Osher Institute Instructors
Fall 2025 Instructor Bios
Emanuel Abramovits is a mechanical engineer with an MBA and has been a concert promoter since 2000, directly involved in many events by international artists, like Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Sarah Brightman, Roger Hodgson, ASIA, Journey, Kenny G and many more. He designed and staged many original orchestral events, including an Event of the Year winner and several world premieres.
Kristen Baum is the director of Monarch Watch, senior scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on the effects of land use and management practices, and weather extremes on monarchs, native bees and other pollinators.
Larry Campbell spent 35 years teaching mathematics and mathematics education at two institutions in southwest Missouri. He won several college, university and state-wide teaching and service awards during his career. Since his retirement, he has been running After Math Enterprises LLC, an umbrella organization for his various activities.
Diana Carlin is professor emerita of communications at Saint Louis University and a retired professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. Her teaching and research interests are in political communication with an emphasis on speeches, debates, campaigns, women in politics and first ladies.
Margie Carr is a fourth-generation Kansan and grew up in the Kansas City area. She knew how to attend only one school, the University of Kansas, which is where she earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Her undergraduate and doctoral degrees are in education while her master’s degree is in museum studies, an area she pursued because it sounded calm. Except for the years spent raising her children when she worked as a freelance writer, she was in classrooms working with every age of student from preschool to the graduate level. Today she trains and supervises volunteers who advocate for children in the foster care system. She is the author of “Kansas City’s Montgall Avenue: Black Leaders and the Street They Called Home,” winner of the George Ehrlich Award for excellence in writing and chosen as a Notable Book of Kansas in 2024.
Chef Jason Champagne, MPH, is a proud member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in Minnesota. He lives in Eudora, Kansas, and grew up in Baldwin. Jason owns Native Chef LLC, an educational business that promotes outreach culinary education. His business provides culinary demonstrations, hands-on cooking events, educational meals and professionally edited cooking videos. Jason’s biggest accomplishment was graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts School and receiving a master's degree in public health nutrition from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. It’s Jason’s passion to help others understand that food can be a powerful, positive medicine, and learning the basic concepts of cooking is the key to making it healthy, affordable and delicious.
Bob Dinsdale grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, went to undergrad at Baylor University, then to medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He and his family moved to Lawrence in 1990. Now retired, Bob started Lawrencehistorytours.com. He has a decades-long passion for history, especially the stories of the people and events that have shaped our town. He uses techniques learned in his medical training to find facts and see things in new ways.
Brian Edwards has researched the Kennedy assassination for five decades. During that time, he has interviewed hundreds of individuals connected with the case. He has given numerous presentations on the assassination throughout the United States. Brian co-authored three books on the assassination: “Beyond the Fence Line: The Eyewitness Account of Ed Hoffman and the Murder of President John Kennedy” (2008), “Blueprint for Murder” (2020) and “Admitted Assassin” (2024). In 2019, he collaborated with and appeared in Oliver Stone’s four-hour documentary on the assassination, “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.”
Cameron C. Engelbrecht holds a master’s degree in early modern history from Trinity College Dublin and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Central Missouri. He currently serves as director of faith formation at two Catholic churches in the Kansas City area and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife and daughter.
James Gaither, Th.D., holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Holos University Graduate Seminary. For over 25 years he has taught courses on the history of Western thought, world religions, metaphysics and ethics and is currently “semi-retired.”
Carl Graves, Ph.D., holds a master’s degree in U.S. history from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Harvard. He taught at the university and community college levels and at Kansas City’s Pembroke Hill School.
Jean Hein recently moved to Kansas from South Carolina, where she was director and recorder performer with Columbia Baroque as well as a clarinetist. She currently teaches online recorder classes for seniors. Jean has served on the board of Early Music America. She holds music degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Northwestern University.
Russ Hutchins teaches U.S. history, Western civilization, economics, business, philosophy and business management at Friends University. He is a retired public-school administrator and educator.
German born and raised, Anette Isaacs is a historian and public educator who has presented hundreds of programs on more than 40 topics (all pertaining to her native country’s history, politics and culture) all over the United States. She holds master’s degrees in American studies, political science and history and currently serves as the director of OLLI at Florida International University in Miami.
Marlene Katz, a University of Missouri graduate, was an adjunct professor at UMKC, where she taught English and literature. Marlene has a 28-year teaching career and has been involved in storytelling for 20 years. Women in history is her specialty and Marlene has performed in a five-state area and has lectured for various groups, often in costume and speech of the character she is portraying.
Charles “Chick” Keller is a retired senior executive and retired professor. He worked 15 years each at Sprint and Black & Veatch in strategic planning and strategic marketing, rising to VP level both times. In 2000, he began a career as a professor in the University of Kansas engineering management program where he taught finance and strategic planning.
Courtney King is a Peoria citizen who lives and works at the confluence of the Wakarusa and Kansas Rivers in present-day Lawrence, Kansas, the homelands of many tribes, including the Kansa (Kaw), Osage, Pawnee and Wichita peoples. She attended Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) and graduated in 2023 with a degree in environmental science. She is now contracted as the greenhouse manager at HINU. Her work intertwines traditional ecological knowledge and Western science while fostering community, (re)connecting Indigenous Peoples with traditional plant species and restoring ecosystems of Kansas.
Paul Laird is professor emeritus of musicology at the University of Kansas, where two of his teaching specialties were Baroque music and music of the United States. He has published widely on such topics as Leonard Bernstein and American musical theater and won the 2021 KU Chancellor’s Club Career Teaching Award. Paul has taught many Osher classes since the program’s inception at the University of Kansas.
Hugh Leeman is an artist and lecturer. He lectures regularly at Johns Hopkins University and Duke University in English and at Colorado State University in Spanish. Hugh uses his art to engage social challenges while energizing community relationships.
Alexander Levin has a theater degree from George Mason University and has served as technical director for several universities across the country. He was in the original “Muppet Movie” (1979) and was subsequently involved in various television shows and commercials. His large and extensive collection of puppets, acquired during his travels, formed the basis of his book, “In Search of Puppetry Around the World.” Alex believes puppetry is an art form that can bridge languages and cultures like no other.
Melinda Lewis is a professor of practice in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas. Her teaching is concentrated primarily in the School’s graduate program, particularly within macro social work and policy courses. She is also director of the School’s Center on Community Engagement and Collaboration, where she leads the School’s efforts in lifelong learning, public scholarship and support for community-engaged research and relationships. She works with key community partners, represents the School of Social Welfare in university and regional community engagement efforts, and serves as an ambassador for the School and the profession in community coalitions and related initiatives.
This role builds on Melinda’s decades of work with nonprofit organizations to enhance their strategic communications, advocacy strategy development and execution, and evaluation of social change efforts, focused on the substantive domains of economic justice, family support and human rights. For five years, Ms. Lewis was assistant director of the Center on Assets, Education and Inclusion, now based at the University of Michigan. At AEDI, she co-authored three books about wealth inequality, student debt and policies to make education an equitable ladder of upward mobility, as well as peer-reviewed scholarship about asset development approaches. These publications were culminations of Ms. Lewis’ responsibility for translating research on the effects of early children’s assets into materials with direct policy implications and media appeal; supporting scholarship around economic mobility and wealth creation; and advancing the field of children’s savings accounts. With her co-author, Melinda co-hosts the “Tangible Hope” podcast, talking with scholars and policymakers about the racial wealth gap and justice-forward policy solutions. She also co-authored “Social Policy for Effective Practice: A Strengths Approach” (6th edition, 2023), which is widely used in BSW and MSW social policy courses around the country. In addition to service to the School of Social Welfare, Melinda is an appointed member of her city’s environmental committee, a board executive for the national social work organization, Influencing Social Policy, and a board member for a grassroots nonprofit advancing infant and maternal equity in Wyandotte County, Kansas, and the greater Kansas City metropolitan area.
Steve Lopes, A.E., B.A., M.A., M. Ed., was an educator for 15 years prior to 30 years of advocating for teachers as a Kansas-NEA organizer. He enjoys researching rock ‘n’ roll history and sharing it with KU Osher participants.
Thomas Luellen recently retired after 31 years in hospital administration and 14 years as an adjunct instructor at Washburn University. He has a master’s degree in geography from the University of Kansas. His personal interests have always been his native state and its history.
Abby Magariel is the educator/curator of the Michael Klein Collection at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Overland Park. Before joining the world of Jewish education and museums, she was an educator at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka and the education director at the Watkins Museum of History in Lawrence.
David Mannering earned a master’s degree in philosophy and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Kansas, then spent 40 years in information technology. After retiring, he rekindled his interest in the ancient civilizations bordering the Mediterranean and has taken several trips to visit ruins in its vicinity.
Aaron Margolis received his doctorate in history from the University of Texas at El Paso where he concentrated on Latin American and borderlands history. He is currently an associate professor of history at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Michelle M. Martin is a Michigander by birth and a Kansan and Oklahoman by choice. Martin earned her doctorate in history at the University of New Mexico. Her research probes interracial marriage, gender, race and power in the Mvskoke Nation in Indian Territory from 1870 - 1897.
Karl Menninger is a retired government lawyer who seems to have found an avocation teaching courses on disability law, citizenship, comedy and James Bond, among other topics.
KelLee Parr holds bachelor’s degrees in agriculture and education plus a master’s degree in adult and occupational education from Kansas State University. He has taught elementary school for many years in Topeka and now writes science curriculum for Nancy Larson Publishers.
Gordon Peterson studied Family System Theory with Rabbi Edwin Friedman who was a student and colleague of Rabbi Murray Bowen. Bowen developed the eight concepts of the systems theory, which includes the concept of “differentiation of self” and the differing levels of maturity in relationships. Gordon has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a doctoral degree in pastoral care and counseling.
Vic Peterson is the author of “The Berserkers” (Hawkwood 2022/Recital 2023), set in a fictional Nordic country. He worked as a business executive and now divides his time between Lawrence, Kansas, and Northport, Michigan.
Brent Piepergerdes is the chief operating officer for PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. In his 15 years in specialty coffee, Brent has developed longstanding relationships throughout the global supply chain, from producers to exporters, importers to roasters, and retailers to end consumers. As a green coffee buyer working in multiple countries of origin, he brings unique expertise to topics of direct trade and sustainability. Brent holds a doctorate in geography from the University of Kansas and has taught more than a dozen courses for Washburn University, Haskell Indian Nations University and KU.
Paul Post, a native Kansan, received a bachelor’s degree in history from Kansas State University and a law degree in 1974 from the University of Kansas Law School. Now retired from practicing law, he is a member of the Shawnee County Historical Society and an amateur beekeeper. He has authored essays on the history of SBA Hill/former Menninger Campus in Topeka, Topeka’s Bates Family, The Fred Harvey Company and Duke Ellington.
As the Spencer Museum of Art’s first curator for public practice, Sydney Pursel initiates ways to involve community and incorporate feedback into exhibitions and programs. Her interests include community-based and socially engaged art; Indigenous art, culture, identity and representation; and disability art, accessibility and multisensory learning. She serves on the Native Faculty and Staff Council, Powwow and Indigenous Cultures Festival Committee, and the Indigenous Arts Initiative Committee at the University of Kansas. She received a master's in fine arts in expanded media from KU and a bachelor's in fine arts in painting from the University of Missouri. Sydney is a citizen of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
Ethan S. Rafuse received his doctorate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. His publications include “Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy 1863-1865,” essays in “The Chattanooga Campaign” and “The Chickamauga Campaign,” and “U.S. Presidents During Wartime.”
Sarah Rosenson holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in Jewish studies from the Spertus Institute. She practiced law, then taught classes on ethics, philosophy and world religions at a private high school. She currently teaches adults both in-person and online, including several Osher classes.
Tom Schmiedeler is professor emeritus of geography at Washburn University where he taught a variety of geography courses including Kansas Geography, Geography of Europe and World Regional Geography. He was the director of Washburn’s Center for Kansas Studies. He has master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Kansas and has published widely on historical geography topics, particularly frontier urban planning.
Gordon Sellon is an economist who spent 30 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, retiring as senior vice president and director of research. He also taught economics at the University of Kansas, the University of Michigan, Grinnell College and Oklahoma City University. Gordon has degrees in economics from Harvard College and the University of Michigan.
Carlton Shield Chief Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, is an assistant professor of anthropology and an assistant curator of archaeology for the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. His research focuses on the Central Great Plains of the United States, focusing on ancestral Pawnee and Arikara heritage.
His research utilizes Pawnee and Arikara oral traditions regarding population movement and social change as foundational evidence for interpreting the archaeological record from the 9th to 16th centuries A.D. He has published in American Antiquity, Plains Anthropologist and Advances in Archaeological Practice.
Carlton received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Radford University, his master’s degree from the University of Wyoming and his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder with professional certificates in museology and Native American and Indigenous studies.
Robert Smith, Ph.D., is the retired director of the Fort Riley Museum. He has a doctorate in history from Kansas State University and has published numerous articles on military history.
Anita Tebbe is a retired professor in the legal studies department at Johnson County Community College. She earned an undergraduate degree in history, a graduate degree in education and a law degree. Anita is a Kansas-licensed attorney and has more than 40 years of teaching experience at the high school and college levels.
Robert Thorp taught at Princeton and Washington University in St. Louis for 25 years followed by a second career as a tour lecturer in China and Japan. His publications include “Chinese Art and Culture” (2001), “China in the Early Bronze Age” (2006) and “Visiting Historic Beijing” (2008). He has visited China more than 50 times.
Erick Vaughn has served as a licensed social worker with a specialization in administrative and advocacy practice for over 15 years. Throughout his career, Erick has supported programs that serve children and their families. Coming to Douglas County CASA as their executive director in July 2019 has felt like coming home, bringing together his experiences related to program design and evaluation, early childhood, mental health, substance abuse and child welfare. Erick lives in Lawrence with his wife, daughter and new baby son.
Jancita Warrington serves as the executive director of Native American affairs for the state of Kansas. She was born and raised on the Menominee Reservation in northern Wisconsin. She descends from the Menominee, Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk Nations. She holds an undergraduate degree in American Indian Studies and degrees in tribal law and policy and cultural preservation/museum management from the University of Kansas.
She has used her education to work politically on a broad range of national issues with a particular focus on strengthening the sovereignty of Tribal Nations. She has served as both a tribal council member and as the National Graves and Repatriation (NAGPRA) official. In 2013 she was named a recipient of the National Center for American Indian Economic Development 40 under 40 achievement award.
Jancita has served in various public service positions throughout her career, including as the Haskell Cultural Center & Museum director and as the Indigenous consultant for the University of Kansas' Lied Center on an Andrew W. Mellon grant. In 2019, she received the Phoenix Award from the City of Lawrence as an outstanding cultural arts educator.
Bob Williams holds a doctorate in developmental psychology and curriculum, and master’s degrees in counseling, educational psychology and ancient history. He is a semi-retired professor of psychology at Maple Woods Community College where he has taught psychology and history for 38 years. He is the co-author of three books dealing with life span development, relationships and creativity. Bob developed a system for teaching creative thinking (“Unleashing the Right Side of the Brain”), which has been used by business and educational organizations. He also designs games and has produced a number of simulations. His most recent game, “In a Lifetime,” allows players to make decisions and see the effects as they experience a very realistic simulation of life and change.