Facilitator Profiles - Spring 2008

Check out the wonderful people who are involved with the Academy: OUR SPRING 2008 COURSE FACILITATORS

(Listed alphabetically)

Liz Aguilar, Born into a family of educators, at age ten Liz Aguilar (Jane Eyre, Victorian Rebel) announced her intention to become a teacher. After receiving an MA in English with an emphasis on literature, she taught English, speech and drama along the way until retirement and still works as a sub. Long a lover of literature, she developed a passion for English literature which led her to visit many literary sites in Britain including the family home of the Bronte sisters, who stand high among English novelists. Walking the moors so vividly described in their writings was a distinct thrill. Liz is excited about presenting a course on JANE EYRE which has been highly acclaimed since it was first published. She believes that this novel, like all great literature, gives the reader insights into the human condition regardless of differences in time or place.

Carol Anthony (Wagner’s Ring Cycle & the Norse Myths) retired recently from teaching high school English where she had the pleasure of teaching many Advance Placement courses. She is a passionate reader and has many interests, some of which might seem a little odd: evolutionary biology, World War II, mythology, especially in relation to the Third Reich, genetics in relationship to ethnic and linguistic analysis of the human family, historical mysteries, the Roman Republic, the history of language(s), feminism and goddess worship, European and near Eastern mythology, Holocaust denial, Medieval and Old English literature and language, and forensic science. “My husband no longer is annoyed at the constant arrival of packages of books sitting on our front porch; he's resigned to it. He's also resigned to my addiction to what he calls my "dead body" shows on cable TV, but refuses to be subjected to them anymore.” Carol adds, “What especially interests me is how one subject connects to other subjects.” She has been singing with the Northland Chorale for about 17 years.

Donna Barrow (Revisiting Occupied France in Fact & Fiction) is a discriminating reader who loves to explore beyond the page. She is a demon at locating background and supplemental information in order to flesh out her knowledge of a subject. Her background is as a geologist but she has many other interests, too. Donna is an avid gardener. She designed and served as the de facto project manager for a ten acre landscaping project at her church. An avid bridge player, Donna has assisted with the Academy's Intermediate Bridge class for several terms, where participants eagerly sought out her opinions on difficult questions.

Ted Borrillo (Making Poetry Part of Your Life) is a retired attorney. He was Chief Deputy District Attorney in Denver, taught criminal procedure and constitutional law at the DU Law School, and was a defense counsel in his private practice of law. He has had an abiding interest in the criminal justice system resulting from his interest in the Bruno Hauptmann trial and his execution for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. Hauptmann lived in the Bronx not far from Ted’s home. Ted has visited Flemington, New Jersey, the site of the trial, the cell where Hauptmann was kept, and has spoken with David Wilentz, the prosecutor of Hauptmann. He has taught at the Colorado Police Academy and at the National College of District Attorneys in Houston.

Kathy Boyer (Writing Your Life Stories) has conducted Life Stories workshops for libraries, summer camps, churches, community centers, and with the Academy. As a child, Kathy developed a love of the personal story as she listened to adults recall the tales of their childhood. Now a retired teacher, Kathy works with individuals to record their memories on audio-tape. As a workshop facilitator, she offers inspiration and ideas to groups of people who want to begin a written collection of their own short stories.

Judy Brand (Bridge: Intermediate Play) loves to play games of all sorts. She is familiar with most bridge conventions, but jokes that she likes to play by the seat of her pants. Her instincts and aggressive bidding average more winners than losers. She will boldly take you where you've never gone at the bridge table. Judy is currently taking the chess class at the Academy where she is hoping to translate some of her bridge skills into chess moves so that she can at least keep up with her eleven-year-old grandson. On the tennis court and ski slopes she still rules!

Bennie Bub (Human Behavior & Neurobiology, Part 2) is a South African neurosurgeon who is board certified in three different specialties on three continents.  His teaching career began when, as a medical student, he taught physics at a technical college in return for free car maintenance courses.  After receiving his MD at the University of Cape Town he became a general surgeon gaining his Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the UK.  Having been captivated by the complexities of the brain, he then began his neurosurgical studies in London at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Epilepsy.  Thereafter he became a Teaching and Research Fellow at Harvard College as well as a resident in the Harvard Neurosurgical Service at the Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals.  Concurrently, he studied violin performance in the Boston Conservatory of Music under Reuben Gregorian.  This Boston sojourn was followed by completion of his neurosurgical certification at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.  Then began his years of busy neurosurgical private practice simultaneously teaching as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town.  During this period he founded the first multidisciplinary clinic in South Africa for the management of intractable pain.  Immigration to the USA in 1976 was followed by training and board certification in Anesthesiology.  He then joined a practice in Denver from which he retired after more than 20 years.  In the early nineties he was founder and CEO of a successful database company, which provided credentialing of physicians for health insurance companies.  Since retirement he has indulged in his love of music, travel and voracious reading, all the while striving to stay au courant with the neurosciences.

Diane Carrick (Yes, You Can Draw!) taught junior high school art classes for eight years in Ohio. She has published poetry in Windows to the Soul, and her art work and articles about art have appeared in 5280 and elsewhere. She enjoys taking Academy classes and teaching art to small groups in her home. She’s currently in the process of writing her life story as she charges on to another adventure.

Henry Claman (Prehistoric Art and What It Might Mean) is a partly retired Professor of Medicine at the CU Medical School. “I grew up eight blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the culture blew in the living room window.” He has an A.B. from Harvard College (Philosophy) and an M.D. from NYU. He has been on the CU medical faculty since 1961, and he is a Distinguished Professor. He has made many, many art history and scientific presentations. His book, Jewish Images in the Christian Church: Art as the Mirror of the Jewish-Christian Conflict, was published in 2000. It is a crash course in medieval art and discusses Jewish-Christian relations as reflected in that art. He is the director of the new Medical Humanities Program at the CU Medical School.

A career public school teacher, Sherma Erholm (Science & Religion: Enemies, Strangers or Partners?) holds a bachelor's degree in speech and music, and a master's in communication theory and psychology.  As a “learning junkie', she now enjoys going outside her fields of expertise to research and facilitate discussions in widely varying subjects.  She has taught music and communication theory in public schools and has facilitated adult courses of interest, not necessarily in her field of expertise, e.g., futurism, China, evolution, the U.N. and others.  Other fun for her consists of travel which emphasizes the local culture, singing with the Alpine Chorale, gardening, mountaineering, paleontology, and skiing.

Dr. Kevin Evans (Tribes, Traditions & Trouble), a Colorado dentist, has traveled to the Middle East 4 times, twice to Egypt where he has nurtured his love for ancient history and early myth and religion. He has maintained contacts with friends in Egypt for a number of years. He and his wife, Linda, recently returned from Egypt where they were able to visit many sites and visit with people the normal tour tourist may not have access to. He will give a brief history of Egypt, its religions, and the variety of people that create this vibrant Ethnic Egypt.

A teacher, scholar, and lover of English literature, Irene Gorak (Deadly Detectives in Literary History) taught English to British high school students and later, as an adjunct professor, courses on Gothic, women’s literature, and detective fiction at DU.  She has a PhD in nineteenth-century literature from UCLA.  Irene taught the popular Agatha Christie course in the spring of 2007.

Jim Hartmann (Adventures with Great Ideas: The Emotions) received his B.A. degree in the humanities from Regis College and M.A. degree in history from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After a three-year stint in radio-television, he began a thirty-year career at the Colorado Historical Society, beginning as deputy state historian and ending as president of the Society and gubernatorial appointed state historic preservation officer for the State of Colorado. After retiring from those positions, he was appointed executive director of Four Mile Historic Park where he remained for five years.

Connie Hyde (The Blues: A Story of Migration & Transformation) spent her college and graduate days immersed in literature, but, after a final year in the rare book room at Duke University library with 16th century folios, decided that her intellectual life needed more human dynamic. She spent the next several decades practicing commercial real estate law (and raising children, who, according to Connie, taught her more about the psychology of negotiation than all the law books in the world). Recently retired, Connie has returned enthusiastically to her first loves of literature, history, politics, music and art (and, of course, gardening). “I am fascinated by the people and ideas that have shaped our world and the way that literature, music, and art interact with history and politics. The modern world is so complex and perilous that we, as thoughtful adults, have to be alive to the historical currents that brought us to the present.”

Joseph Kandel (Aging & Sexuality) has an Ed.D. in education and has taught more than two hundred classes in aging, interpersonal relationships, stress/time management, and death and dying at Denver-area colleges. He believes that “successful aging means more than just hanging in there: there’s also involvement in life, challenging yourself, and taking care of your needs.”
Caroline Bliss-Kandel (Aging & Sexuality) is a registered nurse with a BSN. She worked for 10 years as a Hospice Nurse and was board certified in pain and symptom management. She is retired from nursing, but not from being a grandmother. She agrees with Joseph that aging means more than just hanging in there, and looks forward to learning from members of the group.

Jim Kneser, (How to Think Like an Economist & Why You Should, The Dilemma of Immigration, Wagner’s Ring Cycle & the Norse Myths) has taught economics to adults for the past ten years. His classes have included over 1,500 attendees. To date there have been no suicide attempts or forehead lacerations due to falling asleep. The academic love of Jim's life is economics. He pursued this love in college, earning his bachelor's degree at Ripon College as an econ major. He was then lured away from the purity of economics by the siren song of finance (the dark side of economics) and received an MBA degree in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. For 20 years he pursued a career specializing in mergers & acquisitions, speculative markets, and other financial frivolities. He also picked up a CPA designation along the way. Since retiring, he has reunited with his true love and is devoted to raising the general level of economic literacy. You will also find him leading classes in public policy and classical music. "I am giving this economics course because I believe that increasing economic understanding is the best contribution I can make to helping myself and others become better citizens. Participants will see the world around them differently. Past class members still email me with new insights that they encounter and understand as a result of their newly acquired economic expertise."

Bridge nut and art groupie Sally Kneser (Bridge: Intermediate Play) is always ready to learn something new and help teach others. “I love to learn, and it’s so much more fun with friends around.” Sally is a Life Master in bridge and enjoys explaining the basics to others. As the Academy’s Director, Sally tackles operational and tactical issues in running the nonprofit. While volunteering with the Junior League, Sally chaired several committees, including the Facilitators. When not enjoying herself at the bridge table, she attends two book clubs and stops to smell roses in her gardens.

Lois Martin (Experts & Entertainers) came to Denver by way of Philadelphia and Nebraska. She was a major in journalism at the University of Nebraska, before she moved to Pennsylvania while her husband was in medical school. She has been editor of internal publications for Campbell Soup Co. and Leeds and Northrup, both in the East. After the arrival of her four children, she founded the Aurora Sun Newspaper where she worked for 20 years as publisher. She was founding moderator of the Aurora Hospital Assn., President of the Aurora Hospital District, Business Person of the Year for the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, and elected to the Benson Hall of Fame for Community Leadership.

Larry Matten (Evolution & Intelligent Design: The Courts, Chess for Beginners) started teaching science when he turned twenty-one. Most of his teaching experience was as a professor at Southern Illinois University. He has taught over 10,000 students in his large general biology and general botany courses. He was a major advisor for five Ph.D.’s and fifteen Master’s students. His area of interest has been on early land plants. Dr. Matten has published extensively, received numerous grants, been the president of his national professional organization, is a past editor of the international journal Palaeontographica, and has had two species of fossils named in his honor. He retired from academia and received his law degree in 2000, passed the bar, and went into private practice in Elder Law. His practice has specialized in estate planning that includes: powers of attorney, guardianships, conservatorships, wills, trusts, and probate. He also represented clients having Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security issues. Dr. Matten is a trained mediator/arbitrator and is currently doing arbitrations for the Better Business Bureau. He has recently retired from the practice of law and has returned to his first love, teaching.  He has a life-long passion for teaching about evolution and hopes to make some contribution toward the resolution of the ongoing controversy in the United States about evolution.  It is his believe that the U.S. is regressing scientifically because of a prevalence of fundamentalist and political attitudes against science.  Anti-science and anti-evolution ideas are a toxic product of these religious and political attitudes and Education is the best antidote.

Robin McNeil (Discovering a Forgotten Composer: Gouvy) began his study of piano at DePauw University at the age of four. He has a Bachelor of Music in Perform­ance from Indiana University and a Master of Music in Performance from the University of Illinois. He has performed over three hundred concerts throughout the Midwest and East as soloist, soloist with several symphony orchestras, duo pianist, a partner in four-hand concerts, and in chamber music recitals. Mr. McNeil has written many musicology book reviews for Choice magazine of the American Library Asso­ciation and Publisher’s Weekly, in addition to being an experienced music critic for newspapers. He is also a published poet, and the Denver composer, David Mullikin, has used his poems for art song texts. Mr. McNeil is the Executive Director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. Outside the sphere of music, Robin has raced sports cars and flown WW II vintage aircraft, and is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Mr. McNeil teaches privately and continues to do research on the French composer, Théodore Gouvy. Mr. McNeil is President of the Piano Arts Association, and an Honorary Member of the Institut Théodore Gouvy of Hombourg-Haut, France.

Born in South Africa, Herzl Melmed (Unraveling the Causes behind the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) grew up in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He attended the University of Capetown and was President of the Student Council, a very political position dealing with the authorities in order to provide equal treatment for all students, Black or White, in 1962. He emmigrated to Israel in 1965 and was there for the 6 Day War and the Yom Kippur War. He ran the OB-Gyn service for the Upper Galilee, and parts of the Golan Heights and Lebanese border areas. He emmigrated to Colorado in 1976 and has been active in the local community presenting Israel’s case to numerous audiences, including church groups, university campuses and radio. This has often involved debates with representatives of the Palestinian community. He chairs a grass roots org. called ActionIsrael of Christian and Jewish supporters of Israel. He is a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Mid E at DU. He has chaired a Middle East study group for the last 16 years, and was recently involved in leading a Muslim-Jewish dialog for about 2 years. He is a practicing gynecologist at Swedish when not involved in his passions.

Walt Meyer (Islam from Mohammed to Osama) is a retired “technocrat”, having spent 22 years in the weather field of the US Air Force and almost 20 years as a program manager for a defense contractor. He has been married 44 years and has three grown children and four grandchildren.

His interest in Islam stems from the post 9/11 realization that we in the West have little understanding of the Muslim faith, contributing to many false characterizations of the Muslim people. Shortly after 9/11 Walt attended a workshop on Islam presented by Jim Gonia, Pastor at Atonement Lutheran Church in Denver. He had an excellent background on the subject, having served in Madagascar among the Muslim people. Walt has done considerable reading on the subject since then and has presented a series of classes on Islam to his church on two occasions. He feels that this subject is of vital importance today.

Walt has a BS in Chemistry from Capital University, a PhD in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington, and is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Minnesota Management Academy. He has served on many boards and task forces within the Lutheran Church and is a member of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, sponsored by the Graduate Theological Union of the University of California at Berkeley.  He served as Adjunct Professor of Meteorology at Saint Louis University for one year, has taught numerous Bible study classes, and has found teaching to be one of his passions.

Laura Pardee (Masterpieces of European Art, Part 3) has a special fascination and interest in the painting, sculpture and architecture of the Renaissance and has had the opportunity to experience these magnificent works of art firsthand. She and her husband have spent one month in Italy several years in a row and returned in May 2007 from a month in Italy, Croatia, and Switzerland. Laura received her undergraduate degree in French language and literature with a minor in art history from Wellesley College. She taught French and English language and literature in Vermont, Texas, New Jersey and Delaware. Fred Pardee enjoys providing technical support to help Laura lead the class discussions of the lectures in European Art. Fred received B.S and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Princeton University, was a jet fighter pilot in the Air Force, and pursued a career with the DuPont Company..

Lynne Pettyjohn (Bridge: Intermediate Play) came from Akron, Ohio to attend the University of Colorado. She graduated from CU and then became a high school English teacher. Her stamina is confirmed by the fact that she taught English in the Denver Public Schools for 32 years. After retiring she joined the Assistance League of Denver which is a nonprofit volunteer organization. Her hobbies include bridge, gardening, golf, and hiking.

Connie Platt (Revisiting Occupied France in Fact & Fiction) received her BSJ from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, her MA in English from San Jose State University and her Ph.D in English from the University of Denver. For two years she reviewed books on KCFR - Denver and for 14 years she hosted the author interview program, Between the Lines, on Denver's KDTV-Channel 8.

Having thirty years of classroom experience caused Sandy Stolar (New Discoveries in Memory & Learning) to become curious about how the brain works and learns.  After reading several books, she decided to attend a couple of workshops and then she was absolutely hooked on learning about the brain.  Sandy became a trainer for “Translating Brain Research into Classroom Practice” and is a member of the “Brainy Bunch”, a group of people who study brain research and gather each January to hear from some of the researchers themselves about the new information that is coming out.  She loves sharing what she has learned with others who are curious about this fascinating subject.

Educated at Williams College, Oxford, and Harvard, Douglas Wilson (Lincoln's Melancholy: Pain, Pen & Power) has taught literature courses, from Homer to Hemingway for over 30 years. He taught at the University of Denver in Romantic Studies.; During his university career, he taught more than 50 different courses, both graduate and undergraduate. Douglas has published on Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shakespeare. As an avid fly fisherman, he is also interested in the environment.

Dick Young (How Presidents are Made: The Electoral College) has long been active in politics, local state, and national.  He is a history buff, and while working on his Masters in History (some 40+ years after getting his BA and JD from the University of Michigan), he put together this course to explain what the Electoral College is, how it came about, and how it works, and has worked through our many elections.  He has taught the course a number of times at Adult Education departments of several universities and at a number of Elderhostel sessions.