Kathleen has focused her academic career on the Middle East, Asia, and women’s studies at Bowling Green State University and at USM Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She  offered a course at OLLI-USM in India and another on Pakistan.  She has extensive personal experience in the Middle East and Asia, having been born, raised, and had taught in Egypt.  Kathleen has. Presented talks for the Camden Conference Library programs on the Media’s role in the Arab Spring and the relationship between Immigration and international trade. She was a participant in the OLLI course on the cuisine of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt. She and her husband John live in Portland, Maine.

Sandy Garson, currently of Bath Maine, is a former caterer, food entrepreneur and food historian who has published many articles and two cookbooks, one award winning. Even after a major orthopedic emergency made her close her successful Maine bakery and catering business, she helped establish a restaurant in Ulan Bator, Mongolia; taught cooking skills in Kathmandu, Nepal; cooked at a Buddhist monastery in Vancouver, Canada;  and showed locals in Bangkok, Thailand how to make Thanksgiving dinner. As Nana Chef, she taught American children to cook, and most recently taught Maine senior college members how food is actually the secret source of all history.  She has cooked and eaten in India.