From the Director - October 26 | School of Public Health

Linda Jacknowitz, the president of the OLLI board, and I had the pleasure of attending the OLLI national conference in Arizona earlier this week. Held every 18 months, the conference provides staff and volunteers from the 122 OLLIs across the country to gather together to network, share, and exchange ideas. In addition to attending five breakout sessions and roundtable discussions over three days, we enjoyed two plenary sessions: Meeting the Fundraising Challenge by Kim Klein and Diversity and Inclusion at OLLI (and Beyond): How Our Brains Encourage and Impede Celebrating Diversity and Creating Inclusion by Dr. Destiny Peery. The keynote address, Making Best Use of the Telomere Effect, was delivered by Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn.

During a regional roundtable session on Tuesday afternoon, Linda and I met with the volunteers and staff members of OLLIs in Pennsylvania and began discussions about possible collaborations in the future. Perhaps a trip to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia to meet up with fellow OLLI members for a special tour or event?

Most of today will be spent catching up on email and my to-do list but I plan to set aside some time this weekend to process the conference and begin exploring some new paths for OLLI at WVU. I'll be sharing more about the conference in the fall issue of OLLI Connections, available next month.

For our Charleston members, I will be in town tomorrow afternoon for the concert by the Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club. I hope you can join us at the South Charleston Public Library at 3:00 p.m.

Jascenna