022 The Freedom to Make Mistakes with Cheryl Svensson, author, educator & professor

Cheryl Svensson has been involved in the field of aging since she graduated from the first Masters in Gerontology program at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 and later completed her Ph.D. at the University of Lund, Sweden. Cheryl has worked closely with Dr. James Birren, founding Dean of the Davis School of Gerontology at USC, and is the Director of the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies (www.guidedautobiography.com). This is an organization dedicated to research and developing programs to help for older adults to write their life stories. She currently lives in southern California, teaches at USC and has taught Guided Autobiography at UCLA and several universities, libraries, and senior and assisted living centers. Since 2009 she has taught a live, interactive Internet webinar training course to teach students worldwide how to become Guided Autobiography instructors. She is the co-author with Richard Campbell of the book, Writing Your Legacy:  The step-by-step guide to crafting your life story (2015).