Welcome to our webpage!
Announcing the blast off of a new club for our MARS seniors named PACESETTERS.
The primary purpose of Pacesetters is to provide a social club for MARS Associates senior members (75+) to share life experiences, camaraderie, meals, books, etc. via email interactions, “Zoom” like calls, and periodic lunch gatherings. Members are not required to pay additional dues beyond those of MARS Associates members.
If you are 75+ and have not joined PACESETTERS yet to enjoy the camaraderie of your retired senior friends please call Bill Wise at 720 636 5823 or email him at wisewj@aol.com.
LOCATION:
All PACESETTERS Meetings are held at the Landsdowne Arms 9352 Dorchester St, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129. Everyone pays for their own meal and separate checks are provided. A big thank you to the Landsdowne management (Rob) and hostesses.
A few words about logistics. Please be on time at 11:00 when the restaurant opens. Stick on your hand written name tag. This is to prevent forgetting your best friend’s name. Be ready to start ordering from the menu as soon as soon as the hostess comes.
REMEMBER: CARPE DIEM!
Club Point of Contact: Bill Wise (720) 636 5823 wisewj@aol.com
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PACESETTERS Mark Your Calendars for 2025
September 17 2025: Upcoming Mission: Orion Artemis 2
Speaker: Paul Benfield, Lockheed Martin Space
Mr. Benfield is the Lockheed Martin Orion Artemis 2 Mission Manager, reporting to the Orion Program Office and responsible for all aspects of mission-specific planning, and execution. The upcoming Artemis 2 crewed flight is planned for early 2026. Mr. Benfield completed his BS in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1989, and later his MBA from University of Houston, Clear Lake in 1993. An early intern with Lockheed Martin, Mr. Benfield worked on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs at NASA Johnson Space Center, before beginning his career with Lockheed Martin Denver in 2001. Mr. Benfield has worked across most Lines of Business in LM-Space while currently back in his area of true passion for human spaceflight.
October 15, 2025: Fraud and Scams Targeting Colorado
Speaker: Officer Scott Moore, Crime Prevention Specialist, Louisville CO Police Dept
Officer Moore will address some of the top scams and frauds targeting older adults in Colorado. Learn how to recognize these threats, and what to do to protect yourself from being a victim.
November 12, 2025: Neurological Science
Speaker: Dr Adam Wolff MD
Dr. Wolff most recently hails from the prestigious Stanford University where he completed a fellowship in Neurophysiology. He is a Chicago native who graduated from the Rush Medical College and completed his neurology residency at Northwestern University. He is board certified in Neurology, Neurophysiology and serves as the Director of Neurology and Stroke at Porter Adventist Hospital. Dr. Wolff welcomes patients with all neurological problems and as a Neurologist has special interests in EMG and Botox therapy. An electromyography (EMG) is a medical test that measures the electrical activity of muscles and nerves. It helps diagnose conditions that affect the neuromuscular system, such as muscle weakness, numbness, tingling, and muscle spasms.
PACESETTERS Mark Your Calendars for 2026
January 14, 2026: Advancing our Understanding of Earth, our Solar System and Beyond
Speakers: Ms Tonya Ladewig and Mr Paul Anderson
Ms. Ladwig is Vice President & Deputy for the Commercial Civil Space line of business for Lockheed Martin. In this role she is responsible for overseeing the management of commercial and civil space programs for human and robotic deep space exploration, weather and remote sensing and other cutting -edge technologies. She is a strong advocate of NASA’s ARTEMIS mission. She will speak to the current Space Systems Organization, the business unit products and goals.
Mr. Paul Mr Anderson is a Senior Director on the Orion Program, reporting to Tonya Ladwig. In this position, Paul is the Deputy Program Manager on the highly visible Orion/Artemis Programs , programs all across LM Space.
Prior to that, Paul served as the Human Lander System Program Manager, Orion/Artemis II Vehicle Director, Orion Avionics, Power and Wiring Director. Most recently, Paul served as the Spacecraft Integrated Engineering Team (IET) director within the Spacecraft and Missile Engineering organization. In this position, Paul was responsible for an organization of over 2,200 engineers providing multi-disciplinary teams to the vast number of Spacecraft
Paul brings over 37 years of experience leading large, complex, and publicly visible firm-fixed price development programs and enterprise level functional organization. He has proven success managing delivery of diverse in-house and subcontract-developed flight hardware within time and cost constraints while pioneering implementation champion known for introducing cutting-edge PM solutions, such as Agile PM processes, digital transformation tools, and advanced leading health indicator metrics to optimize operations. Paul confidently builds, collaborates with, and guides large diverse teams of internal and external resources including NASA and commercial customers, LM employees, and large subcontractors.
Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Geophysics from Colorado School of Mines and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from University of Colorado, Boulder.
PACESETTERS Past Events
August 13, 2025: Senior Living Options
Speaker: Marnie Blin
Marnie is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA), Certified Placement & Referral Specialist (CPRS), and President of the Colorado Placement Referral Alliance (COPRA)
Marnie has compiled and organized information on hundreds of senior living options in the Denver metro area. The presentation included the following: Independent living communities; Large assisted living communities; Small assisted living communities (often referred to as “board and care” or “residential care facilities”); Memory care facilities; Nursing homes; Multi level-care communities; Continuing care retirement communities (often referred to as “Life Care Communities”). Her husband Kevin added his knowledge to the presentation.
40 club members attended and interacted with thorough questions. After the meeting a wonderful camaraderie session continued with positive comments and thanks regarding the informative presentation. Click the link below to see a copy of the presentation.
All About Seniors Presentation
July 16, 2025: Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Dr. AD Alghourabi, University of Denver
Professor Alghourabi is a fellow adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver, as well as a practitioner, leveraging AI in creating applications. He created and led the DU University College inaugural course in AI a couple of terms ago.
Professor Alghourabi talked about the history of AI, current techniques/status, current use cases of AI, and what the future holds.
June 11, 2025: Ears, Nose, Throat (ENT) Topics for Seniors
Speaker: Dr. Nicolette A Picerno, MD.
Dr. Picerno is Board-certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and Board-certified by the American Board of Facial and Reconstructive Surgery.
Dr. Picerno and Audiologist Eliza Cioffi held a very informative session on Ears, Nose and Throat Senior Care. Dr. Picerno and Ms. Cioffi answered unending PACESETTER questions. Click the link below to see a copy of Dr Picerno’s presentation.
May 14,2025: Ophthalmological Senior Eye Care
Speaker: Dr. Shane Nau, Ophthalmologist.
Dr. Shane Nau is a board-eligible Ophthalmologist, His areas of expertise include comprehensive medical ophthalmology, glaucoma management and cataract surgery.
Dr Nau provided an informative talk about eye issues that are common to seniors and various remedies and treatments that are available today. A copy of his slide package is included below. Approximately 18 Pacesetters were present and enjoyed the talk and the Q&A afterwords.
April 16, 2025: Dermatology
Speaker: Dr. Caroline Hagan, Dermatologist.
Dr. Caroline Hagan, MD serves patients in the Denver area. She grew up In Shreveport, Louisiana and went on to attend Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she graduated summa cum Laude. She then attended medical school at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, where she received the Chancellor’s Award for academic excellence.
Dr Hagan gave a wide ranging presentation discussing skin diseases common to seniors and various ways for seniors to care for their skin. There was a strong focus on the various types of skin cancer, how to recognize them, how they are treated, and how to avoid them. Her presentation was very well received by the group, and can be viewed in its entirety at the link below.
February 19, 2025: NORAD-US Northcom, Purpose and Operations
Speaker: COL Pat Hanlon (30 year Air Force Retiree), past NORAD-US Northcom Command Center Director, F-16 pilot, Graduate of the Air War College, Chief of Nuclear Ops @ Air National Guard Readiness Center Andrews AFB, MD
Pat is a 1990 Distinguished Graduate of the Air Force Academy and spent 2 years as a Command Center Director at NORAD-US Northcom Command Center in CO Springs, responsible for the one of the 24/7shifts. He served as a F-16 pilot during his entire career, with combat experience overseas and 2 yrs as Squadron Commander at Buckley AFB. He retired as a Colonel from the AF in 2020 while serving as Vice Commander of the 140th Wing, Buckley AFB. He is now a UA First Officer on overseas 787 flights.
Pat did two one hour presentations for us; the first on his experience as a Command Director for 2 years at NORAD-US Northcom in Colorado Springs in 2014-2017, and the second on his experience as a Flight Lead for Buckley’s F-16 120th Fighter Squadron’s deployment to Southwest Asia to support the 2003 Iraq War early in 2003.
We had great attendance of 40 present. Great spirited interaction with Q and A.
Enjoy the summary pictures taken at the event.
January 15, 2025: Colorado Alzheimers Association Presentation
Speaker: Jeff Clawson.
The presentation discussed the definition and scientific profile of Alzheimer’s disease risk factors, prevention techniques that are empirically validated, how to obtain a diagnosis, treatment options and navigating the health care system, and help that is available for families.
November 13, 2024: Gene Dionne presentation on “Blue Zones”, Landsdowne Arms
Speaker: Gene Dionne, retired Air Force Officer and former LM Vice President, gave an introduction to the concept of “Blue Zones”, specific geographic places where people live unusually long and healthy lives. He then showed two TED Talks by some of the key scientific investigators of this topic, and we followed up with a lively discussion by the MARS attendees.