research.

Max has a special interest in housing insecurity and for the past five years has been a volunteer with Groundcover News here in Ann Arbor, a publication that helps people who are housing insecure to obtain money by selling Groundcover News.

He looks forward to engaging with Rotary to further assure positive change in areas such as housing and public education here in Ann Arbor and to working globally to support initiatives that enhance the lives of children worldwide.