Theresa D’Aiuto Sokol, Editor and Digital Producer, was an opera singer and music teacher in a career that lasted over forty years. She sang in Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, the U.S. and in the far east, and is an accomplished stage director. Her production credits include regional opera and theater companies as well as USF where she was Opera Director and a professor of Voice. After retiring from her performing and teaching career, she found that video and web editing, and a.i. image generation and restoration offered a natural extension of her creative interests. She edits and creates marketing and special interest videos for OLLI and is a site editor for OLLI’s USF website. Theresa holds degrees from Manhattanville College in New York and USF and is fluent in German and French.
Al Carlson, Associate Editor, enjoyed a 40-year career as a Librarian in California, Okinawa, and Florida, specializing in “new technology that doesn’t quite work yet”. When retirement got boring, he joined OLLI-USF in hopes of learning new things and meeting interesting people. The results exceeded his expectations! In addition to his work on OLLI Connects, Al moderates Zoom classes, participates in editing the OLLI-USF website, creates instructional videos and, despite having moved to North Carolina, still feels closely connected to the OLLI-USF community.
Diane Henrikson Russell, Curator of Henrikson Cartoon Archive and Contributor. Diane, a Chicago native, worked as a Human Resources professional and as a career counselor during her 30 years at USF. An OLLI member since 2014, Diane has written over 35 stories for OLLI Connects since its inception and continues to be a frequent contributor. She has taken dozens of OLLI courses ranging from leadership, politics and humanities to life story writing and Tai Chi. Diane volunteers as a proofreader for the OLLI catalog and for OLLI Connects and was Co-chair of the Volunteer Engagement Committee from 2019 through early 2023. Diane has been a member of the Talking Movies SIG since its inception.
Arthur (Art) Henrikson, Editorial Cartoonist, (1921-2012) studied journalism at Northwestern University where he was an editor of the Purple Parrot, a Northwestern humor magazine. As a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force Medical Corps in World War II, he was assigned to draw motivational and health cartoons for GIs worldwide. After the war he worked as editorial cartoonist for the Des Plaines Journal, the Daily Herald, Rockford Newspapers, and 40 weekly and daily Illinois newspapers. In the 2000s, he created humorous weekly cartoons for The Scribbler in the Tampa Bay Times, and he sold many cartoons to Woman’s World magazine. Art’s cartoons were listed in Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year for many years.
Donald C. Menzel, Ph.D., Editorial Columnist, is a past president of the American Society for Public Administration, author and international speaker on ethics reform. Don organized OLLI-USF’s China Special Interest Group. He also served as an OLLI-USF faculty member for over 10 years. Together with his wife, Kay, Don divides his time between Florida and Colorado and contributes commentary on current issues in both locations. A frequent opinion contributor to OLLI Connects, Don writes a recurring serial of short essays—Don’s Moments— with his views on life, both serious and amusing.
Retired Biochemist, USF Professor, and mountain climber, Peter Neame, grew up in Great Britain, got his degree at Liverpool University, and moved to the U.S. in the 1970’s. His wide range of interests have led him to take numerous OLLI classes. The crag behind him is Clogwyn d’ur Arddu in North Wales – one of his favorite places. Peter is co-host of Sunday Science, a recurring science discussion forum consisting of four 2-hour sessions, spaced throughout the fall and winter/spring terms. For OLLI Connects, Peter writes a recurring tech/science column—Everyone is a Scientist—where he endeavors to simplify new technology and scientific breakthroughs.
OLLIver and OLLIvia, Editorial Columnists. OLLIver and OLLIvia are Artificial Intelligence Agents created by Microsoft Copilot, using prompts that reflect the characteristics we find most often in OLLI-USF members (age, education, career etc.) As is the case with everything related to Artificial Intelligence, they have amazing strengths and surprising weaknesses. They have been added to our editorial staff as opinion page analysts and contributors to utilize their AI capabilities, while maintaining a somewhat human touch. As the field of AI evolves, we expect them to change with it and become more capable and more reliable. In the future we hope to find additional creative tasks for them.
