Freda Bernotavicz

Freda moved to Maine in 1974 from Washington D.C. looking for a healthy place to live and raise a family. With a graduate degree in Instructional Communications, she worked at University of Southern Maine until her retirement in 2017. At the Muskie School of Public Service, she was Director of the Institute for Public Sector Innovation, Adjunct Faculty and Team Leader of a national leadership and workforce development institute using remote technology to provide continuing education programs.

She served on the Maine Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, was Board Member and Chair of the Standards Committee of the National Staff Development and Training Association, and has also served on the board of local non-profits.

Leona Dufour

Leona retired from teaching high school English in upstate New York. She and her husband soon moved to Georgetown after having fallen in love with mid-coast Maine during numerous summer vacations. She has been taking courses at Midcoast Senior College nearly ever semester for the past fourteen years and has also partnered in teaching four courses. Last spring she did a zoom lecture.

In addition to finishing a memoir, she has been keeping a COVID diary for this past year. So far it numbers nearly 70,000 words. She hopes her granddaughter might be interested in it.

Susan Goran

Susan F. Goran has been privileged to practice in a variety of nursing roles in various ICUs throughout Maine and New England for many years. Retiring from a full-time clinical position 4 years ago, she is currently enjoying an adjunct faculty position teaching Leadership in the UNE School of Nursing & Population Health on the Portland campus. Susan attained her initial nursing diploma at the NE Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Boston and later received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing from University of Southern Maine in Portland. Very active in a variety of professional nursing organizations, Susan served on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses from 1993-96 providing her opportunities to present on critical care topics including leadership for regional, national, and international audiences. She has contributed to the professional nursing literature with peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and recently published her first textbook, ‘Telemedicine: Care Beyond Touch’ which is helping current healthcare providers learn about the use of telehealth/telemedicine to enhance patient care. Passionate about continuous learning, Susan has both attended classes at Midcoast Senior College as a participant and has offered her medical and nursing knowledge by teaching a course on advance directives entitled Final Gifts. Susan lives with her husband of 35 years, John, in Freeport and they enjoy following the sun during the winter months.

Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart has been a resident of Brunswick since 2009. Prior to moving to Maine, he taught health law and health policy at the University of Rochester, in New York State. He has been a practicing lawyer, a book editor, and a newsletter journalist in Washington, D.C., where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court. He is currently on the Board of Family Focus, and served on the board of the Friends of Curtis Library. He is actively involved in First Parish Church in Brunswick, where he is presently a member of the Church Council.

Bruce Hauptli

Bruce is a life-long educator who taught philosophy for forty years. He earned a BA in mathematics from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI; and a MA and PhD in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

He and his wife, Laurie, retired to Bath in 2015, and he has both taken and taught MSC courses.

Laurie Spurr

Laurie Spurr is the former Head of English at the Collège du Léman in Switzerland. She has also taught at the Université du Troisième Age, the Swiss equivalent of our Senior College. Prior to her teaching career, she was a journalist in Chicago, then associate head of a communications firm, before returning to journalism with an international wire service in Geneva. She has a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College and a teaching degree in French from the Université de Neuchâtel. After many visits to Maine over the years, she and her husband moved to Brunswick, where she has been delighted by the courses she has taken at MSC.

Craig Snapp

An enthusiasm for science and technology led Craig to a PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University. A 30-year Silicon Valley career followed, doing research, product development and management in the field of wireless semiconductor devices. Retiring to Brunswick in 2003 allowed him to spend more time in the great Maine outdoors, become an avid photographer and volunteer for a number of land conservation non-profits including being on the board of the Downeast Coastal Conservancy. He has most recently become active with the local Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter.

Craig has enjoyed taking a variety of Midcoast Senior College courses and has taught one on “Exploring Your World and Beyond with Google Earth.”

David Vogt

David Vogt received his BA in Physics from Colby College and MBA at Harvard Business School. He spent 12 years at Education Development Center, a MIT spin-off including one year teaching the materials developed in a public high school, worked in nuclear radiation software modeling, and served in the U.S. Army. He has published papers, taught undergraduate filmmaking, worked on the technical and management side in software and hardware systems with a robotics focus. Other work included a Substance Abuse Group Volunteer Facilitator at SMART Recovery, a non-profit international organization. He is retired, enjoying the proximity to his family and grandchildren in Maine.

Ellen Whiting

Ellen is a proud Mainer who found her way home in 2012 after a rewarding 36-year career in medical education in Ohio. She is professor emeritus at Northeast Ohio Medical University where she served as Director of Faculty Development for clinical and basic science faculty. She relished teaching an annual elective course to senior medical students, including “Literature and Medicine, “Literature and Aging” and “Love Matters in Literature and Medicine.” Ellen was introduced to Midcoast Senior College when she taught, “Love Matters in Literature and Life,” based on her desire to learn with and from older learners. She also proudly serves as a volunteer at the Maine Maritime Museum where she is a shipyard guide and trainer. She lives on the Kennebec River in Bath.

George Young

George graduated Phi Beta Kappa in English from Duke, and as a Woodrow Wilson Scholar, earned a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literature at Yale. He taught Russian language and literature and general humanities at Grinnell, Dartmouth, and the University of New England. In retirement, both at OLLI in Portland and MSC in Brunswick, as both student and teacher, he has shared his long standing love of the great books, especially in Russian and ancient classical literature. In a long break from academia, he worked as a fine arts dealer and auctioneer. He and his wife now enjoy slow hiking, nine-hole golf, children, grandchildren, and the many rich but affordable opportunities for cultural life in Brunswick.