Avril Angevine is an arts lecturer with a particular interest in modern and contemporary art and California art, and has lectured on both subjects at various locations in the Bay Area, including the OLLI programs at Cal State East Bay and Dominican College. Avril has an MA in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley and teaches English in the Fall Program for Freshmen at UC Berkeley, and Humanities at Diablo Valley College. She is also a museum guide at SFMOMA, and a docent at OMCA.

Debashish Banerji, PhD is Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophy and Culture and Doshi Professor of Asian Art at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also the program chair in the East‐West Psychology department. Professor Banerji obtained his PhD in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles on the topic of art and nationalism in India by focusing on the life and work of the artist Abanindranath Tagore, one of the founders of modern Indian art. He served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles. He has taught as adjunct faculty in Art History at the Pasadena City College, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine. From 2005‐2009, he was the Director of the International Center for Integral Studies in New Delhi, India, an online graduate academic institution which he took through accreditation under the Indira Gandhi National Open University system. From 1992‐2006, Banerji served as the president of the East‐West Cultural Center, Los Angeles, an institution dedicated to academic research and presentation of Indian philosophy and culture in the US. He is presently the Executive Director of Nalanda International based in Los Angeles. Banerji has curated a number of exhibitions of Indian and Japanese art. He has edited a book on the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and is the author of two books: The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore (Sage, 2010) and Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformational Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo (DK Printworld and Nalanda International, 2012).

Prof. Buxton’s lifelong passion has been music and documentary filmmaking. He has worked as a professional musician, with the likes of Peggy Lee, Billy Eckstine, and Bill Strayhorn. He has produced shows ranging in scope from the Motown Allstars to B. B. King, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis. He traveled with Ellington producing an award‐winning audio documentary. A longtime jazz club/restaurateur in Seattle and SF, he has also had a long career in broadcasting working for KGO as a newsman, a talk show host, and an executive producer. He is a Northern California Emmy Awardee. He hosts “Saturday Mid‐Day Jazz” on KCSM. Working as a social psychologist/football player have been parts of his life now being put into Memoirs of a Jazz Junkie: My First Two Hundred Years.

In most aspects Professor Covert’s early years were unremarkable. Beneath the surface lurked avoracious reader, who developed a passion for American history. He majored in political scienceand history at William and Mary. A 1963 graduate of Stanford Law School, he was a trial lawyerfor 40 years, representing the California Division of Highways [now Caltrans] and other publicagencies including the Contra Costa Water District, and the California Department of WaterResources.

Kip Cranna is Dramaturg Emeritus of San Francisco Opera, where he served on the staff for 40 years. He earned his Ph.D. in musicology at Stanford University. He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and writes and lectures frequently on opera. He is on the faculty at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) at Dominican University, San Francisco State University, and U.C. Berkeley. He has managed the commissioning of many new operas by composers such as Philip Glass, John Adams, André Previn, Jake Heggie, and others. For many years he was Program Editor and Lecturer for the Carmel Bach Festival. In 2008 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor, and in 2012 his work was honored with the Bernard Osher Cultural Award for distinguished efforts by an individual to bring excellence to a cultural institution.

William Eddelman, Associate Professor Emeritus of Theatre History and Design, Stanford University, is a specialist in international theatrical design. During his teaching career at Stanford University, he combined both the creative and academic worlds through practical stage design work and classroom teachings. His courses included theatre, art and cultural history, costume and scenic design, dramatic literature, theatre aesthetics and politics, opera, musical theatre, and the psychology of clothes. He taught at the Stanford Berlin Center, has led study tours to northern Italy, and designed professional productions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

      He is currently working on two major projects: a research library and collection in international theatrical design for the Achenbach Graphic Arts Foundation of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, and a special research project for the Prague Quadrennials – held every four years in the Czech Republic – that showcase international exhibitions of theatrical design.

Toby Engelberg is an architect who has practiced in San Francisco and New York, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Art at Contra Costa College. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a Masters of Architecture from Yale University.

Scott Foglesong is the Chair of Musicianship & Music Theory at the SF Conservatory of Music, where he has been a faculty member since 1978. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also teaches at UC Berkeley, where he has the privilege of introducing young people to Western art music. A Contributing Writer and Pre-Concert Lecturer for the SF Symphony, he also serves as Program Annotator for the California Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, San Luis Obispo Symphony, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. As a pianist, he has appeared with the Francesco Trio, Chanticleer, members of the SF Symphony, and solo/chamber recitals nationwide in a repertoire ranging from Renaissance through ragtime, jazz, and modern. At Peabody Conservatory, he studied piano with Katzenellenbogen and Wolff; later at the SF Conservatory he studied piano with Nathan Schwarz, harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg, and theory with Sol Joseph and John Adams.

Andrew Fraknoi, who regularly teaches astronomy courses at Fromm, retired as the Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017. He has won several national prizes for his teaching and appears regularly on local and national radio explaining science in everyday language. He is the lead author of a free, electronic textbook introducing astronomy, which is now the most-frequently-used astronomy textbook in the country, and has written books for teachers, children, and science fiction fans. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi in recognition of his contributions to the public understanding of science.

A former Special Correspondent for the New York Times, I am a journalist and author with four, non-fiction books to my name. I specialize in reporting on unusual inventions that failed in the marketplace despite their innovative nature, which I call White Elephant Technology. My articles on this and other topics have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, WIRED, Popular Science, Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, and the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine among other publications. Two of my non-fiction books have been turned into documentaries, one for PBS-TV and the other for the Smithsonian Channel in which I appeared as the on camera expert. To learn more about my books and journalism see: www.johnjgeoghegan.com

Journalist and author of five books, including Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction, named a best book of the year by the SF Chronicle, and The Spine of the Continent, about which Publisher's Weekly said "this is what science writing should be: fascinating and true." Awards include Stanford's Knight-Risser award for Environmental Journalism.

Lynne Kaufman is an award-winning playwright whose 20 full length plays have premiered at such theatres as The Magic, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, The Marsh, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Abingdon Theatre in N.Y.C., Fountain Theatre in L.A. and Florida Studio Theatre. Her plays are published by Smith and Krause, Dramatists Play Service and Dramatic Publishing.

Douglas Kenning, raised in Virginia, received a PhD from the Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has lived overseas for most of his life, teaching at universities in Tunisia, Japan, and Italy. Besides being a professor of history and literature, he also has been a professional biologist, actor, army officer, Manhattan taxi driver, academic administrator, and writer of books, articles, and stage plays. He lives half the year in the San Francisco Bay Area, giving lecture series on subjects related to the histories and cultures of the Mediterranean area, and half the year in Siracusa, Sicily, where he runs Sicily Tour, a small tour guide business.

Thomas Lorch’s great love is teaching literature. He has taught 7th grade through graduate school for more than twenty years. Quick bio facts. Education: New Trier High School, Yale (B.A., Ph.D.), University of Chicago (M.A.). Teaching: The Groton School, The University of Notre Dame, and others. Long time public high school principal. “I find teaching and sharing literature always exciting and always fresh and new, because every reader and every reading is different. I see reading as a creative act, as a two-way conversation between the work being read and the reader, in which he or she creates alongside the author. My approach to teaching great literature is to look as closely as possible at the texts themselves. What makes great literature great is that there is always more to find.”

Joan Minninger has taught writing at NYU, UC Berkeley and UCLA.  She has given writing workshops for The Dramatists Guild , The Mystery Writers of America and the American Academy of Psychotherapists. She has authored 13 books including The Father/Daughter Dance, a Psychology Book Club selection, Free Yourself to Write, a Writers Digest Book Club selection and Total Recall, a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection.  Her Ph.D. is from New York University.

For over 20 years, Dr. Mark Montesano taught a broad range of humanities seminars at Arizona State University for the department of Religious Studies, The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, and The Barrett Honors College. 

Before that he spent 20 years as a therapist and counselor. With graduate degrees in counseling psychology, religious studies, and English. He has a passion for integrating fields of knowledge to explore what it means to be human in various cultures and throughout history

 His current interests include exploring the similarities between Western and Eastern philosophies. Out of his love for jazz and its history he taught a class on the first 50 years of recorded jazz. After retiring to Portland, Oregon he became the host of his own radio show for 4 years. He gave regular lectures on jazz history and led philosophy reading groups there.

David Möschler is an award-winning Bay Area conductor, musical director, and lecturer. He has worked on over 150 different theater productions throughout the country, and served on the faculty of the Academy of Art University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is a frequent guest lecturer for many local organizations specializing in musical theater and film music. He is the Founding Artistic Director of Awesöme Orchestra Collective, which he conducts every month.

James Mullane holds a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 19th and 20th Century American Literature, and an M.A. in English from University of New Orleans.  He was an Associate Professor of English and Graduate Humanities at Dominican University of California and has had an extensive career at Lasallian secondary schools in both California and Louisiana.  His major areas of interest and research include Frederick Douglass, Henry James, Kate Chopin, and Tennessee Williams.

Ernest Newbrun is Professor Emeritus at UCSF where he taught oral biology for over 30 years. He earned dental degrees (BDS, DMD), graduate degrees (MS, PhD) and received honorary doctorates (Doc Odont, DDSc). Since his retirement from the UC in 1994, he has been teaching in lifelong learning programs at USF’s Fromm Institute and Sonoma State University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on a wide range of topics in science (evolution), nutrition (sugars & sweeteners), origin of scripts, and art history (biblical art, secessionism, expressionism, self-portraiture, murals, stolen art, innovators in modern art, Dutch 17th century Baroque art). Professor Newbrun was born in Vienna, Austria, grew up in Sydney, Australia and has lived in San Francisco since 1961 and since Covid epidemic in Sebastopol, CA.

Cary Pepper is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer. His plays have been presented throughout the United States and internationally. He’s a four-time contributor to the Best American Short Plays series from Applause Books, and he’s published dozens of articles as well as other nonfiction.

David Peritz earned his BA from Occidental College and Ph.D. from Oxford. A Professor at Sarah Lawrence since 2000, he is the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and taught at Harvard, Deep Springs, Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, and Cornell. His research specialization is modern and contemporary political philosophy, especially theories of democracy and justice and their relation to issues of diversity and inequality. He has taught at the Fromm Institute since 2016 and in lifelong learning for over 20 years.

Alan J Pomerantz, Esq. has been a practicing attorney for decades, predominantly as a senior partner at major international law firms. In addition to his practice, he teaches an advanced seminar on constitutional law at UC Berkeley. He has received several awards and acknowledgments from peer publications and legal societies, including: “The Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers” published by the International Financial Law Review; “The World's Leading Lawyers” published by Chambers Global; “New York Super Lawyers” published by the NY Times; and “International Who’s Who in Business Law” published by Law Business Research. He has also been awarded The Fulbright Scholars Foundation”s “One to World, International Award.”

Ruthe Stein is the founder and co-director of the Mostly British Film Festival, in its 12th year showing films from English-speaking countries around the world. For three decades, Prof. Stein was the movie editor, film critic and celebrity profiler for the San Francisco Chronicle, one aspect of her 50-year career at the newspaper. Her singles column, First Person Singular, ran in 30 papers, and she is the author of the self-help book The Art of Single Living. Prof. Stein has taught at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Northwestern University.

Bebo White is a retired computational physicist who worked at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the U.S. national laboratory for high-energy physics and basic energy science at Stanford University. Professor White still holds faculty appointments at several institutions, advisory positions on a variety of academic, government, and commercial committees, and is a member of the organizing committees of several major conference series. He is delighted to be a part of the Fromm community and has thoroughly enjoyed teaching several classes. Additional information can be found HERE.