| Candidates for the OLLI Board of Directors 2021; |
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Candidate Forum held during the Annual Meeting, May 7, 2021
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Toni Acton has been a member of OLLI since 2012, joining soon after retiring from AT&T. Having heard about OLLI for years from a friend, she was ready to jump right in! She signed up to be an office volunteer and before she knew it, she was coordinating all the volunteers, as well as establishing the New Members Advisory Committee. She has been the Chair of the Member Services Committee for over four years, as well as serving on the Outreach and Development Committees. Working with new OLLI members to make them feel at home is one of her passions, especially during this time of Zoom classes and social distancing. Toni has a Business Degree from the University of Maryland. As a former military wife, she has lived all over the United States, as well as three years in England. After settling in Virginia in 1986, she was an Office Manager for a security consulting firm, and then joined Ameritech, one of the Baby Bells. During the last six years of her career at AT&T, she was a Director in the Federal Regulatory Group, working on consumer and disability issues with both the Federal Communications Commission and industry groups. She learned very quickly that first impressions are extremely important in business and has continued that mantra when interacting with new OLLI members – if their first interactions at OLLI are favorable, they’re much more likely to keep coming back. She has also been a volunteer with Traveler’s Aid at Dulles Airport for over 8 years, as well as an editor for her church newsletter. Traveling with her husband John all over the world has been a large part of her retirement years, and she’s hoping to “get back on the road” as soon as she can. The next few years will be a challenge for OLLI as it develops a curriculum of both Zoom and in-person classes, continues its outreach to seniors in Northern Virginia to increase membership, and deals with facility issues. Toni looks forward to assisting staff and Board members in facing these various challenges as we continue to provide one of the top OLLI programs in the nation. |
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Camille Hodges was raised in Virginia and graduated from Hampton University with B.A. in Biology. She has made many places her home as the wife of a Navy Officer. These include South Ruislip, England, San Diego, CA, and Bethesda, MD. Camille and her family settled in Northern Virginia when her husband was stationed in Washington, D.C. During this time she changed careers after earning a M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from GMU. She also taught summer courses in the FAST TRAIN curriculum program at GMU. Camille has achieved National Board Certification in Middle School Social Studies. Following her retirement from Fairfax County Public Schools Camille was introduced to OLLI/GMU and has been a member for six years. She was asked to co-chair the Humanities and Social Sciences Committee after experiencing two years of OLLI courses and acting as an OLLI liaison. She continues to co-chair this committee which has now expanded to the Humanities and Social Sciences/Current Events (HSS/CE) committee. Camille participates in community organizations and works part time with FCPS as a teacher collaborator and volunteer tutor. Passionate about travel, she has visited most of Western Europe, Mexico, Peru, and Iceland. Her biggest passion, however, is being the mother of two children and grandmother of six; all of whom live in Northern Virginia. |
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Debby Mossburg has been a member of OLLI since the summer of 2012 and has been an avid fan of the classes, teachers, clubs and other members she’s gotten to know during that time. She is always encouraging friends to join, resulting in new memberships not only to George Mason’s OLLI, but to OLLIs across the country. She has taught a class in Mah Jongg and currently organizes the club meetings so that members can Zoom and chat while playing an on-line version of the game. She has also recently joined the Special Events Committee and is delighted to have been nominated to the Board. Debby retired from Fairfax County Public Schools in 2008. She spent the first 20 years of her career teaching middle and high school students how to become better learners, and most of her last 13 years exploring, creating and sharing tools and materials with teachers and administrators to help them better meet the needs of struggling learners. She still does a little of that in her retirement, working with teachers across the country as an educational consultant. After retiring, she also served on the board of a small non-profit organization that supported families of children in pediatric intensive care units. If elected to the Board, Debby looks forward to helping OLLI further its miss ion for life-long learning, building community and having fun! |
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John Quinn is a retired Navy JAG Captain and a retired federal Senior Executive Service officer, with service in the Department of the Navy and the Department of Transportation. John has been an OLLI member since January, 2018. In the 2020 Summer Semester he presented a class on flying as a private pilot. In the 2021 Winter Semester he presented a class entitled “America Battle Songs – History and Myth". For the past two-plus years he has been a moderator in the “What’s in the Daily News” class. His objectives as an OLLI Director include increasing racial diversity in OLLI membership, and making the OLLI website more user-friendly. |
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In a 2011 pre-retirement workshop, Charley Silver was told that there are two sets of muscles that required attention in retirement – those in your body and those between your ears. The next year, thanks to the introduction of a long-time OLLI member, Charley discovered OLLI. Since then, OLLI has become an important part of his life. Charley studied physics as an undergraduate and graduate student, but a stint in the Peace Corps resulted in a serious change of interest and a new career. He joined the Foreign Service and retired after a 35-year career that took him to a variety of countries. Acting on the thesis that he was too busy getting degrees in college to get an education, he has tried to take courses in OLLI that have absolutely nothing to do with what he knows professionally or studied, for example, Dante, the American West, Spanish, and Oscar Wilde. OLLI opened new doors that he has been privileged to enter. In 2018 he was elected to the Board of Directors of OLLI, where he serves on several committees. After enjoying courses taught by other members, Charley, who is a volunteer docent at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asia Art, offered a course on several of the museum's exhibitions . Charley lives in Fairfax and tries to keep the other set of his muscles in shape by playing tennis regularly. |
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I'm Zachary Teich, but please call me Zach. I've been a member of OLLI since 2013. I have led two OLLI courses: a discussion group examining the conduct of U.S. foreign policy, (which will meet again next term); and the between-term meetings of the All the News (Con't) group. Before I started my second career holding up columns on cruise ships, (see photo), I was a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) for 27 years, and then a Personal Services Contractor at the State Department for an additional 6 years. As an FSO, my overseas assignments included Guatemala City, Guatemala; Quito, Ecuador; London, England; Canberra, Australia; and Antananarivo, Madagascar (where I served as Deputy Chief of Mission). My specialty was international economics. During my contractor years, I worked as a negotiator and program manager in State's Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund. I hold two Masters degrees, one in Foreign Service from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, and the other in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Marine Corps War College. My wife Margaret and I have been married for almost 42 years. We have two grown sons and three very young grandsons. I would welcome the chance to serve on the OLLI board because the organization helped me a great deal navigating the transition from professional life to retirement. |
