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.

Dr. Cheitlin has organized the Spring Fromm 8-week Medical Series for the last 21 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UCSF and former Chief of Cardiology at ZSFGH. Prior to joining UCSF he spent 20 years in the Army Medical Corps and was Chief of Cardiology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Dr Cheitlin is a Master of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Heart Association and has been the Chair of the Subspecialty Board on Cardiovascular Disease of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He has been Chairman of the FDA Circulatory Devices Panel.

Richard Lyons Corriea is a former San Francisco Police Commander. He holds a Juris Doctorate and a Master’s in Business Administration. He is a graduate of the California Command College for police executives. During his police career he had many roles, including patrolling the streets of San Francisco, investigating violent crimes, legal advisor to the Chief of Police, heading up internal affairs, leading a crisis intervention team and station platoon lieutenant. As a senior executive, Corriea served as Supervising Captain of the entire city, Commanded the police academy and was commanding officer of Richmond Police Station. Upon promotion to Commander, Corriea had responsibility for the Department’s Metro Division, which encompassed police services in five police Districts. He has crowd-control and critical incident management experience. Corriea’s private sector experience includes the private practice of law, expert witness testimony and consulting in the aviation security industry. Corriea currently serves as Long-Term Care Ombudsman. And he is Director of the University of San Francisco’s International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership Advisory Board, and is adjunct professor in the University’s School of Management.

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.

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 retired as the Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017, having taught introductory astronomy and physics at three different colleges and universities (including SF State). He was selected the California Prof. of the Year in 2007 by the Carnegie Endowment for Higher Education and has won several national prizes for his teaching. He is the lead author of a free, open‐source, electronic textbook in astronomy, and has written books for teachers, children, and science fiction fans. He appears regularly on local and national radio, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi in recognition of his contributions to the public understanding of science.

Winding down a 35 yr. career at USF, Alan Goldberg has concentrated on the multi-cultural variants of Rhetoric in American Literature. He was educated at the U. of Chicago, the U. of Hawaii, and SFSU. He was mentored by Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow at Chicago and Irving Halperin (late of the Fromm) at SFSU. A scholar in Jewish American literature with special emphasis on the works of Bellow, Malamud, Roth, and Doctorow, he is presently exploring the current generation of prominent Jewish American writers. He is championing the legacy of the late Philip Roth in response to recent revisionist critiques. As a lifelong devotee of baseball, he is also researching sports in American literature. He and his Nicaraguan-American wife, Indiana Quadra- Goldberg, a retired CCSF Ethnic Studies professor with an emphasis on Latina/o literature, share a deep appreciation of African American and Hispanic American literature.

Prof. Michael Krasny : Dr. Krasny was the host of the award winning KQED FORUM, a program discussing news and public affairs, current events, culture, health, business and technology. He has interviewed a wide range of major political and cultural figures. He is also a veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures series. Focus Magazine named him Best Bay Area Talk Show Host, and he was selected Best Talk Host and Best Interviewer by the editorial staff of San Francisco Weekly, as well as in their annual reader’s poll.

He is the author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life (Stanford University Press) which was on both The San Francisco Chronicle and The Marin Independent Journal best-seller lists, Sound Ideas (with Maggie Sokolik McGraw-Hill) and Let There Be Laughter (Harper Collins). He also released a twenty-four lecture series DVD, audio and book on “Short Story Masterpieces” for The Teaching Company, and is the author of Spiritual Envy (New World Press), which was also on the best-seller lists in The San Francisco Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal.

A professor of English at San Francisco State University, he has been Visiting Professor at the University of San Francisco, Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco and taught in Continuing Education at Stanford University, as well as being an Associate of the San Francisco Urban Institute. 

In 2007, he was honored with an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Humanities Educators.   In 2017 Michael was a writer-in-residence at the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

The San Francisco Chronicle has credited Charlie Varon with “redefining the medium” of solo performance. For over 30 years, he has written, performed, directed and taught at The Marsh Theater in San Francisco. Charlie’s award-winning shows – all created in collaboration with David Ford – include Rush Limbaugh in Night School, The People’s Violin, Rabbi Sam, and Second Time Around, a collaboration with world-renowned cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. Since 2004, Charlie has collaborated with and directed Dan Hoyle on his hit solo shows, including Tings Dey Happen, The Real Americans and Border People. Charlie’s current focus is his work as a coach and mentor – for doctors, rabbis, public speakers, comedians, political activists, and especially those who don’t think of themselves as professional writers. “I'm passionate about the craft of storytelling, and creating the conditions where anyone can express and share their truth.”

Gaye D. Walton-Price is a highly motivated and talented college professor, with years of teaching experience in a variety of academic settings. Dr. Walton-Price earned her PhD in Arabic language and linguistics at Georgetown University; and she is currently the Arabic instructor at University of San Francisco. She has lived and worked in Tunis, Tunisia, and in Cairo, Egypt for extended periods of time. After nearly 20 years’ college and university-level teaching experience, she knows that her passion is the Arabic language, both teaching it, and doing research with it and in it. Along the way, she has also gained expertise in teaching humanities and philosophy courses.