District Directory
DISTRICT GOVERNOR 2025-2026
Richard J. Macak, Jr.
Rotary Club of Beckley, West Virginia, USA
District Governor Elect
(District Governor 2025-2026)
A native of Athens, Ohio, Rick earned a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California, the University of Kansas and the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
As a professional military officer, Rick completed a 28-year career in the United States Marine Corps serving in a variety of leadership assignments throughout the U.S. and Asia. Upon retirement from active duty, he served an additional 16 years with the Department of Defense at United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida in support of operations in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. In addition, he completed a year-long assignment in Bagram, Afghanistan as a senior defense analyst.
Soon after relocating to West Virginia, Rick joined the Rotary Club of Beckley 2018. He served as its President during the Club’s Centennial Year (2021-2022) successfully linking the 100th anniversary with membership growth resulting in an increase from 82 to 102 members. In addition, the Governor of West Virginia recognized the Club in 2022 as the recipient of the “Volunteer West Virgina” award for its extensive community service to Beckley and Raleigh County, West Virginia. Rick has received his Club’s Service Above Self award. He is a RU graduate and a trained in-person and virtual RLI facilitator. He serves as a member of the District’s Strategic Planning Team, the Membership Committee and Finance Committee. He formed and leads the District’s inaugural Club Visioning Team.
Rick is a Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member and a Paul Harris Society Member. He and his wife Pat, also a Beckley Rotary Club Rotarian, are Bequest Society members. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.
Julie Sawyer
Rotary Club of Fairmont, West Virginia, USA
District Governor Nominee
(District Governor 2026-2027)
A native of Morgantown, WV, Julie now resides with her husband, Sean, in Preston County, WV. They have five grown children, three loyal pups, two independent cats, and an angry bird.
After earning her Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Science Education from West Virginia University in 1998, Julie first entered the education field as a middle school teacher in Monongalia County. She was then promoted to Administration at the central Board office as Child Nutrition Manager. After receiving her Master of Business Administration from Salem University in 2011, Julie served the Board as a Human Resources Manager, Payroll Coordinator, and Administrative Assistant to Personnel and Finance, until welcoming her retirement in January 2023.
Alongside her vocational journey, after several years of being involved with Rotary service projects in her community, Julie became an official member of Rotary International in 2018. Since such time, Julie has served her Club as its Attendance Secretary, Executive Secretary, and most recently and proudly, Satellite Club Chair. Julie is a past recipient of her Club’s ‘Revive and Thrive’ Award, is a Mid-Atlantic Rotary Leadership Institute (MARLI) graduate, and has gone on to become a certified MARLI facilitator. She has previously served District 7545 as its Conference Chair (2020-21) and Peace Fellow Chair (2021-22), participated on the Grants Committee (2020- 22) and now serves as its Communications Officer, MAP Ambassador, and as a member of the District Membership Committee. Julie has also had the privilege of serving at the Zone level on the Zones 33-34 Summit Arrangements Committee (2022, 2023) and the House of Friendship Sub-Committee (2021), along with being a member of the Zone Institute DGE Partner Training Team in Nassau (2023).
Julie’s belief in The Rotary Foundation and its efforts to enable all Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace has led her and husband, Sean, to become Major Donors Level I, and members of the Bequest Society Level IV, Paul Harris Society, and Polio Plus Society. She also regularly supports the Marion County Disability Action Center, and currently serves as a Board member for Kicking It For Katy, a local non-profit suicide awareness and prevention organization.
Stefan Smolski
Rotary Club of Grafton, West Virginia, USA
District Governor Nominee
District Governor (2027-2028)
A native of Ventura, California, Stefan earned his Associate in Arts from Ventura College, Bachelor of Science in Biology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California and Master of Arts in Secondary Curriculum and Development from West Virginia University. He worked for 18 months as a research biologist at the VA Hospital Brentwood, California before enlisting in the Navy.
Stefan completed over 23 years in the United States Navy in naval intelligence and as a naval flight officer. He served two tours as an advanced flight instructor in the E-2C Hawkeye airborne command and control aircraft as well as command of an east coast E-2C squadron. Stefan is a Desert Storm and Operations Deny Flight and Restore Hope in Bosnia-Herzegovina veteran. His final tour of duty was as the executive officer of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland during the base expansion as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure process.
He and his family relocated to West Virginia following his retirement from active duty where he completed his certification to teach secondary science from Fairmont State University. Stefan taught general science and biology for eleven years in Hancock County. His final 8 years he spent teaching general science, forensics, honors biology, and advanced placement biology in Taylor County. He was inducted into Rotary as one of the 14 charter members of the Rotary Club of Grafton satellite club. He has served the club as Foundation chair, club president (2022-2023), and on the board of directors (2021-2025). At the District level, he has served as the Paul Harris Society chair, Polio Plus Society chair, and District Learning Facilitator, and as a member of the District Visioning Team. He is a graduate of the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI).
Stefan is a Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member and a member of the Paul Harris Society, His strong belief in the efforts to eradicate polio and the mission of Rotary led him to become a Major Donor and with his wife to become Bequest Society members.
Sarah Woodrum
Sarah Woodrum, West Virginia, USA
District Governor Nominee Designate
District Governor (2028-2029)
Sarah Woodrum, DrPH, serves as dean at the West Virginia University School of Public Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she oversees the day-to-day and strategic administration and operations. Woodrum is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership, teaching leadership courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.
She is also a WVU liaison with many community organizations. Some notable leadership positions on prominent community boards include the Morgantown Area Partnership (chair, 2020 and 2023), United Way of Mon and Preston County (president, 2024-2025), Rotary Club of Morgantown (president, 2020-2021) and current assistant governor for Rotary District 7545. She is also a board member for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center. In 2024, she was awarded the Jefferson Award by WDTV/ Antero Resources as part of the Multiplying Good’s national program recognizing contributions of significant time to community service.
Woodrum is a West Virginia native who returned to the state in 2013 to serve in a similar role with the WVU School of Medicine and has maintained a faculty appointment in the WVU School of Public Health since that time. In between the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health administrative roles, she served as the chief operating officer at Mon Health Medical Center, a 189-bed community hospital in Morgantown.
Prior to returning to Morgantown, Woodrum was vice president at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois and before that, she worked in various administrative capacities within the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation (Chicago), Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) and the BJC Health System (St. Louis). Woodrum holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master’s degree in health systems management from Rush University in Chicago, and a doctorate in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is board-certified in healthcare management as a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Woodrum’s Rotary journey began as a Rotary Exchange student in Perth Australia, after graduating high school. After spending one year immersed in the ideals of Rotary International, Woodrum has been an advocate and supporter of “service above self.” She joined the Rotary Club of Morgantown in 2016 and since that time, has served as a club president, a member of the District Finance Committee, an Assistant Governor, a participant on the Innovative Club Advocates (ICA) group, selected as a District 7545 Emerging Leader, is active on the District Visioning Committee and a club program chair. In addition, Woodrum and her family hosted a Rotary Exchange student from Brazil for one year in 2018-19, was awarded the Brad Laidley award by her club for extraordinary and outstanding service and is a Paul Harris Fellow (x3).
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