Member Liaisons offer BOLLI members the opportunity to voice their questions and concerns. The Member Liaisons encourage you to communicate with them, and welcome your input on all matters concerning BOLLI. As appropriate, they will be happy to convey member ideas and initiatives to the Advisory Council and Director. To reach the Member Liaisons, please consult the member contact list on the password protected members only page.
Sue Benjamin
Susan Benjamin has enjoyed a variety of BOLLI courses since 2017 and simultaneously served as a member of the Study Group Support Committee. Participating as a class member and support member has provided an opportunity to appreciate the rich offerings of BOLLI study group leaders and their fit with the learning needs of BOLLI members. Susan’s career began as an elementary school teacher and she followed up with an Ed.D in Educational Administration. As a member of the clinical faculty at the Boston College Lynch School of Education, she worked with student teachers toward licensure and has also co-authored a book on home/school communication. Susan has been an active member of several community organizations. When not enjoying family, book groups and entertaining, she can be found on the tennis court.
Merle Berman has been a BOLLI member since the Fall of 2019. Although originally a Social Worker, she has spent the bulk of her career in the field of education - teaching children and adults, coaching teachers and school principals, and working as a School Administrator. Merle has taken courses at BOLLI on Race, Science, Architecture, Photography and Ethics, deliberately spanning topics which take her outside her comfort zone and stretch her thinking.
Tom Elkind
Tom Elkind has been a BOLLI member since the Fall of 2020. Tom is a lawyer who practiced commercial litigation in large Boston law firms for over 40 years. He retired from practicing law in 2017 and is now a mediator and arbitrator affiliated with JAMS in Boston. Tom has taken BOLLI courses in history, art, music, physics and Shakespeare, and focuses on subjects he never studied in school. Tom enjoys the flexibility of the Zoom courses, but also appreciates BOLLI’s commitment to in-person learning.
Gail Mann
Gail Mann has been a BOLLI member since the Fall of 2017, after practicing law for almost 40 years, most recently as General Counsel of a large company. Gail has taken a wide variety of courses and especially enjoys Gil Harel’s music seminars. She participates in the New Yorker fiction salon, is a member of the Conversations on Race special interest group, and frequently participates in the BOLLI book group. Gail is particularly grateful for the new friends she has made at BOLLI.
Abby Pinard
Abby Pinard joined BOLLI in 2014 where she has been drawn to courses in literature, music, and art, co-leads the book group, and has found the miraculous opportunity to make late-in-life friends. Abby is a former software executive, former bookseller, current freelance writer, and native New Yorker who came to Boston to be among her people: family and Red Sox fans. She’s a lifelong book nut, music lover, crossword puzzler, baseball fan, and political junkie who flunked Halloween costumes but can debug her daughter's wifi.
Kay Collins
Kay has been a BOLLI member since 2018. She has taken classes in literature, science, music, art and history. Kay worked as an RN for many years, developed patient-and staff teaching programs, and functioned as resource nurse in various specialties. Kay has a lifelong love of many forms of art, and has dabbled in painting and weaving. BOLLI enriches her life by bringing both new knowledge and new friends. She looks forward to our gathering again at Turner St.
Brenda Gleckman
Brenda Gleckman joined BOLLI in its infancy in 2003. It has been the mainstay of her intellectual and social life since then. Except for a light sprinkling of history courses most of her studies have been in literature, poetry, music and art. She jumped on the opportunity to study Proust and Joyce and Hawthorne with knowledgeable study group leaders and motivated classmates. Although a classical pianist she had avoided opera until out of pure curiosity took her first opera course which opened up a world of beauty until then undiscovered. Through the years she has been involved in the Heller School foreign student program, the BOLLI Banner, Sages and Seekers and the Study Group Support Committee as well as a member of the Poetry Circle. Brenda retired as a psychotherapist and later worked as a medical school instructor.
Joyce Hollman has been at BOLLI since 2007. In her career she moved from the abstractness of intellectual history to the concreteness of early childhood programs, enjoying the challenges and unpredictability of working with children, staff and families, and never regretted that change. At BOLLI she has taken courses in music, literature, history, art and science, and was active on the SGSC for many years.
View our events calendar for the latest list of upcoming learning opportunities.
Don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions.
You're invited to visit us and learn what BOLLI is all about.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis University
415 South Street, MS 085
Waltham, MA 02453
(781) 736-2992
bolli@brandeis.edu
We are a year-round community of intellectually curious adults, age 50 and above, who explore a liberal arts curriculum through study groups, seminars, lecture series and special presentations and events. Study groups are led by BOLLI members who bring a broad range of life experience and knowledge into their classrooms to enrich the exchange of ideas. Brandeis University instructors, experts in their field and master-teachers, lead seminars and lecture series. Members regularly organize special presentations and events including book discussions, theater and museum outings, poetry circles, photo exhibits, and literary salons.