Barbara M. Fleisher

I'm Bobby Fleisher, (aka Barbara M. Fleisher BA, MA, and much later, EdD). I've worn many hats in my life: public school teacher, learning disabilities/reading specialist, child advocate, college professor in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, wife, mother, and grandmother. My research has appeared in juried professional journals and has been presented at many national and international professional conferences. I've also been project director of several university/community partnership grants.

Because traveling for work and pleasure took the family to Europe, the Middle and the Far East, our three children, grew up believing that the whole world was their playground. They now live in England, California, and Massachusetts. Our seven grandchildren are grown now, and they also span the globe.

Juggling family and career was no walk in the park for any of us women in my generation. My career was almost an afterthought --something I could attend to as long as the cooking and chauffeuring were done. Now retired from that part of my life, among my volunteer activities are mentoring teenagers, working at the Teachers' Resource Center of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, supporting political candidates with my time and energy, and writing books.

My co-author, Thelma Reese and I are focused on meeting many women around the country, women who are role models for how to be in this New Age. We have found so many ordinary women who have found extraordinary ways to turn the threats of becoming seniors into opportunities for fulfillment and reward. I hope you'll be as inspired by their stories as we are when you read The New Senior Woman: Reinventing the Years Beyond Mid-Life.

We would also like to invite you to visit our blog, www.ElderChicks.com. We've become quite a large virtual community of women (and some men) who exchange ideas about many things. We hope you will dip into the archives on our blog and join the conversation.