Redefining Retirement In Your Bonus Years

Friday, April 12th at 12:00P.M. EST

Dee Cascio, LPC, LMFT, BCC founded the Professional Counseling and Life/Retirement Coaching Center in 1986. She works with individuals, couples, and groups to achieve healthier and more satisfying lives now and as they make future work and life transitions. Dee is a private practice licensed psychotherapist who successfully re-careered to coaching. In addition to her psychotherapy qualifications, she is a Certified Life Coach, a Certified Retirement Coach as well as a Certified Re-Career Coach.
Dee writes a monthly newsletter on transitions and is an author and workshop presenter. She gives presentations about work and life transitions to Government Organizations, Civic Associations, Companies, financial planners, and other professional groups. She is a member of several therapy and coaching associations. She also enjoys volunteering as a local member of Rotary International, an international civic organization. She has also been active in Toastmasters and the National Speakers Association. She and her husband have created encore careers that give them the freedom to travel and enjoy a semi-retirement lifestyle.

About Dee Cascio :

Dee Cascio is a therapist and a retirement coach who hopes that our generation will have the kind of retirements that benefit society as a whole, while keeping us vital, purposeful, and satisfied. She recognizes that each person is different and what will define a successful retirement for some will not work for others. Dee strongly believes that the key to a successful transition from work to life after work is to plan and create a retirement that keeps us excited about life. She recognizes that this new stage of life offers us the opportunity to define both work and play on our own terms. Dee further understands that there is an incredible amount of brilliance, skill, talent and experience within each of us and the loss of these gifts would be a blow to our society.
She urges boldness in redefining retirement and urges her clients to write their own stories. This promises to be an invigorating webinar, filled with actionable tips, from a transition expert that specializes in moving into retirement; we have found that few understand the complexity of this kind of transition like Dee. Her ideas are fresh and her passion for this subject will help each of us think hard about our own retirement choices and what we may be leaving behind.

A Millennial, a Boomer and a Computer Walk into a Bar….

Friday, Apr 28, 2023 12:00 PM EST

We see all the jokes, memes and sarcasm aimed at baby boomers regarding their technology acumen, maybe they ring true to you or infuriate you.Either way they are one of the great divides between the millennials, Z’s and the boomers. Boomers have had a lot to learn and they had to change their way of doing just about everything. Some thrived, others are just getting by and others struggle every day with the great tech revolution.

Love it or hate it, we strongly believe that keeping up, within reason, is critical. If seniors don’t keep pace with a certain level of technology acumen, including the ubiquitous social media, we lose the ability to communicate in a modern way, and connection is of critical importance to the elderly. Further, we will wind up largely in contact with people just like us and lose the wisdom and constructive challenges that come with interacting with people of all ages. Boomers can also lose the greatest learning tool ever invented, if we don’t know how to go beyond the surface of the internet. And, let’s face it, no one wants to feel inadequate or left behind. We sometimes are afraid to show our lack of understanding, since it so often comes with a side of derision so we don’t ask questions or experiment and we fall further behind, and then we reinforce the stereotypes about us. Every new device from a remote control to a phone become a new mountain to climb.

This webinar is going to make you, a whiz, well, if not a whiz, you are going to gain competence and demonstrate to the millennials and Z’s in your life, that you don’t fear technology and you continue to learn and have some cool new tricks. At the end of this webinar some of your day-to-day frustrations will disappear and you will begin to understand how to begin to work with technology to continue to learn. We know everyone is at a different point in their technology journey, but whatever your level, this should be a fun and useful webinar. It will include wisdom such as the following
to just name a very few we will touch on.

• Next level texting: We believe everyone knows how to text, but this has become a critical communication methodology and can you maximize its usefulness?

• How to create a file or generally organize your information on your computer.

• Take a screen shot on your phone and computer.

• Recognize a scam and what to do about it and so MUCH more!

Bring your questions.

About Adam Federman

Adam has over twenty years of experience working directly with various industries on strategic technology applications and solutions. Adam is an intuitive thought leader who decodes organizational issues and recommends sustainable strategies. His leadership style is engaging, authentic, and unifies subject matter experts to deliver innovation at its best. Adam is an influencer when it comes to pairing contextual solutions and business needs. He has enabled companies in life sciences, sports entertainment, healthcare, higher education, K-12 education, pharmaceuticals, packaged goods and IT & solutions to grow.

Adam lives in a northern suburb of Chicago with his wife Katie, and their three sons.

Actually, I Am Old

Friday, August 14, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

Dr. Martha Holstein has a refreshing and different take on growing old and she understands the dual intersectionality between gender and age.  She rebels against terms like successful aging, productive aging or new aging, seeing the fallacy in aging without aging.  She believes we should embrace age just as we have our other periods of life; she urges us not fall into the false compliments that we are not old, despite our obvious miles, because she notes that such protestations are ageism.  If it is terrible to be called old, then being old must be bad.  If we are always trying to act and pretend we are just like the young we are missing the things that make us special and different, and it may not allow us to embrace our new found freedom.  She cautions us to answer important questions such as if I am not who I used to be, who am I now?  There is no right way to age, just as there is no right way to be middle aged, or an adolescent.  In this webinar, we will interview Dr. Holstein and learn how to not fall for the hype that tries to prescribe what success should look like when you are older.

Martha Holstein started working in the field of aging in 1973 purely by chance.  She did policy work with the San Francisco  Area Agency on aging and then became the Associate Director of the American Society on Aging for 13 years.  She worked for the HASTINGS Center and was a research scholar at the Park Ridge Center for the study of Health, Faith and Ethics, both ethics think tanks.

In the later 1970s  she discovered what interested her the most was the interface of gender and age and the  broader issue of intersectionality. She also found herself drawn to social ethics.  In the years since, those topics have been her exclusive focus and the subject of just about all her writing including Ethics, Aging and Society : The Critical Turn, written with two  Loyola colleagues and Women in Late Life: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Age.  She taught Health Care Ethics and Ethics and Aging.  Martha remains interested in policy and the neoliberal turn.

Aging While Female – Reimagined

Friday, October 23, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

Photo Credit: Adrian Buckmaster

From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people incompetent. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too, until she dug into where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Pointing out that we are all old or future old, Applewhite explains the roots of ageism in society and between our own ears, and lays out the personal and professional consequences for women in particular. What makes aging different for women—and so much harder than it has to be? How does the double whammy of ageism and sexism affect women’s health, income, and well-being? How does competing to “stay young” dig the hole deeper? In this provocative talk, Applewhite proposes throwing away the damn shovel, forging cross-generational compacts, and collaborating on new ways of thinking and behaving. The women’s movement taught us to claim our power; a pro-aging movement will teach us to hold onto it.

Author and activist Ashton Applewhite has been recognized by the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Public Radio, and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism. She blogs at This Chair Rocks, speaks widely at venues that have ranged from the United Nations to the TED mainstage, has written for Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and is the voice of Yo, Is This Ageist?  The author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, Ashton is a leading spokesperson for a movement to mobilize against discrimination on the basis of age.

For the first time, we are charging for a webinar, because Ashton is a highly sought-after and well known speaker in the field of ageism.  We offer you an extraordinary opportunity to learn from Ashton in an intimate virtual setting, with the rare opportunity to engage her in conversation.  Sign up now, for just $25.00.

Brave Heart

Friday, May 19th at 12:00P.M.EST

We talk so much about what we want to do as our careers wind down; how do we want to spend our time and have purpose? There is often fear of the unknown, making big changes or the risk of new endeavors. Dr. Patrice Jenkins, an organizational psychologist, who has practiced in the area of transitioning into retirement, is a remarkable woman, later in her career, who seems unafraid to change and try new things. Whether it is changing the focus of her practice, becoming an author, hosting her podcast show, or now starting a fabric and wallpaper design company, she always seems to say, why not?
In her book, It’s Still Good: Dreams Don’t have Expiration Dates, she stresses “…the risk involved when putting off a dream” as well as underestimating the “price of regret”. We asked Patrice if she would turn her analytical lens on herself, and share with us her thinking, her approach and her psyche, all the things that allow her to be so brave. This promises to be a worthwhile webinar, in which we examine how to start something new, change and embrace new adventures. You don’t have to start a new company, but maybe you have a deferred dream that you want to come to fruition in retirement, and getting started is harder than you thought. This should be a fascinating and thought-provoking webinar to get us all thinking deeply about our own next logical steps.

About Patrice Jenkin

Patrice Jenkins, Ph.D. is an organizational psychologist, frequent speaker on topics related to career and retirement transitions, and host of the Day One Dreams podcast. She is the author of two books, It’s Still Good: Dreams Don’t Have Expiration Dates and What Will I Do All Day? Wisdom to get you Over Retirement and on with Living! Her online course, A Guide to Take the Weirdness Out of Retirement is available at Udemy.com.

Website: www.patricejenkins.com

COVID Hates Me and the Feeling is Mutual

Friday, December 4, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

COVID has changed all our lives and we hear tremendous sympathy for certain demographics that have borne the brunt of this pandemic such as those who have lost their livelihoods and their ability to afford the basics, parents working from home without child care, essential workers, risking their lives.  We feel deeply for everyone affected and we help where we can.

But is there a small voice in your head, asking, what about me?  I am retired and my life has been stolen; I don’t have work to occupy my time and my brain and my active schedule have been stopped dead.  Further, this pandemic is stealing a precious year in which I am healthy and able.  Or, I am finally ready to retire, I have planned this forever, and now, I think, life after work sounds stultifying.  Let’s talk about this.  This webinar will address the impact of COVID on the mental health of those of us that are retired.  Further, we know that mental stress leads to physical ailments, so we worry about the double whammy, particularly as we age.  We have both a psychologist and a medical internist to discuss how to help our particular demographic cope with this weird and pretty scary time in our life.

Dr. Lipkis is THE RATIONAL PHYSICIAN. He combines standard medicine with complementary medicine to write health books and provide amazingly practical medical info that just may save your life. He has over 40 years in the medical field.

He writes “Doctor In Your House”, an award winning medical e-newsletter that gives you practical nuggets of concise medical info that you can use today. Sign up now at www.DocLipkis.com. It really can improve or even save your life!

Dr. Lipkis is a successful practicing internist who has been in the field of medicine for more than 40 years and now retired. He trained at Northwestern University Medical School and presently practices at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview, Illinois. He has served as the president of the American Cancer Society (locally), hosted Medical Insight on WTMX radio, and lectured nationally with Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general. He has served as a medical consultant for WGN radio. Dr. Lipkis also is an editor for Prescriber’s Letter, an international newsletter for physicians. He has written four books, Live Longer and Healthier Now, Healthy Mind Healthy Body, Hacking Into Happiness, and soon to come, The Popcorn Diet. You can find Dr. Lipkis at https://doclipkis.com/blogs/doctorinyourhouse or on his YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/doctorinyourhouse

Dr. Tracy Aneziris is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in treating depression, anxiety, adjustment disorders, chronic pain and illnesses, sleep disorders, obesity, grief, stress, and attention problems. Her clinical experiences include extensive work with adults in private practices and pain rehab centers, with geriatric populations in nursing homes, and with children, adolescents, and families in community mental health settings. She provides both therapy and assessment in Lincolnshire, Glenview, and Schaumburg, IL and offers telehealth exclusively at this time.

Cut!

Friday, December 15th at 12:00P.M.E.S.T

This webinar is our holiday gift to our members—it promises to be both entertaining and thought-provoking. If you love the movies but are not always thrilled with the way older women (and men) are portrayed, this webinar is for you. Jim Vanden Bosch is a filmmaker who focuses on the issues of aging in movies and TV. He will show us memorable clips from a wide array of movies and look deeply into the messaging and how it helps shape both positive and negative perception of aging. He uses film to look at aging in a way that challenges stereotypes, values elderhood as a normal part of life and gives dignity to the life experiences and contributions of older adults. We will begin to understand why even some of the movies and characters we love the best, leave us with a sense of unease and the unfortunate perpetuation of misperceptions. This promises to be a revealing webinar that will cause us to view entertainment with a more critical eye in the future.

About Jim Vanden Bosch:

Jim Vanden Bosch is a filmmaker, and the founder and Executive Director of Terra Nova Films, a not-for-profit company specializing in producing and distributing films and videos on a wide variety of aging related issues. Throughout the years he has produced over 50 films and videos featuring topics such as geriatric healthcare, caregiving, dementia, and elder abuse.

Vanden Bosch is an associate editor in the arts and humanities section of The Gerontologist, an academic journal of the Gerontological Society of America. He frequently presents and facilitates workshops on elderhood and intergenerational issues incorporating relevant video clips as a platform for discussion.

Vanden Bosch uses film to look at aging in a way that challenges stereotypes, values elderhood as a normal part of life, and gives dignity to the life experiences and contributions of older adults.

Early, Middle, Late–What Are the Phases of Retirement?

Wednesday, May 20, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

We have learned that all phases of retirement are not created equal and they logically build upon one another. This webinar will feature a panel of three women, one, newly retired, the other, in what we might call middle retirement and one who has been retired for a long time. There is no magic to the timing and it is not all about age; some women go through the phases very quickly, and others may languish in one of the first two phases or even go backward. The key is to be fulfilled and happy and we are finding that it could take a little time to move from the honeymoon of retirement to a satisfying and joyful rhythm. We don’t mean to suggest that there is a destination, that once arrived there is no more movement. We think we can learn a lot from these dynamic women and they may be able to help you more easily deal with some of issues we face in this transition. One of our previous webinar speakers, Dr. Patrice Jenkins talked about the stages of retirement in her session. It may be interesting for you to view her archived talk, before participating in this webinar. Bring your concerns, questions and wisdom to share with the other participants and the panel as the challenges and joy of each stage are discussed.

Nancy Cantor

Dr. Chana Bursztyn

Lillian Israel

Resume and Interviewing:  When What You Want to Do Has Little to Do With What You Have Done

(Two of two symbiotic webinars)

Friday, February 21, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

So you are employing the process you learned in the Encore Careers webinar, but you look at what you want to do and what you have done and they are not related.  How am I actually going to get hired or get on this Board or whatever you wish to do?   How do I turn my stellar resume into something that will catch the eye and appear relevant for my new direction?  And should I catch someone’s eye, how do I interview and make my stories relevant?  This webinar will teach you how to present yourself as the very person they need and want and how to overcome any objections.

Iris has had a 40+ year career focused on human capital.  She was a long-time partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), leading the $500M human capital practice in the United States as well as doing a stint as the Chief Human Resource Officer for Coopers & Lybrand. She sat on both the Management Committee and the Board for PwC.  She has been a frequent speaker and writer on a broad array of human capital issues and ended her career as the Chief People Officer for a global company with over 60,000 employees; she continues as an active member of their Advisory Board.   She has advised CEO’s and mentored many senior people in business today, with a tenacious focus on women’s equality in the workplace.  She co-founded DefyingGravity.life to help women transition from careers into meaningful retirement and to help solve what she calls, the new feminist crisis, who will I be after my career?

Feeling Invisible

Friday, September 25, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

Ageism is often referred to as the last acceptable “ism”, jokes and negative commentary about the aged continue to be open sport—okay boomer.  When combined with sexism, it is a damaging combination.  Just talk to baby boomer women who want to work, or serve on Boards or just need to get waited on in a retail store. And it infects everything: The manner in which families interact, how we dress, how our doctors treat us, how we see possibilities and our self-confidence. We know people write an inaccurate back-story for us. And we know that our knowledge and experience have great value, that our energy and desire to give back are strong and an incredible opportunity for our communities. Dr. Susan Fiske has done wide ranging work in social cognition, the study of how people make sense of each other.  She has focused widely on prejudice including sexism and ageism.  Her testimony in the landmark case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins where she testified about gender discrimination paved the way for many of us to achieve higher levels within our organizations.  The manner in which she approaches these complex issues is with deep research and study.  Her insights on these important topics will be guaranteed to make us think about ageism, sexism and how people interact in a very different manner.

Susan T. Fiske is Eugene Higgins Professor, Psychology and Public Affairs, at Princeton University. She studies social cognition, the science of how people make sense of each other. She focuses on stereotypes and prejudices, including sexism and ageism, using evidence at cultural, interpersonal, and neuro-scientific levels. Author of about 400 publications and winner of numerous scientific awards, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Sponsored by a Guggenheim, her book Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us, explains her stereotype content model. Her book The HUMAN Brand: How We Respond to People, Products, and Companies (with Malone) applies her model to improve corporate culture. With Taylor, she wrote five editions of a prize-winning graduate text: Social Cognition, and solo, four editions of an advanced undergraduate text, Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology. She and her husband currently teach, advise, and research remotely, from Jamaica Vermont,

Financial Success For Retirement
Featuring- Beata Kirr, Co- head of Investment Strategies at Alliance Bernstein and Suzanne Lynch, Senior Investment Advisor, Principal, Bernstein 

Friday, April 22nd, 2022

Planning for retirement requires attention and decisions across many areas of your life including where you will live, how you will spend your time, and assessing if you have the financial resources to do so. Alliance Bernstein, one of the premier private client wealth management firms has a strong focus on women investors. Please join them for a discussion of Five Things You Need to Do to successfully transition your financial life in retirement. Preparing your financial life includes more than an assessment of how much money you have. We will provide tips on investments, estate planning, philanthropy and more.

About Suzanne

About Beata

Given How Successful I am in My Career, Why am l so Insecure About this Retirement Transition?

Friday, January 10, 2019, 12:00 pm EST

It is fascinating that so many successful and bold women are very different when they face their own transition to life after their careers.  One of the founders of DefyingGravity.life taught a class on Encore Careers at Stanford, and she found a group of very powerful and barrier-breaking women who were unsure about their ability to succeed at their retirement goals.  This webinar will focus on transition, particularly as it relates to women pivoting away from their careers. It will help us understand why successful women are not bringing their hard fought confidence to the task of creating a powerful after-career life and how to face this transition constructively.  Acknowledgement of the barriers we face, both real and psychological, will be very helpful in allowing us to move forward to find the purpose we desire in our own encores.  In addition, learning about the process of transition and how our concerns are “normal” will make us feel less alone and more confident in the choices we make.

Suzan Zoline

Growing Older- Our Way Is Not The Only Way

Friday, March 22nd at 12:00P.M. EST

The successful aging paradigm so popular in North America envisions postponing and even eliminating the negatives of old age through individual effort and lifestyle choices, via exercise, a healthy diet, positive attitude, and productive activities. On the face of it, this bold new vision of successful-healthy active aging is highly appealing. But it also rests on a deep cultural discomfort with aging and being old. Our society seems to tell us that we have a moral duty to stave off oldness, that being old is sad, meaningless and, to a degree, self-inflicted. What might be more meaningful alternatives?

By exploring ideas from her years of fieldwork on aging in both India and the United States, cultural anthropologist Sarah Lamb will help us ask: Are there other—more realistic, accepting, and meaningful—ways of envisioning the later phases of our lives? Why is ageism—even especially internal or self-directed ageism—so prevalent in US society, yet much less so in India? Does a belief in life after death make the prospect of aging and dying that much easier, or not? How do those in India approach the human need for care, and should we in the U.S. loosen our fierce commitment to individual independence? How can we make the most of our older years in ways that do not deny being old as part of the self and life?

About Sarah Lamb :

Sarah Lamb is Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanistic Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. Her research focuses on aging, gender, families, ethical strivings, and understandings of personhood in India and the United States. She is the author of numerous articles and books, and editor of Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession: Global Perspectives. As an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, Lamb is currently writing a book on her fieldwork in North America and India titled Successful Aging’s Global Moment: Visions and Dilemmas of Aging Well.

Is My House My Future Home?

Friday, August 11th at 12:00P.M.EST

It is a huge decision to stop working at your primary career, but one of the interesting side effects of this decision is that there are many other choices that become relevant. When you think about how you want to live your retirement, where you live becomes central. For example, just for starters…
• Do I need this big family home with all this land to tend?
• Do I still want the same kind of house? Stairs? Maybe a bigger kitchen to serve your baking passion or a great place to grow vegetables? Do I want something maintenance free?
• Do I want to plan for the long term and move to a retirement community that has various levels of care?
• Do I want to get out of this winter weather or stifling summers?
• Do I want to live nearer to my children or near family. My siblings are not getting any younger?
• One of our favorites, my partner and I don’t agree at all on this! In this webinar we have several women who have gone through this decision-making or are deciding right now. Come hear from these very thoughtful women as to how they are making their decisions and how to think this through given the major impact it will have on your life. Come join this authentic discussion about a topic that is on many of our minds.

How Do I Know The Cure Is Not Worse Than The Disease???

Friday, March 31st at 12:00P.M.EST

This is a webinar of critical importance! All you have to do is turn on the television to see a plethora of dramatic ads for drugs—miracle drugs that will help whatever ails you, but a fast-talking announcer lists a horrifying number of possible side effects. The cure sounds worse than the affliction. In addition, all you have to do is go to your doctor with a complaint and you will likely come away with a prescription, sometimes short term and sometimes a pill forever. We have no doubt that many of these drugs are keeping us alive longer and that we are healthier because of them. However, the pill is so easy to prescribe and take, it is hard not to wonder if we are taking an easy way out and being over-medicated. We start taking a lot of pills, some mail order, some picked up from our neighborhood pharmacist and some over-the-counter. We have many specialists we see and each prescribes what we need in their area of expertise, or we pick up a prescription at Urgent Care. Is anyone really looking at the whole picture? If like so many of us, you have a lot of questions about how you became one of those people with a pill organizer, then this is the webinar for you. Two pharmacists will honestly answer our questions about this critically important topic. We told our speakers, we want to know…
• Whose job is it to look at the whole patient and make sure all our prescriptions are necessary and they play well together?
• How do I know if my headache is just a headache or a side-effect from my new medicine?
• Why is my pharmacy constantly out of critical drugs that I must have and whose responsibility is that?
• Do aps such as Good Rx really save me money?
• Why are the insurance companies overruling my doctor as to the medicines I should take—and should I be suspicious now that insurance companies own pharmacies, and pharmacies own insurance companies?
And so much more!

About Bob

Bob has had a long and broad career as a pharmacist, starting at Walgreens after which he opened and operated three neighborhood pharmacies with two partners. He then moved to being a community pharmacist, followed by working in a hospital pharmacy, working in oncology. He then worked for a large corporation for twenty years, a company that runs pharmacies for hospitals where he was a director of pharmacy. He continues to work part time for one of the hospitals. He has placed a great focus on drug interactions and he is passionate about sharing this information with all the constituents of the medical community.

Bob got his undergraduate and pharmacy degrees from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.  He is a commercial pilot and a flight instructor and he is married with two children and three sweet granddaughters.

About Earl

Earl has been practicing pharmacy for the last 48 years in the Chicagoland area. His pharmaceutical background includes working at hospitals, independent local pharmacies, a compounding pharmacy, and national chain pharmacies including over 25 years with Walgreens.
Earl currently works at The ARK in Chicago as a pharmacist. The mission of The ARK is to help the Jewish people of Chicago who are facing adversity and help them achieve self reliance. The ARK is a vibrant hub of vital human services empowered by Jewish values that lifts and strengthens the Jewish Community. It is one of the only clinics of this type that offers free medical, dental, and pharmacy services all under the same roof.Earl lives in Schaumburg, IL, with his wife Debbie of 49 years. They have 2 children and 7 grandchildren. He enjoys playing Mah Jongg and teaches Hebrew School in 2 different synagogues

How do Corporate Boards find Qualified Directors?

Featuring Wendy Beecham, Associate Client Partner, Korn Ferry
As a seasoned business professional, you are ready to take on the responsibility of being an active Board member.  Yet the US is known to have the “oldest” Board members both in tenure and age so are there really Board opportunities out there?    Does the new SB826 legislation in California provide better opportunities for women?  The journey begins by developing a clear understanding of how Boards determine what skills and qualifications are needed for any new Directors they would like to add to their Boards so that you can formulate how best to position your value proposition for them.  How do you make yourself visible to Boards seeking new members?   Should you be looking at public or private Boards and are both options?   How does your non-profit Board involvement support your search for a public or private Board seat?   And what are the real risks and responsibilities of being a Board member?

About Wendy

Please join our panelist – Wendy Beecham, a Partner in Korn Ferry’s Board and CEO Advisory Practice and Board member of the Northern California chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Ms. Beecham’s diverse and global career included CEO and senior operational roles in corporate, non-profit and start-up/small business sectors in the US, Europe, and Asia including previous roles as managing director of Sweet & Maxwell, a UK legal publishing division of the Thomson Corporation and as a senior vice president at Lexis Nexis, a division of Reed Elsevier.  She also served as the CEO of Watermark, a women’s leadership organization in the San Francisco Bay area.

Wendy consults with CEO’s and senior teams in areas such as board and top team effectiveness, executive coaching, CEO and c suite succession planning and leadership development. She is a coach in the Korn Ferry Executive to Leader and Chief Executive Institutes.

Ms. Beecham serves on the board of the National Association of Corporate Directors Northern California chapter and is an advisory board member for Illuminate Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture fund. She is a former Board member of equity backed Granicus, Inc.

How to Present Yourself for the Next Step

FEATURING, Tom Stern, President of Stern Executive Search

It may be a long time since you had to sell yourself and despite a wealth of experience and a great career, you feel at a disadvantage.  You want to do something different with your skills, you don’t want to get on the same treadmill from which you just exited and you are worried about ageism or the relevance of your skills compared to what you want to do now.   How do you win—get exactly what you want for an encore career on your own terms?  In this webinar you will learn how to present yourself and remake your story so you have the WOW factor employers, Boards or charitable organizations are seeking.

About Tom

Tom Stern has had an eclectic career and has remade himself numerous times.   For the last 20+ years he has been the President of Stern Executive Search, a top-flight Executive Search firm working for some of the world’s leading talent organizations.  Tom has a unique ability to match candidates and positions and understand what organizations are looking for below the surface of the job description.  Prior to executive search, Tom was a stand-up comedian and a writer and producer for HBO.  He was also the President of Film and TV, for Spotlight Talent Agency, with clients such as Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher and many more.   Tom has also had a nationally syndicated radio show as well as a comic strip and television show based on his book, CEO Dad.  In addition he wrote the Academy Award winning short for HBO, The Moon and the Son and has authored 2 books, including Fear Less Sell More coming out in the fall.

Navigating Retirement After the Honeymoon

Friday, March 13, 2020, 12:00 pm EST

For many people, retirement starts out like a honeymoon—blissful, fun, full of dreams and aspirations. And then like most honeymoons, this stage eventually fades. You wake up and realize you could live another 25 years, and you don’t want to just play for the rest of your life.

This webinar is about preparing you for the stage after the honeymoon, a period of time when you might be feeling a sense of loss and direction. It’s known as “being in the middle” –suspended between our old life and our new life. We’re forced to live with the question, “What’s next?”

To help you navigate this stage, Dr. Jenkins has developed a tool named COMPASS. It’s a seven-step process that shows how the “middle” can be a rich source of self-discovery, exploration and opportunity. You don’t want to rush through this period just to relieve the tension of this ambiguous state. There are no quick-fix solutions, but with the COMPASS you can begin to experience reorientation. You’ll gain a greater sense of what you want in retirement and a renewed energy to create it.

About Patrice

Patrice Jenkins Ph.D. is an organizational psychologist, consultant, and frequent speaker on topics related to psychological and social preparation for retirement. Her online course, A Guide to Take the Weirdness Out of Retirement is available at Udemy.com. Dr. Jenkins is also the author of What Will I Do All Day? Wisdom to get you Over Retirement and on with Living!

Orchestrating Your Shifting Identities As You Age

Friday, November 12, 2021, 12:00 pm EST

Two creative women – Gail Zelitzky and Catherine Marienau- will describe their journey that launched Women Over 70-Aging Reimagined podcast, Facebook group, and Aging Reimagined Circle. Their mission is to shatter the myth that women become irrelevant as they age and to bring women together to share their experiences and insights around aging.

Each decade calls for  resilience to deal with new challenges, gratitude for  living longer, and strategies to enliven our later years.

Catherine and Gail will:

• Share voices and stories of women from their podcast that illustrate how purpose, drive and resilience can be maintained through the decades
• Identify strategies you might use during your own transformative years to make each decade over 50 count
• Offer language against ageism so you continue to be seen and heard

Website

Facebook Group

Gail Zelitzky, GEARSHIFT™

Business Coaching for Women 

773-957-8582

www.GailZelitzky.com

Podcast: WomenOver70 – Aging Reimagined™

Be Seen & Be Heard: Become a member of our Aging Reimagined Circle

https://www.womenover70.com

Wonder Women Mastermind Club for Women Business Owners 

Collaboratively Connect for Success on Zoom

Join here: https://www.GailZelitzky.com/wonder-women-mastermind

Women Rising

Invitation-only Small Group for Women Business Owners

New members welcome

Email: Gail@GailZelitzky.com for information on how to join

Gail Zelitzky
Gail is a lifelong entrepreneur who coaches individual women business owners, and groups, to realign, reimagine and rediscover their unlimited potential. Now, at age 79, she is excited to focus on women in various stages of transition to reimagine life as they age. Gail is an author, speaker and mentor and founder of Wonder Women Mastermind and Women Rising.

Catherine Marienau
Catherine is Professor Emerita at DePaul University where she was privileged to mentor adult learners and teach adult learning and development, qualitative research, and women’s issues. Now, at age 71, Catherine’s passion projects center on vital women aging, holistic health and wellness, and brain-based learning. Catherine is an author, speaker and coach.

Partner With Your Partner To Create A Shared Retirement Vision

November 11th at 12:00P.M. EST.

As you got closer to your retirement date, how much time did you give to planning how two retired people, you and your partner, would create a path forward? There is bound to be some tension and it is best to have full discussions of what could be, before you retire. But, if like many of us, you didn’t do that, it is never too late. For example, what happens when your partner wants to do extensive travel and you were looking forward to watching old movies, babysitting grandchildren and staying close to home? What if you had always dreamed of finally having an opportunity to move to a warmer climate and your spouse wants to embrace the familiar, the neighborhood gym and weekends with old friends? Do you have a like view on how much time to spend together vs on individual pursuits? How did all these years go by and you never stopped to have the conversation of how you would spend your retirement years together? Wendy Dolin, MSW, LSW. LCSW, is an experienced certified family therapist who has worked with couples at all stages of life and transitions. She will help us decipher how best to have “the talk” with our partner and the most constructive manner to express your needs, listen to your partner’s needs and create a next stage designed by both of you. Wendy, will provide an insightful and helpful view of what to expect, and how to go about negotiating a way to move forward. Even if you and your partner are doing well together, we believe that you will pick up some handy tips that you could use to make your life together even better.

About Wendy Dolin
Wendy Dolin, MSW, LSW, LCSW, is a certified family therapist with a private practice in the Chicago area and an internationally recognized health and safety advocate. She founded the Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation (MISSD) following the 2010 death of her husband, Stewart, who died after suffering from an adverse drug effect called akathisia.

MISSD educates the public about akathisia in a wide variety of ways and is proud to be involved with advocacy groups such as the Consumer’s Union, the Safe Patient Project, and the National Center for Health Research.

Dolin has been recognized by the International Society of Ethical Psychiatry and Psychology with its “Humanitarian of the Year” award. She holds a Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and a Master’s in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago.

MISSD educates the public about akathisia in a wide variety of ways and is proud to be involved with advocacy groups such as the Consumer’s Union, the Safe Patient Project, and the National Center for Health Research.

Problem Solving While We Sleep

Friday, January 26th, from 12:00 to 2:00 EST

We don’t know anyone who isn’t curious about their dreams; we are always wondering, what are they trying to tell us and is there truth in them? We have been told by many retirees that despite being very happy in their retirement, they too often dream about work; some of these dreams bring back the stress of work and some are benign—but we don’t understand why this work chapter is haunting our dreams. We found the person to help answer all our questions and give us a methodology for understanding our dreams and finally bringing us clarity about this universal but often misunderstood daily occurrence.

Our speaker, Layne Dalfen, has developed a 6 Point of Entry method that anyone can use to uncover what that dream you had was all about! In this two-hour special event dreaminar, she is going to share this method with us and she says anyone can do it easily. Layne says that hidden within our dreams are personal insights that make us better problem-solvers, smarter decision-makers, and masters at managing stress.About her core message, Layne says, “A dream is an interior, problem solving conversation that takes place between the unconscious and the conscious mind. The solution to today’s issue appears in the dream before you get it consciously, and understanding your dream can propel your problem-solving.”

Although our own webinars are always free of charge, this is a special event and Layne’s business, so please join us for this 2 hour dreaminar, Problem Solving While We Sleep for $30.00. Just click the button below, to go to Layne’s site to sign up and pay for what promises to be a really special event that we are very excited to bring to the members of DefyingGravity.life.

Best of all, Layne is eager to answer all our questions.

About Layne Dalfen :

Layne Dalfen, is the author of Have a Great Dream, Book 1; The Overview and Have a Great Dream, Book 2; A Deeper Discussion.

She has been lecturing for the counseling students at Concordia University in Montreal since 2004. Layne opened The Dream Interpretation Center in 1997. Besides numerous media and speaking appearances, Layne is well-known for her Understanding Dreams column at Psychology Today, and her Dream Catcher column at OprahDaily.

About her core message, Layne says, “A dream is an interior, problem solving conversation that takes place between the unconscious and the conscious mind. The solution to today’s issue appears in the dream before you get it consciously, and understanding your dream can propel your problem-solving.” She developed a 6 Point of Entry method that anyone can use to uncover what that dream you had was all about!

Layne has appeared on well over 200 podcasts and radio shows, including Melissa Rivers’ Group Text Podcast and America’s Coast to Coast AM, where she is a regular guest. She has appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX Affiliates in the US and appears regularly on Canada’s National Breakfast Television, as well as Global TV.

Eclectic in her approach, Layne’s interest in dreams stems from her early experience in Freudian analysis where dream work was the primary tool. She later studied at The Gestalt Counselling and Training Center in Montreal, and Adlerian principles of dream analysis at The Alfred Adler Institute. She has been a member of The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) since 1997.

Her goal is to introduce the general public to the value of understanding the language of metaphor, spoken by our sophisticated unconscious mind.
Layne’s Internet site is http://www.thedreamanalyst.com

Put Me In Coach, I’m Ready To Play Today

Friday, October 20th at 12:00P.M.EST

Did you know that there are people who are retirement coaches? Yes, they help people transition into retirement and find their purpose and joy in this new phase of life. This is coaching tailored to the person and it tackles the individual’s own challenges. This makes so much sense, we are mentored and coached (hopefully) throughout our careers, why wouldn’t we need assistance with this massive change? In this webinar, we have a premiere retirement coach, Susan Ackley, who will tell us a little bit about how she does what she does and some of the biggest obstacles she often sees and how to tackle them. This promises to be a very insightful webinar from someone who is both a therapist and a retirement coach and we are guessing has seen just about every issue we are facing. We are confident that this webinar will go a long way to making you understand that you are not alone in the transition issues you are facing as well as exposing you to some of the best approaches to dealing with them. Don’t miss it!

About Susan Ackley:

Susan Ackley is a Board-Certified Coach and Illinois Licensed Professional Counsel or at Compass Point LLC, an Oak Brook, Illinois based coaching and counseling practice.  She is a founding member and former board member of the Retirement Coaches Association.  Susan is passionate about coaching and wants to make non-financial retirement transition coaching a benefit available to all retiring workers nationwide. Susan has co-authored, with the Retirement Coaches Association, The Retirement Challenge, Out of the Box Retirement, and Rightsourcing Retirement, and she is a requested local speaker on retirement topics including where to live in retirement and the transition into retirement. Susan is also certified to offer and interpret the Retirement Success Profile ™.  She lives near Chicago with her husband, and their Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier dog. In her spare time, she enjoys walking and training with their dog, is an avid reader of all kinds of books, and is learning to play pickleball.   

Retirement Is A Particular Kind Of Loss

Friday, Sept 8, 2023 12:00 PM EST

There is a term in psychology called “ambiguous loss” which is broadly defined as a loss without closure. It is often used for a situation in which someone is physically present, but mentally slipping away, such as dementia, or when someone is physically missing with whereabouts unknown. We believe that retirement also fits into this ambiguous loss category; our primary careers are over, but we are still very much here and have much to offer, but who we are after this transition is unclear. Dr. Kia-Rai Prewitt is an expert and practitioner in ambiguous loss, and she agrees that retirement can be categorized as such. More than most problems that fall in this category, our issues with regard to retirement transition are largely on us to resolve and move forward, and she will help us understand how to work through this kind of loss to come out the other side with purpose and clarity. This webinar will also help you understand that you are not alone in your feelings of grief and being a little lost after retirement. Do not miss this important webinar.

About Dr. Kia-Rai Prewit

Dr. Kia-Rai Prewitt is a licensed psychologist skillful in providing compassionate and culturally competent care to individuals and couples. She works with patients experiencing a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, loss, adjusting to chronic medical conditions, and relationship issues. She often uses her unique life, educational and professional experiences in her approach. Dr. Prewitt has a diverse perspective of how people experience ambiguous loss, particularly from her past clinical work with military veterans and her clinical work with patients with long COVID. She has a special interest in working with patients who are traditionally underserved and provides mental health education in a variety of settings and through local and national media outlets. She also enjoys supervising, teaching, and mentoring psychology and psychiatry trainees. Dr. Prewitt is originally from Chicago and obtained her doctoral degree in counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Prewitt is the Director of Outpatient Psychology in the Center for Behavioral Health at Cleveland Clinic. In her spare time, Dr. Prewitt enjoys spending time with her family.

The Door is Open—Do I Want To Walk Through It?

Friday, June, 2021, 12:00 pm EST

COVID in the United States is abating and the vaccination has bought us a new freedom. Real freedom appears to be around the corner, but many of us are having a surprisingly mixed emotion. We want our old lives back, but we are timid, reluctant, maybe even afraid to jump back in with both feet. Information about safety protocols are ever-shifting, it seems like yesterday that leaving the house was life threatening. The popular press has acknowledged that this anxiety, the PTSD nature of resuming life, is ubiquitous, but we might be even more vulnerable than most. Many of us don’t have a job to return to, something that forces us out and allows us to realize that normal life is not all that scary after all. We were the vulnerable group, the group to which COVID did the most damage and frankly it still consumes too much of our conversation and we have too much time to think about what could go wrong. We know we need to be resilient, but how do we do that? Therese Unumb and Roxanne Levin are going to help us understand the root of our anxiety and how best to overcome it and be resilient in the face of a waning pandemic. For everyone who still feels unsteady, anxious or just slow to relaunch, this will be a conversation that is sure to make you understand you are in good company and how to get back to purpose and fun.

About Terry Unumb, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist

About Roxanne Levin, Ph.D. 

Roxanne Levin, Ph.D. received her doctorate from Loyola University, Chicago and earned her master’s degree at the acclaimed Erikson Institute. Over the course of her thirty-plus career, she specialized in working with children and families and studied human development across the lifespan. Prior to her many years in private practice, Roxanne worked at Children’s Memorial Hospital in the Department of Psychiatry. There, she was part of a team investigating the effect of HIV on infected children and mothers. Other research endeavors have included her involvement in the development of a protocol to identify at-risk pre-schoolers in the Evanston, Illinois community.

The Right Charity Work

Friday, November 15, 2019, 12:00 pm EST

If you are looking for purpose and an opportunity to give back, there are so many people and organizations that need you.  As a matter of fact, the moment you retire, you may be contacted by some very well-meaning acquaintances.  But, finding the right volunteer opportunity is not that different than looking for a job.  You have to know what you want.  Are you the person who wants to be hands on, and cook and hand out the food at a soup kitchen or do you want to run the charity?  Do you want to sit on the right Boards and volunteer on the right committees or do you want to work directly with the community?  What gives you purpose; literacy, getting people to work, poverty, battered women, hunger, homelessness, the environment?  Are you focused on your community, city, country or do you have a global point of view?  Also, charities can absorb all of your time if that is what you want, but if you don’t, you have to be careful.  This webinar is presented by a panel of women who have found a way to give back that works for them.  They have chosen service that is rewarding and personal. Listen to their stories and learn how they decided what was right for them and how they made their decisions.

Susan Isenberg

Robin Marcus

Zoann Policky

You’re Not Working – Family Expectation

Tuesday, September 17, 2019, 5:00 pm EST

Featuring Dr. Malka Miller, Psy.D Clinical Psychologist
You didn’t change when you stopped working.  How come your dearest family members see you so differently? Suddenly they see not a physician or attorney, but a nanny, a social secretary, a nurse or some version of a 1950’s housewife.  If your partner is still working, or if they are also retired, if your children are in the house or out of the house, if your parents are needy—all of this can inadvertently shape your retirement.  This is a serious issue and expectations should be set before you retire.  Your own mindset must be understood; it is too easy to tell yourself that you have the time and you should do whatever your family is requesting.   We will discuss all the traps and pitfalls and rewards of this part of our transition.

About Dr. Miller

Malka (Marla) Miller, Psy.D is a licensed clinical psychologist who owns a private practice in a  Chicago suburb. She specializes in working with individuals and families who are going through the process of transition, experiencing anxiety, depression and loss. Dr. Miller recognizes that each person’s experience is unique, and that women’s experiences have extra dimensionality. Dr. Miller helps her clients reconcile the past and live their lives to the fullest, recognizing that each stage has its own challenges and opportunities

I Think I Want to Be an Executive Coach

We have so many skills and many of us think it would be rewarding to pass those skills on to others in a tangible manner.  Many successful people think that Executive Coaching is a promising encore career.  I mentored many successful people, I was an effective leader and I understand my domain as well as the political realities of a workplace.  Therefore, you think, “I would be great at this”, and maybe you would.  But like so many things that seem intuitive, maybe even easy, coaching is a skill and an art form.  This webinar will teach the reality of executive coaching, what it takes, how do you get clients and whether it is as rewarding as we might imagine.