District Governor, Deborah Walters

Biography

In 2002 Deborah Walters joined the Unity Rotary Club, and served as Club President in 2006-2007. At the district level her service includes: World Community Service, Nominating Committee, Youth Exchange and Rotary Volunteers. She has written and coordinated numerous Rotary Foundation matching grants. Deb and Chris were awarded PHF's for their service, and both are Rotary Benefactors as well as major donors. The Unity Club selected her as Rotarian of the Year in 2006.

At the Rotary Leadership Institute she learned about Safe Passage, a non-profit that assists the children of the families who live in the Guatemala City garbage dump community. After volunteering in Guatemala she was asked to join other Rotarians on the Safe Passage Board of Directors, and currently serves as President. She now travels regularly to the garbage dump community and leads service groups. Deb has served on the boards of numerous educational and community non-profit organizations, and shares her expertise through the Maine Association of Non-Profits and Board Source, the national association for non-profit boards.

She received her formal education at Swarthmore College, Guilford College and the University of Birmingham (England) finishing with a Ph.D. in Neurocommunications. As a cognitive scientist and professor, she has served as dean, provost and senior vice president at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University at Buffalo, and Unity College in Maine. She is an American Council on Education Fellow, and has presented her research across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Deborah Walters lives in Troy, Maine with her husband, Chris Percival. She has two children (Thomas, a country doctor in upstate New York, and Anna, a photojournalist in Denver) and four grandchildren. Her hobbies include traveling alone by kayak in the Canadian Arctic and winter camping.