Thelma Reese, EdD, retired professor of English and of Education, created the advisory council for Hooked on Phonics and was its spokesperson in the 1990s. She was a founder of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, chaired the Board of Children’s Literacy Initiative, and organized the World Symposium on Family Literacy at UNESCO in Paris in 1994. She is coauthor, with Barbara Fleisher, of The New Senior Woman: Reinventing the Years Beyond Mid-Life and The New Senior Man: Exploring New Horizons, New Opportunities, and has been an invited speaker at senior centers, senior living communities, and community centers about both books. She founded and maintains the ElderChicks blog. A mother and grandmother, she lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Harvey Reese, author and artist, and spends part of the year in San Mateo, California.
BJ Kittredge, MEd, is a retired consultant to the health care industry. She was selected for the New Jersey Department of Education Academy for the Advancement of Teaching and Management. She served as chair of a district-wide K–12 science curriculum development project and was a Geraldine R. Dodge fellow at Wesleyan University. She is the widow of Patrick W. Kittredge, Esq., and is a proud mother and grandmother.