LITTLE FALLS VILLAGE ZOOM SPEAKER EVENTS
A Partnership between LFV & Little Falls Library (MCPL)
JUNE through AUGUST 2021
Speaker Events: 1:00 to 2:30 pm, unless otherwise indicated
Recommended log in time: 12:45 pm

SPEAKER EVENTS ARE FREE & OPEN TO ALL
Register by clicking on event registration link

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OTHER DEAF / HARD OF HEARING SERVICES FOR THE SPEAKER EVENTS DONE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE LITTLE FALLS LIBRARY (MCPL), EMAIL INFO@LITTLEFALLSVILLAGE.ORG WITH FIVE BUSINESS DAYS NOTICE
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THURSDAY JUNE 10 "Your Retirement Dream: How Planning Can Make It Come True" with Harriet Edleson, author and journalist. Retirement! Have you imagined you’d be lounging on a beach in the south of France or Bethany Beach? Riding a luxury train through the White Towns of Southern Spain? Cruising the Danube on a luxury riverboat? Or, taking courses with others like yourself? Serving on a nonprofit board? Buying a vacation home in the mountains? Spending more time with the ones you love? Relocating to be near your grandchildren? 
Whether you are already retired or thinking of retiring in the next five or 10 years, planning will make the journey more enjoyable and secure! What do you really want to do? Think about all the resources you have or will have at a time when you may no longer be working. Will you have a pension or will you be relying on Social Security and savings? Whatever your situation, the best way forward is knowledge. Learn about the optimal time for claiming your Social Security retirement benefits and how to decide whether downsizing is for you, since housing can be the largest expense in retirement.
Harriet Edleson is an expert on baby boomer retirement strategies. She has written the Retiring feature for The New York Times and the Where We Live feature for The Washington Post. A former writer/editor/producer for AARP where she specialized in Social Security, she now writes for Kiplinger's Retirement Report. Her forthcoming book, 12 Ways to Retire on Less: Planning an Affordable Future is to be published in May 2021 by Rowman & Littlefield next year.
Visit her website at https://www.howtoretireonless.com
THURSDAY JUNE 17, 1:00-2:00 pm. "The World Awaits Your Visit, Reserve Now: Navigating Post-COVID Travel." Benita Lubic, President of Transeair Travel, will talk about the present status of travel, where can Americans travel now, restrictions, and the COVID Passport.  The current state of the world has made us more aware of the way we travel, and the destinations we visit. She will discuss current state of air travel, cruises plus review health and safety travel procedures, policies and regulations. You’ll also learn best practices for being a safer (and smarter!) traveler so you are prepared when you are able to travel again.
Benita is now celebrating her 62nd year owning a travel business, having traveled to about 140 countries. She arranges group and sales incentive travel, personalized individual trips and escorted tours, including many cruises, worldwide. Among her trip highlights are over 25 tours to Cuba for religious groups, humanitarian, beekeepers, baseball, chess enthusiasts and the Washington Ballet; visits to Bhutan, Japan, China, Thailand (most of Asia), South Africa, East Africa, Morocco, Israel, Egypt, most of South America, the South Pacific plus the US. It has been a stimulating and challenging career. Benita's clients have many different interests and specialties --- this keeps the work fascinating. The business has changed dramatically over the years. From paper tickets in 1959 to the internet and e-mails, solutions to many problems are now readily available.
Benita has lived in Washington for 75 years mostly in Chevy Chase, DC. and is a Woodrow Wilson and University of Wisconsin graduate.  
Registration Link: www.littlefallsvillage.org/Travel
WEDNESDAY JUNE 23  "The Current State of U.S. Russian Relations" with author and journalist Gregory Feifer. Nearly every 24-hour news cycle contains a news item related to Russia. Gregory will offer insights that may help us in understanding the rationale behind the current chaos in the world order. 
A former NPR Moscow correspondent who reported from Russia for almost a decade, Gregory Feifer witnessed the coup d’état attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. During the country's resurgence under Vladimir Putin, he observed the effects of its vast new oil wealth on an increasingly nationalistic society, as well as, Moscow's rekindling of a new Cold War-style opposition to the West. As a senior correspondent at Radio Free Europe in Prague, Feifer investigated Russian influence in Europe, including the Kremlin's use of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, as an instrument of foreign policy. 
Before joining NPR in 2005, Gregory Feifer lived in Paris and New York and has written for numerous outlets, including The New Republic, The Washington Post, and World Policy Journal. Feifer has also authored a number of books including The Great Gamble and Russians: The Power Behind the People. He serves as executive director of the Institute of Current World Affairs, which awards fellowships to young men and women allowing them to travel outside of the US and gain an in-depth understanding of chosen topic areas. 
This event is brought to you by the Council of Former Federal Executives & Associates (COFFE). 
Registration Link: www.littlefallsvillage.org/Russia 
WEDNESDAY JULY 7 "The Beauty and Science of the Magnolia Family" with Edward M. Barrows, Professor of Biology, Georgetown University.
Washington’s Cherry blossoms are in the limelight each year, while Magnolias, equally spectacular flowering trees, are somewhat in the shadows.  The aim of this presentation is to tell you more about Magnolias – their evolution, diversity, and flowers – and hear what you have to say about them.  This presentation features many colorful, original photos of Magnolia specimens in the Washington, D.C. Area Ecosystem (WDCAE) which includes DC and four surrounding counties, especially Georgetown University and the U.S. National Arboretum.  About four of the approximately 224 world Magnolia species are native to the WDCAE and approximately 10 non-native species and 100 of their hybrids and cultivars can be found within this Ecosystem’s gardens, parks, and yards.  Bring your Magnolia comments and questions and ride the Magnolia Magic Carpet with me.
THURSDAY JULY 8  "Exploring the Whole-of-Government Approach to Climate Change" with Joe Bonfiglio, President Biden’s announcement during the first week of his young Presidency that he would marshal the entire federal government to combat climate change head-on took many by surprise. But in the earliest months of the Biden Administration, we are starting to see this directive in action. The EPA and the State Department have ramped up their engagement, as expected, but we’re also seeing plans emerge from the Department of Transportation, a reinvigorated CEQ and a robust staff of experts driving the agenda in the White House itself. Roughly, six months in, we’ll look at how these efforts are going, explore ways in which Capitol Hill is being helpful (or not) and take stock of the politics of climate change.
Joe Bonfiglio is President of EDF Action, a leading advocacy and political nonprofit, focused on driving climate progress in the U.S.
This event is brought to you by the Council of Former Federal Executives & Associates (COFFE). 
WEDNESDAY JULY 28 "Advanced Care Planning Workshop" with Mary Ann Buckley and Jeremy Rachlin.. What type of health care would you want if you became too sick to tell the doctor yourself? What plans should you have in place to make sure you get the medical care you want? In this workshop, we will discuss the documentation needed and how to communicate with health care providers and family in order to make your wishes known. Advance directive, MOLST and other terms will be defined. Join our free & interactive virtual workshop to learn more!
Mary Ann Buckley, LCSW-C, C-ASWCM, graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and gained her master’s degree in Social Work at The University of Maryland in Baltimore.
The majority of Mary Ann’s thirty-year Social Work career has been focused on working with older adults. Mary Ann has worked with older adults and their family members directly and in an administrative capacity. She has lead community Alzheimer's Support Groups and Hospital-based Stroke Support Group. She has also provided presentations to senior groups, churches, and Social Workers on aging-related issues. She joined Corewood Care Management in May 2018 as the Senior Director of Care Management. 
Jeremy Rachlin chairs the Estate and Trust Practice Group at the Bethesda, Maryland law firm of Bulman, Dunie, Burke & Feld. He provides estate planning, trust administration, estate litigation, and probate services to clients across the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Jeremy has been recognized by Maryland Super Lawyers Magazine and District of Columbia Super Lawyers Magazine as amongst the top 5% of Maryland and D.C. estate attorneys each year from 2012 through 2021, has been recognized by Bethesda Magazine as a top estates attorney in Montgomery County, and presently serves as an Executive Officer of the Montgomery County Bar Foundation. 
THURSDAY 8/12 "Learning to Smell" with Don Wilson. Smell plays a surprisingly important role in our lives, and research is starting to open the door as to how this enigmatic sensory system gives us the power to explore the chemical world in which we live. We will talk about how humans and other animals use their sense of smell for everything from finding food, to bonding with family, to avoiding danger. We will dive into how our brains allow us to use odors to do these things, and how odors become so tightly linked to emotion and well-being.  Most odors we experience are complex mixtures of many different chemicals and our olfactory systems learn to group these mixtures into distinct aromas.  Thus, the ability to distinguish between the scent of jasmine and strawberry, or between a Merlot and a Pinot Noir, requires the olfactory system to learn and remember complex patterns.  This places memory at the heart of our ability to smell and identify odors.  Unfortunately this makes smell vulnerable to many different disorders such as dementia.  We will talk about smell in health and disease and some simple ways to train your nose to extract all the richness of the smelly world.
Don Wilson received his Ph.D. in psychology from McMaster University and was a post-doctoral fellow in psychobiology at the University of California at Irvine.  He is currently Director and Senior Research Scientist of the Emotional Brain Institute at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and Professor (tenured) of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Neuroscience & Physiology at New York University Langone School of Medicine.  His research focuses on the interaction between memory and perception, especially in olfaction, as well as how experience shapes brain circuits across the lifespan from early development to aging.
WEDNESDAY 8/25 "Sugarloaf: A Small Mountain with Big History" with Ralph Buglass. Learn about the remarkable "out-size" history -- and connections to important people -- of this little mountain on the western edge of Montgomery County. Our speaker is Ralph Buglass. The presentation will be a virtual, fast-paced visit through lots of pictures --including vintage photos from the Library of Congress-- highlighting Sugarloaf Mountain's extraordinary history that includes a structure designed for the summit of the mountain by the 20th century's most famous architect that instead became one of the most visited museums in New York City, consideration as Camp David site, its commemorative stamp, how it was designed as one of the first “national natural landmarks”, its unique flora and fauna, and unusual business enterprises that were located in its shadow
Ralph Buglass is a frequent speaker for Montgomery History, the county historical society, and an instructor at area lifelong learning programs. A retired communications professional, he recently co-authored a pictorial history of Rockville as part of the nationwide Images of America series. He has a BA in American history and MA in journalism from Cornell and American Universities, respectively. As an elementary student, he got his first library card from the then-newly opened Little Falls Library.
THURSDAY 9/9 "How the Kennedy's Changed the World." The Kennedys in the World, a new book by Lawrence Haas, tells a new, rich, fascinating, and consequential story about Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy. From an early age the brothers developed a deep understanding of the different peoples, cultures, and ideologies around the world; a keen appreciation for the challenges that such differences created for the United States; and a strong desire to reshape America’s response to them.
From their childhoods in the first half of the 20th century, the brothers were prodded by their parents to learn and care about the world – and told they could shape America’s role in it. For more than six decades after World War II, the brothers shaped broad issues of war and peace as well as the U.S. response to almost every major global challenge of their times: the Soviet Union and China, the Cold War and Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Chile, Nicaragua and El Salvador, Korea and Vietnam, South Africa and Northern Ireland, and Iraq (twice).
In their time, America was what it remains today – the world’s greatest power, with roles and responsibilities that stretch across the planet. Consequently, as the brothers remade America’s empire, they invariably changed the world.
Lawrence Haas, a former senior White House official and award-winning journalist, is Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, a foreign affairs columnist, and an author. He writes widely on foreign affairs, is quoted often in newspapers and magazines, and appears frequently on TV and radio. Over the years, his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and scores of other newspapers, At the White House, Haas was Communications Director for Vice President Gore and, before that, for the Office of Management and Budget. He is the author of six books. including The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire, released in March of 2021. His most recent previous book, of 2016, was Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World, which the Wall Street Journal named one of its top ten non-fiction books of the year.
For questions, please contact the Little Falls Village Office
Call (301) 320-3267 or Email info@littlefallsvillage.org