The Rotary Club of Bearden featured two organizations at recent Friday luncheon meetings: The Koinonia Foundation and Let Her Speak.

Kristi Dubose has been the Executive Director of the Koinonia Foundation since 2024. She is an experienced chief development officer with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry, where she has built relationships and consistently met and exceeded goals.

The Koinonia Foundation founded The Camp Koinonia Foundation of Tennessee in 2001 to promote and support Camp Koinonia and weekend camps offered by the University of Tennessee through the Recreational Therapy Program. Since then, the Camp Koinonia Foundation has expanded its focus to broaden the range and scope of programs offered to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Recognizing that individuals with disabilities in multiple functional domains have limited recreational program opportunities after the age of 21, the Camp Koinonia Foundation supports lifelong learning by creating meaningful and recreational experiences that enrich our community members’ lives.

You can read more about the Koinonia Foundation and Camp Koinonia Foundation.

Katherine Forth, founder of Let Her Speak

Katherine Forth presented at another Friday luncheon on her non-profit, Let Her Speak, which she founded and has empowered over 2,200 women to use their voice and take bold steps in their careers and their communities. Forth has an extensive career spanning over 15 years across industries, including financial services, workplace design, and startup ecosystems. She has worked with men across a range of corporations, nonprofits, and startups, enabling her to deeply understand and connect with the very experiences and perspectives of the women she serves.

The success of Let Her Speak has been achieved through initiatives such as Let Her Lead, Let Her Vote, Let Her Invest, She Speaks podcasts, and the annual Women’s Summit, which provides a framework for storytelling, data-driven insights, and actionable strategies to enhance women’s influence in business, activism, civic engagement, and beyond.

The mission of Let Her Speak is to elevate women’s wealth, power, and influence by amplifying voices, facilitating deeper conversations, inspiring change in our communities, and building a stronger support system for more women to lead.

Starting with a single event in 2018 attended by 50 women, the program was designed to explore how to unite more women. It became something much bigger than Forth envisioned, as she now directs a non-profit hosting hundreds of events and serving thousands of women entrepreneurs. In fact, since 2023, events have been selling out in hours, regardless of the venue location.

“One of the biggest things, though, that I wanted to highlight is that everything that we do within Let Her Speak is incredibly data-driven. I use academic journals, papers, and conduct our own research,” says Forth.

She continues, “We are not a space that rejects any man from entering. We actually have a lot of gentlemen who are deeply involved in Let Her Speak and in the work that we do.”

Forth is looking towards a 2026 national licensing program for women across the country who have been requesting Let Her Speak in their communities.

For more information, please go to Let Her Speak. 

The Rotary Club of Bearden meets every Friday, 12:15 p.m. for luncheon meeting at Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike, 37919. All are welcome. Rotary’s Five Avenues of Service are the philosophical and practical framework for the work of this Rotary club: Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service, International Service, and Youth Service. Contact Joseph Pace with membership questions: here.

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