About the Encore Cast

Marc Freedman is the founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, a think tank helping society achieve the greatest return on experience. He spearheaded creation of Experience Corps, America's largest nonprofit national service program engaging individuals over 55, and The Purpose Prize, the nation's biggest investment in older social innovators. He is author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life and Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America. His new book, On Purpose: Boomers, Work, and the Search for a Calling, will be out this year. He is widely published and quoted in the national media, and has received many honors for his groundbreaking work.

We hear constantly that boomers are reinventing retirement. But the real story is about invention, not reinvention. Men and women in midlife and beyond are crafting a new phase of work that offers not only continued income, but the promise of greater meaning…

Marc Freedman

Phyllis Moen holds the McKnight Presidential Chair in Sociology at the University of Minnesota. Her recent books include the award-winning The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream, and It's About Time: Couples and Careers. Her research on work, families, and retirement has been featured in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Sixty Minutes. She has served on the board of Civic Ventures, and helped design their recent surveys on encore careers.

Meaningful participation and contribution will be seen as the way things are and the way things should be, a second chance for the midcourse years, provided the encore opportunities contribute to the quality of life and life-course fit of the growing pool of older workers who want and need both prospects for self-actualization and time for rest and recreation.

Phyllis Moen

Jim Scheibel served as mayor of Saint Paul from 1990-1994. As vice president of the Corporation for National and Community Service, he directed both VISTA and Senior Corps, and worked with Experience Corps, a program co-created by Marc Freedman, when it was a demonstration project. He remains active in politics and his community, teaches law at Hamline University, and currently serves as interim director of the Minnesota Campus Compact.

I hope that "volunteer" will become a strong and powerful word in the vocabularies of baby boomers. We have the opportunity to give the world new meaning. I have found it useful to encourage people to focus on doing public work as older adults. …First, [public work] should involve something one feels passionate about; it should allow a person to demonstrate or share his or her talents and expertise. It should also provide the opportunity to learn. Public work should be work that connects a person to a larger issue…

Jim Scheibel

Pastor Rod Anderson, of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, leads the venerable St. Andrew Job Transition Group. The group offers rapid-action networking to about 150-175 people each week, and has served over 13,500 people over the past 21 years.

Cindy Moeller, former human resources executive, is now founder and board chair of Yinghau Academy charter school, as well as a charter school consultant and program coordinator for the General Mills "Generators" retiree group.

Eric Schnell is the chief administrative officer of the U of M's Office for Equity and Diversity, and he is also founder and co-leader of PositiveChange.Com, a pioneer in micro-philanthropy, the idea that lots of people giving small amounts to urgent causes yields "big change with pocket change."

Bob Viking, former CEO of the Saint Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation, is now development and marketing director for Great River Greening, an organization that leads and supports community-based restoration of natural areas.

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Fest Highlights

LearningLife Encore Fest
May 16, 2009
Listen the Encore Fest's two renowned keynote presenters inspire and advise you.

Phyllis Moen: Second Chances in the Second Half of Life (audio)

Marc Freedman: Inventing Retirement as a New Phase of Work (audio)

Spring Fest 2008:
Living a Renewable Life
Richard Leider: Facing the Midlife Challenge (audio)
Catherine Watson: Living a Renewable Life (audio)

Fall Fest 2007:
Sample the Breadth of LearningLife
Jerry Allan: Five Great Ideas (video)