Osher Lifelong Learning Institute - Humboldt State University Extended Education

INSTRUCTORS

OLLI instructors are experts from the community and current or retired faculty. If you are interested in becoming an OLLI instructor, contact the HSU OLLI coordinator, at (707) 826-3743 or learn more about submitting a proposal.

OLLI INSTRUCTORS

Frederica Aalto has an M.A. in psychology and a B.A. in sociology and taught at HSU. She has been the International Advocate for Six Rivers Planned Parenthood since 1993, and was a delegate for Planned Parenthood Federation of America at the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995.

Leonel Arguello is a supervisory botanist with almost 20 years of experience in numerous vegetation management programs.

Louise Bacon-Ogden has been a bird lover since childhood. She became more “serious” when she moved to Humboldt and became the bird lady. She was the first owner of the Old Town Eureka store Strictly for the Birds and is a member of Bat Conservation International.

Lt. Stephen T. Baxter is assistant aviation ops and public affairs officer at Air Station Humboldt Bay. After enlisting in the Coast Guard, Lt. Baxter went into the Aid to Navigation Team in Woods Hole, Mass. He also attended Officers’ Candidate School in New London, Conn., and was stationed in Mobile, Ala.

Keith Bensen is a wildlife biologist with a focus on bird monitoring and threatened/endangered species management.

Jamie Binder is a professor Emeritus from the University of Maine in international studies and politics and has taught courses in Latin American history and politics for 26 years.

Barbara Clark is certified by Jeremy Taylor to conduct groups in his style of projective dream work and has been working with dreams for about ten years. She is a member of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship which has sponsored 12 Jeremy Taylor dream workshops in Humboldt County. She is a long-time journal keeper and teacher of journaling techniques, a quilter and the editor of Senior News.

Nancy Dean received her B.S. in atmospheric science from U. C. Davis in 1979. She worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Weather Service (NWS) in Great Falls and Billings, Montana; Riverside, Calif.; NWS Headquarters in Silver Springs, Md.; and since 1993 as meteorologist in charge in Eureka, Calif.

Eric Duff is the Executive Director of Episcopal Community Services and formerly the rector of St. Albans church in Arcata. He taught for over 10 years at HSU and CR in the Religious Studies Dept. Previously he ran a homeless ministry in Newark, NJ.

Janice Fetzer has studied dreamwork for over 30 years, from Clam Beach to Berkeley, and has taught and practiced dreamwork since 1980. Her own dreams label her a “maverick.” Her enthusiasm for this work is, so far, boundless.

Tom Gage is a professor emeritus, English department, HSU and Fulbright Scholar in Syria. Gage’s first encounter with the Middle East was in 1958. He has returned to the area more than a dozen times to visit, lecture and/or direct academic programs. He has taught a number of courses at HSU dealing with the Islamic culture, especially related to Turkish and Arabic speaking nations.

Trace Galbraith is a certified teacher, a professional artist, and Fire Art Center’s primary instructor in glass fusing and slumping.

Ginger Gardner holds a B.A. in sociology and multiple subject teaching credential. She is a retired teacher in the K-8 school system. She is a Fellow of the San Jose State History Social Science Project and a Fellow of the Santa Cruz Writing Project, and a past president of the Humboldt Reading Council.

Karen Harris it the pastor of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside. She received her Masters in Divinity from Harvard University and lectures in religious studies (Hinduism and New Testament) at HSU.

Dale Hendrix earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Miami. He taught in Continuing Education at Barry College in Miami. He also taught at New Mexico Highlands University. For the past 25 years he has been a writer and artist in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast.

Chris Heppe is a natural resource program manager with over 5 years at experience at Redwood National and State Parks.

Glenda Hesseltine, M.A., has been a Tai Chi instructor/practitioner in the Yang style for 18 years. She is certified in Tai Chi for arthritis by Dr. Paul Lam of Australia and endorsed by the American Arthritis Foundation. Glenda brings 35 years of meditation training from many disciplines and a deep commitment to help people heal. With an M.A. in counseling psychology and a specialty in psychosynthesis, she uses guided imagery and sound toning in her classes.

Greg Holm is a wildlife biologist with a focus on large mammal management.

Lorraine Miller-Wolf has been in business locally as a professional photographer for the past 26 years. She has a teaching credential from HSU and has taught a several classes in photojournalism at Jacoby Creek School. Photography is both her profession and passion.

David Narum, Ph.D., has worked with national, state and local entities on a variety of issues related to sustainable energy use. He has taught environmental analysis and sustainability planning at Emory University (Atlanta), James Madison University (Virginia), and HSU. And since 1998, he has served as the assistant director of the University National Park Energy Partnership Program (UNPEPP).

Jean O’Hara has a M.A. in political theatre from HSU. She has taught and directed for 12 years, including work at Dell’Arte.

Vicki Ozaki is a geologist with a focus on channel/sedimentation studies.

Cyndy Phillips has practiced Hatha Yoga for 10 years; however it is her recent study of Iyengar Yoga with senior Iyengar teachers Sharat Arora (Goa, India), Joan White (Philadelphia, Penn.) and Victor Oppenheimer (Todos Santos, Mexico), which has re-defined her approach to yoga. Cyndy is certified to teach yoga though the Yoga Alliance and is also working towards her full Iyengar Teacher’s Certification.

Barbara Pulliam has an MFA from California State Long Beach. She has been teaching in various places in Humboldt County for 17 years and is a working/exhibiting artist with her art studio in Eureka. Barbara is an award-winning artist with work in private collections around the United States, Japan and England.

Gisela Rohde is a self-trained naturalist who has written and taught about local areas for the last 15 years. With her husband, Jerry, she has coauthored four guidebooks to national and state parks. The Rohdes also regularly lead hiking course for the HSU Elderhostel program and has never met a native wildflower she didn’t like!

Jerry Rohde is the co-author of five guidebooks, former HSU instructor, past-president of the Humboldt County Historical Society and contributing editor of the Humboldt Historian. Currently he is a research associate, Cultural Resources Facility Center for Indian Community Development at HSU and is writing a four-volume geographical history of Humboldt County.

Stassia Samuels is a botanist with a focus on exotic plant control.

Mike Sanders is a geologist with a focus on road removal and watershed restoration.

Scott Sattler, M.D., is a senior representative of the Garden of the Heart Sufi community and has been on the path of Universal Sufism for the past 25 years.

Linda Sievers retired from HSU in 2006 after serving as chair for the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance for three years and as faculty and program director for dance since 1980. Linda designed an interdisciplinary major dance studies option for students to pursue dance as language and culture, as arts integration and performance, and as sacred tradition. She served as president of the California Dance Educators Association and was involved in the California Arts Project and the California Alliance for Arts Education.

Laurel Skye first began tiling in 1969 and studied mosaics in Ravenna, Italy under renowned instructor Luciana Notourni at Scuola di Mosaico in the classical Byzantine method. Laurel exhibits her mosaic work locally and internationally. She specializes in millefiori, smalti, 24K gold and Italian glass. Laurel is a member of SAMA and has been widely published, most recently being featured in the acclaimed book Mosaic Art and Style-Designs for Living Environments. She has also been featured on television, both locally and nationally, including HGTV’s hit show “Offbeat America.”

Meredith Smith and Sharon Campbell are amateur genealogists who work at an intermediate level with 20 and 10 years of experience, respectively. They’ve taught a very successful beginning genealogy class in the spring of 2007.

Jason Teraoka is a forest ecologist with a focus on second growth forest management.

Michael Thomas received a B.S. in theatre arts at Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in stage direction at HSU. He has directed local productions at HSU, Plays-In-Progress, Ferndale Repertory Theatre, and North Coast Repertory Theatre. He is currently managing artistic director of NCRT, coordinator of the C.R. Community Theatre program and a part-time faculty member at College of the Redwoods and HSU.

Eileen Wolf has been a park ranger and naturalist and run tidepool programs for state and national parks (including Redwoods National Park and Kenai Fjords in Alaska), the BLM, HSU Natural History Museum, Coastwalk and Center Activities. Her master’s work at HSU emphasized Intertidal Ecology.

Philip Wright has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in theatre arts with an emphasis in film production from Humboldt State University. He taught film history at College of the Redwoods and has worked in local television production for more than 25 years. Recently he has hosted several film presentations for the County Library Based on the Book film series.

Mike Zamboni is a local fisherman with 18 years experience in the industry. He received a B.S. in wildlife management with emphasis courses in fisheries from HSU in 1991. He is involved in the politics and regulatory processes affecting commercial fishermen on the North Coast as well as a member of the California Commercial Beach Fishermen’s Association.

Kia Ora Zeleny has a B.A. from HSU in cultural anthropology with a China studies emphasis. She has lived, studied and taught in China in recent years, touring the country either solo, or with friends and fellow students. Currently, Kia Ora is exploring political and social issues facing modern China as they relate to its 20th century history of Western Colonialism, war, revolution, communism and environmental difficulties.

Past instructors