The Sage-ing^® Guild

Michele Baldwin, M.S.W., Ph.D., has been a Certified Sage-ing® Leader of the Sage-ing Guild for several years. She has conducted workshops focusing on vital aging for people who are retired or thinking of retirement. She became a member of the Coordinating Circle of the Sage-ing® Guild in the summer of 2006. Michele is a marriage and family therapist and teaches and supervises at the Chicago Center for Family Health and the Family Institute at Northwestern University. Michele trained, taught, and co-authored Satir Step by Step in 1984. She is the author of The Use of Self in Therapy, (1987, second edition in 1999). For over fifteen years, together with her husband DeWitt (Bud) Baldwin M.D., she taught PAIRS (Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills) in the US and overseas and is skilled in creating a safe environment for experiential work.

Carol Bourne, MS has taught English, speech and communication skills; facilitated various grief groups in the Student Assistance Program; developed and conducted a weekend retreat program for teens from divorced families. As a member of the Miami Valley Beginning Experience team, she wrote and presented talks and facilitated small grief groups for separated, divorced, and widowed adults. She has done volunteer work for Hospice and taken classes in spiritual direction. Currently, she is involved in her church's adult faith formation, is a licensed Reiki practitioner, and participates in a dream group. Together with her husband Jerry, Carol has presented numerous classes in Sage-ing® at the University of Dayton and at local churches and senior citizens centers. She currently servces as Chair of the CC for the Sage-ing Guild. She has three children and two "apple-of-her-eye" grandchildren. In addition to her Sage-ing® work, she nurtures her bliss through water aerobics, gardening, reading and writing, and traveling with her husband.

Gary Carlson, Ph.D. is a co-director of the Sage-ing® Group of New Mexico, a leader of the Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico and a Certified Sage-ing® Leader as well as Treasurer/Membership Chair of the Sag-ing Guild. He and his wife lead classes and workshops on Sage-ing.

Judy Charlick has been a member of the Institute and then the Guild since 2003. She discovered Aging to Sage-ing when looking for materials for a group of friends who met monthly as the Conscious Aging Group. Judy has been trained as a Sage-ing Circle Facilitator and has done several projects for the Institute and Guild: a survey of over 100 members on their marketing activities and a coaching project with 15 members. She presented the survey findings at the November 2005 gathering in Colorado and co-presented a workshop on marketing with Rosalie Muschal-Reinhardt at the Guild conference in June 2008. Judy is a retired educator. She has over 30 years of experience in teaching; training teachers; giving presentations and workshops; and designing and implementing curriculum and courses at the secondary, university, and adult education levels. Her areas of expertise are English to speakers of other languages and accelerative learning.

Lorri Danzig's own spiritual journey under the tutelage of experienced teachers led her to Sage-ing® work. After a long "first" career in management and regulatory affairs in the dietary supplement industry, Lorri is now focusing her energies on work with Elders. Lorri is a certified Sage-ing® leader. She is a candidate (2008) for a Masters of Science degree in Jewish Studies with a focus on Jewish views on aging, death and dying. She has completed training programs in compassionate care of the dying, creating elder communities that make life worth living, and friendly visiting of the sick and elderly. She has volunteered in Homes for the Aged in both the U.S. and Israel.

Judith Helburn, MS and Certified Sage-ing Leader, has been a CSL since 1997 and was blessed with having Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Bahira Sugarman and Shaya Isenberg, founding faculty, as her teachers. She has mentored interns since the Mentoring program began and is currently Mentor/Intern Coordinator for the Sage-ing Guild. Judith works with seniors in several other programs in Austin, Texas, including the Older Women's Legacy (OWL)-Circle memoir program of Story Circle Network.

Trudy Medcalf offers a background in education and counselling as well as an intense enthusiasm for Sage-ing® work. A Certified Sage-ing® Leader since 2002, and inspired by her parents' later lives, she continues to learn from those elders with whom she engages in her workshops and presentations. Trudy has worked professionally as a teacher, a grief counsellor, a volunteer trainer as well as a career development counsellor for new immigrants to Canada. She currently teaches teachers in a graduate program in Guidance counsellor education. She is still surprised to have recently completed her first documentary film about elders' experience of growing old, as part of her doctoral research in education. She is very pleased to have become a member of the Cooordinating Circle.

Sandy Sabersky has practiced physical therapy for over 25 years in a variety of settings including hospitals, homecare, continuous care and supported living facilities. She is a Certified Sage-ing® leader and facilitates monthly conscious aging workshops at Elderwise with Debra Alderman. She is the Executive Director of Elderwise.

Paul Severance founded United Senior Action of Indiana in 1979, and served as its Executive Director through 2004, when he semi-retired. He continues to work part-time for USA as a consultant Paul has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Consumer Organizations on Aging (NCCO), a constituent unit of the National Council on the Aging; and is a member of the Consumer Action Board of the Medicare Rights Center. Currently, Paul is focusing his energy on his vision of inspiring a powerful movement of elders dedicated to the well-being of future generations. To that end, he is doing presentations and developing a website on "Reclaiming Our Elders" Paul is a Sage-ing Circle Facilitator and a Certified Sage-ing Leader as of spring, 2008.