KARL-ERIK and HELEN HANSSON
Karl is from Sweden, had three years graduate study at Columbia before joining the U.N. as an economist for 31 years and led missions all over the world
Helen is from Toronto, Canada. Profession- Licensed in New York and here as career counselor. With New York State Department of Labor. Also worked 8 years for Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton, ranking Republican on House Foreign Affairs Committee; 7 years with Cultural Attach- at Turkish Embassy. Out here, 10 years in sales for Viacom.
The Hansson's are especially interested in the redistricting issue.

ANITA YELLIN SIMONS
Anita Yellin Simons was raised in Ohio, caught the "acting bug" and was a college theater major. She moved to SD from SF after her marriage to podiatrist Michael Simons and worked at the SD Ecology Center in 1974. She was active in both state initiative campaigns to ban smoking in places of business. She hopes for the success of single-payer universal health care.
Anita began writing after the birth of her 2nd child. Her first play: "Goodbye Memories" - a story of Anne Frank before her family went into hiding won numerous contests and had many readings. In 2006, it premiered in Canton, Ohio. "Ladies First," an anti-war comedy written with Lauren Simon, won Honorable Mention in the 2006 Peace Writing Awards. Their 2nd collaboration is "Heartland," about the internment of German-Americans during WW II. She is currently working on a new play. Anita is also the Executive Assistant to the Managing Director of the La Jolla Playhouse.

FAYE GIRSH
I was a member since I moved to San Diego in 1978 (after 3 winters in Chicago where I had an academic appointment at the Univ of Chicago. Before that I taught at Morehouse College for 9 years.). I practiced here as a clinical and forensic psychologist for 18 years out of my downtown office having done a lot of work in death penalty cases both in jury selection and in evaluating potential death row defendants.

In 1983, through my board membershp in the ACLU of Southern California, I got involved in the right-to-die issue and started a Hemlock Society chapter here. My interest in that issue grew; in 1996 I closed my practice and moved to Denver as head of the national Hemlock Society USA. I worked in that organization until its merger and name-change in 2005 (it has become Compassion and Choices).

That gave me a chance to pursue my other passion, travel. I traveled for 10 months including three months in China, a couple of months in India, visit to Bhutan, Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, etc. In 2006 I returned to my beloved La Jolla, re-upped to the La Jolla Democrats. Last year I traveled for six months, to the Middle East for 3 months, Central America and to Eastern Europe for two months -- all as an independent traveler.

Now I am contemplating more travel while a student at Osher at UCSD, still very involved in the right-to-die and vice-president of the Hemlock Society of San Diego and on the board of the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies and Advisor to the Final Exit Network.

CHARLOTTE THOMPSON
The following is from Charlotte's latest book, "101 Ways To The Best Medical Care" Charlotte E. Thompson, M.D., a practicing physician for fifty years, is a board-certified pediatrician. In 2005-2007 she was named one of the nation's top pediatricians. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at University of California Medical School in San Diego and the author of six other non-fiction books.

Dr. Thompson founded and directed a center for children with disabilities in San Francisco, was a consultant for five neuromuscular programs, worked in well baby clinics, and had her own pediatric practice in San Diego.