Guests & Speakers
Monika Geise
Zonta Club of Muenster, Germany, District 29
Motto: Empowerment of women and girls will lead to a better world for all of us!
Monika has been a member since 2006. She has served as her district’s treasurer, lieutenant governor and most recently, governor. During the last two years, she has maintained members’ enthusiasm and commitment by encouraging advocacy and donation actions in international campaigns. She also attracted record numbers to attend the electronic district conference while promoting awardee connections and networking.
As a senior partner in an auditing and tax consulting company, Monika is experienced in motivating and inspiring people and considers effective communication a vital part of her daily work ethic. As a professional mediator, she possesses negotiation and conflict solving skills as well as empathy to understand people´s needs.
Monika’s goals for Zonta include focusing on providing the right support to members to help them solve local issues, which leads to greater global impact. She feels that by empowering younger members, they will profit from others’ experience while they inspire others by their energy, ideas and competencies.
Andrea Ghez, PhD
Andrea M. Ghez, professor of Physics & Astronomy and Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics and heads UCLA’s Galactic Center Group. Best known for her ground-breaking work on the center of our Galaxy, which has led to the best evidence to date for the existence of supermassive black holes, she has received numerous honors and awards including the Nobel Prize in 2020, she became the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing one half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel.
Ghez is also very committed to the communication of science to the general public and inspiring young girls into science. Ghez earned her B.S from MIT in 1987, and her PhD from Caltech in 1992 and has been on the faculty at UCLA since 1994. Ghez is a 1987 Amelia Earhart Fellow.
Tressa Lacy
At five, Tressa began stacking boards in the family’s logging business. Four years later, she was wielding a chainsaw. After enduring life-shattering logging injuries, Tressa chose a positive path forward through education and community engagement.
Now an influential role model and recipient of national and international honors—including being featured on Zonta’s Remarkable Women with a Powerful Story—Tressa champions change, encouraging women to rise to their potential as founder of Undaunted Women—a nonprofit that advocates with Afghan evacuees to identify and overcome barriers to self-reliance.
While Tressa awaits the publication of her memoir about her experiences as a child lumberjack, she works as a mom and adjunct accounting professor, shares her story with diverse audiences, serves on a Regional Council of the Institute of Management Accountants, and volunteers with the Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley. Support her by following her work at TressaLacy.com.
Sharon Langenbeck, PhD
Sharon retired in 2008 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she held both line and project management positions. While Section Manager of Mechanical Engineering, she managed over 200 engineers designing and developing space flight hardware and was responsible for all technical, cost and schedule performance of the Section’s business.
Prior to joining JPL in 1990, Sharon spent 11 years at the Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company where she held various management positions. While working at Lockheed, she was also part-time engineering faculty at CSUN (1980-1983). Sharon received her Ph.D. (1979), M.S. (1976) and B.S. with Honors (1974) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 1977 and 1978.
Sharon joined the Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley in 1979. She has held numerous leadership positions at the club, district and international level. Sharon was Zonta International and Zonta Foundation for Women President (2020-2022).