Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

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.

Tom Elkind has been a BOLLI member since fall 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.

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, bookseller, 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 Wi-fi.

Kay has been a BOLLI member since 2018. She has taken classes in literature, science, music, art and history. She worked as a registered nurse 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 gatherings again at Turner Street.

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 she 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.

Reeve Goldhaber joined BOLLI 4 years ago upon retiring from Boston University School of Social Work. At BOLLI she has participated in wonderful courses, met interesting classmates and been amazed by the incredible richness of the BOLLI organization. AT BUSSW Reeve was responsible for the clinical training of Masters of Social Work students and she created and directed the specialization in Aging. Prior to BUSSW, she worked as a clinician, supervisor and administrator at the McLean Hospital Children’s Unit. Reeve attended Brandeis University as an undergraduate and Simmons College School of Social Work for her MSW.