Upcoming Classes

Spotlight on Local Authors Interview Series
Zoom Lunch Pail Series - OLLI at Sierra College - Summer & Fall Semesters 2025

Meade Ann Kelly Patricia Sidney

Fischer Van Hine Lardner Puentes Niemeyer

Joan Griffin is the host/interviewer of this monthly series of live, noon-time, author interviews on Zoom. All are interesting authors who represent a variety of different genres. Most live and write here our own backyard. ALL proceeds go to the Sierra College Food Closet to support food-insecure students. Click here for all the details on the OLLI at Sierra website.

Aug 15 - Meade Fischer - Author of With the Sea Beside Me: An Intimate Guide to California's Central & North Coast

Sept 19 - Ann Van Hine - Memoir Author of Falling Pieces: Navigating 9/11 With Faith, Family, and FDNY

Oct 3 - Kelly Lardner - Author of the historical novel Rose Beads under the pen-name Ke Ridolft

Nov 7 - Patricia Puentes - Rom-com-mystery author of Cluelessly Unscripted

Dec 5 - Sidney Niemeyer - Author the realistic nuclear forensics thriller Atomic Peril

All author interviews are on Fridays at 12noon via Zoom. Please register here.

Women's History Lecture & Discussion Classes
Fall Semester 2025 - OLLI at Sierra College

"The FLOTUS Series" is back by popular demand!

Celebrate the Country's 250th Anniversary with America's First Ladies

Term 1 - America's Founding Mothers - Thurs, Aug 28, Sept 4, 18, 25

Series of 4 classes - lecture & discussion

10am - 12 noon - Sierra College Rocklin Campus

2pm - 4pm - Lincoln Library's Redwood Room

Term 2 - The Second Generation of First Ladies - Thurs, Oct 23, 30, Nov 6, 13

Series of 4 classes - lecture & discussion

10am - 12 noon - Sierra College Rocklin Campus

2pm - 4pm - Lincoln Library's Redwood Room

Term 1: The first four First Ladies, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison, and Elizabeth Monroe, lived fascinating lives and played indispensable roles in their husbands' illustrious political careers. We’ll explore the lives and contributions of these women, America's Founding Mothers. How did they live? How did they influence their President husbands? Some historians say that without the assistance of their wives, none of their husbands would have found themselves elected to the Presidency. (OLLI at Sierra online catalogue and registration)

Term 2: Very different from the Founding Mothers, the Second Generation of First Ladies, Louisa Adams, Rachel Jackson, Leticia and Julia Tyler, were also very different from one another. One expanded the role of First Lady, another became an influential ghost, and a third turned rebel and joined the Confederacy. Come discover their fascinating stories. (OLLI at Sierra online catalogue and registration)

Moral Leadership - Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt
Fall Semester 2025 - OLLI at Sierra College

Co-Taught with historian & author Don Fraser

Term 2 - Tues, Nov 18, 25

Series of 2 classes - lecture & discussion

1pm - 3pm - Sierra College Rocklin Campus

Past Classes & Lecture

Classes Taught Previously at OLLI at Sierra College & OLLI at UC Davis

The First Ladies Series -- Women's History Lecture & Discussion Series

One two-hour class for each First Lady from Martha Washington to Eleanor Roosevelt

How Did I Not Know That? -- Social Justice Book Discussion Series

Books read & discussed in this series include:

The New Jim Crow
The Warmth of Other Suns
Just Mercy
The Sum of Us
How the Word Is Passed
Four Hundred Souls

How Did I Not Know That? -- Environmental Science Book Discussion Series

Books previously read in this series include:

Finding the Mother Tree
Braiding Sweetgrass
Eager

Women's History Through Literature Book Discussion Series