Your tomorrow starts today!

Starting May 18, 2023 | Only 12 Spaces are Available 

The Retirement Academy is a 10-week, cohort-based experience that explores life after work for people who are recently retired or preparing to retire. It serves to inspire participants to embrace and enhance their next chapter in life. The Retirement Academy fosters deep relationships through experiential learning from top-notch educators and professionals, social programming, and a robust alumni network.

We'd like to acknowledge the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation for investing in this program with a generous grant. Their support has helped launch this groundbreaking initiative to our community.

Who you are? 

• Retired within 5 years or nearing retirement. 
• Desire a high-quality experience with high-caliber instructors. 
• Want a cohort experience to build new relationships.
• Ready to step into the next chapter of life with purpose and a plan. 

Courses and Content

1. Financial Confidence
2. Health & Wellness
3. Relationships
4. Working After Retirement
5. Leisure, Creativity & Travel
6. Purpose, Legacy, & Spirituality
7. The Intersection of Retirement & Aging
8. Creating Your Retirement Roadmap
A 1:1 coaching session with an executive coach

Planned Outcomes 

• Become aware of how the retirement transition impacts you financially, socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually
• Recognize your strengths, passions, and skills.
• Adopt practices that promote greater health and well-being.
• Explore new possibilities for meaningful leisure time- creativity, travel, and more.
  Develop new and richer relationships with family and friends.
• Create a personalized set of next steps/plan for your next chapter.
• Find camaraderie, support, and joy!

Price: $360

Applications due by March 24, 2023.

Please email encore@lfjcc.org for questions about financial assistance.

Expert/Facilitator Bios

Paul Irving (Expert) is a corporate and nonprofit director and advisor to leaders in business, philanthropy and academia. Author/editor of “The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy, and Purpose,” a Wall Street Journal expert panelist and contributor to the Harvard Business Review, PBS NextAvenue, and Forbes, Irving speaks and writes about health, finance and work; innovation and investment in the longevity economy; and the changing culture of aging in America and the world. Irving is a distinguished scholar-in-residence at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and senior advisor at the Milken Institute. He previously served as the Institute’s president and founding chair of its Center for the Future of Aging, an advanced leadership fellow at Harvard University, and chair, CEO, and head of the financial services group of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a national law and consulting firm.   
 
Irving is a director and chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of East West Bancorp, Inc. and a member of the International Strategic Committee of the Quadrivio Group Silver Economy Fund. Chair emeritus and a member of the board of CoGenerate (previously, Encore.org), Irving also serves on the Global Advisory Council of the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute, the Board of Councilors of the USC Leonard Davis School, the Advisory Board of WorkingNation, and the National Academy of Medicine Global Commission on Healthy Longevity. Irving previously served on the Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Health and Housing Task Force and as a participant in the 2015 White House Conference on Aging.  
 
Named an “Influencer” by PBS NextAvenue, Irving was recognized with the Affordable Living for the Aging Janet L. Witkin Humanitarian Award, the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute Life Journey Inspiration Award, the Center for Workforce Inclusion Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Board of Governors Award. 
 
In three decades as a corporate lawyer, Irving represented public and private companies and prominent investors in complex merger, acquisition, and capital markets transactions, and in a wide range of business, governance, and regulatory matters. Throughout his legal career, Irving was actively involved in pro bono services and charitable leadership in organizations including Operation Hope, Human Rights First, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, Center Theater Group, and New Roads School.  

Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. (Expert) is Former Senior Associate Dean for Healthy Aging and Senior Care and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at University of California San Diego. He obtained his medical education in Pune, and psychiatry training in Mumbai, India. In the US, he completed psychiatry residency at Cornell, and Neurology residency at George Washington University. He was a research fellow, and later, Chief of the Units on Movement Disorders and Dementias at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) before joining UC San Diego. He started a Geriatric Psychiatry program from scratch at UC San Diego; it became one of the largest Geriatric Psychiatry Divisions in the world. Dr. Jeste has been Principal Investigator on a number of research and training grants. His main areas of research include schizophrenia, neuropsychiatric interventions, and successful aging. He has published 14 books, including his most recent book entitled “Wiser”, over 750+ articles in peer-reviewed journals, and 160+ invited book chapters.

He is Past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and Founding President of International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology. Dr. Jeste is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and was a member of the NIMH Advisory Council and NIH Council of Councils. He is Past Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, and currently Editor-in-Chief of the International Psychogeriatrics.

He was listed in “The Best Doctors in America” and in the Institute of Scientific Information list of the “world's most cited authors” comprising fewer than 0.5% percent of all publishing researchers of the previous two decades. Dr. Jeste has received many awards including NIMH’s MERIT Award; Commendation for Dedicated Service from the Veterans Affairs; and awards from Society of Biological Psychiatry; APA; Institute of Living; American College of International Physicians; National Alliance on Mental Illness; National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders; American College of Psychiatrists; International Psychogeriatric Association; Universities of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Maryland, and Cornell. He has also received Honorary Fellowship, the highest honor it bestows, from UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists; and Honorary Professorship from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.

He has been a TEDMED speaker. His work has been cited in Time, The Atlantic, New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The London Times, Public Radio International, NPR, and various other national and international media outlets.

Marsha Berkson (Facilitator) is an Executive Coach, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, Co-Active Certified Coach (CPCC) and Member of International Coaching Federation (ICF). With an eye towards employee engagement across all levels, Marsha’s strengths lie in helping leaders establish and maintain company culture built on a Strengths foundation as well as creating personal empowerment for coaching.  From sharpening active listening skills to understanding how to ask powerful questions, she arms leaders with the strategies they need to become coaches on an individual level and on a larger level, act as change agents for the overall organization. Her efficacy comes from her unique approach; showing up authentically for her clients, bringing positivity and warmth to every interaction, and creating personal connections that galvanize people to take enthusiastic ownership and a genuine investment in their development, one that translates into forward movement for the entire organization.

After working with Marsha, clients always note her incredible insightfulness and penchant for refreshing honesty. She acts as a co-pilot to those in the driver’s seat to help them feel supported and equipped with the tools to grow personally and professionally. Marsha’s passion for coaching stems from her innate interest in connecting with people and helping them create meaningful change.

David Fares (Facilitator) is president of New Perspectives a creative, innovative, yet results oriented training, mediation, facilitation, coaching and consulting company. With life and work experiences as a consultant, an attorney, a mediator, a facilitator, a trainer, a college professor and a Learning, Performance and Quality (LPQ) business executive, David is well-skilled and highly acclaimed in his capability to balance logic, intelligence, emotional intelligence, learning-accountability, point of view, creativity and passion in the training, meetings/events, team sessions and mediations he facilitates as well as the projects and business initiatives he leads and collaborates on. Known as a collaborator over the course of his career, David has led both strategically and motivationally large LPQ Organizations creating strong internal strategic customer relationships and significant bottom line results for PacifiCare, Aetna Health Insurance, and Caremore.

He spent years consulting with, and improving results and relationships for small and medium sized businesses with Insperity. He has designed, developed and facilitated numerous leadership speeches, sessions, workshops/conferences with exemplary results in both individual and corporate performance. His facilitation and mediation expertise are demonstrated by his mediation of well over 300 family, school, victim offender, business and estate cases and flawlessly facilitating thousands of meetings ranging from team communication sessions, small executive team strategic off-sites to large interactive multi-disciplinary webinars. In his 14 years as a practicing trial lawyer, David litigated and negotiated innumerable business, personal injury, family law, estates, criminal and real estate cases.

David graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Speech Communications and immediately earned his Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law. He obtained his Masters of Arts in Educational Leadership from the College of Santa Fe. He has certificates in mediation and Six Sigma Quality Process.

Doug Walker (Facilitator) is the author of A-ha! PERFORMANCE:  Building & Managing A Self-Motivated Workforce™ (Wiley, July 2007).   He is the creator of the A-ha! Performance Map of Intrinsic Motivation Points™ and the accompanying set of Leadership and Management Applications for Preventing, Solving and Recovering from personnel challenges.  Doug is widely recognized as a leading expert in intrinsic motivation management. Mr. Walker established his initial model more than 10 years ago.  It continues to prove extremely powerful in helping leaders and managers understand that they can only influence and inspire, not control their employees into optimal performance. As leaders and managers evolve their paradigm from a belief in external controls to an understanding of internal controls, they discover an array of tools and applications that are so effective they not only produce desired results, they reduce stress for both manager and employee.

Doug’s management and coaching approach was adopted as the core meta-model of Coaching for Organizational Excellence, the Executive Coaching Certificate Program at San Diego State University.  Mr. Walker served on the board of advisors and taught his approach as the anchor course for that program as well. He also taught and presented his model in a variety of courses and other offerings at the University of California, San Diego, and USD.  

Mr. Walker now shares his models, practices and insights with owners of small to medium size businesses in his capacity as Manager of HR Services for Insperity’s San Diego office. Doug has a Masters degree in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. He has an extensive background and professional network, having taught and presented in Australia, Canada, Japan and throughout the United States. 

Doug Walker has been teaching his A-ha! Performance Intrinsic Motivation Points model and coaching processes to Managers, Business Owners, Human Resources, Training, Organization Development and Sales Professionals in the San Diego State University, Professional Certificate Program in "Coaching For Organizational Excellence" for over six years.  He easily conveys how the brain receives input and produces behavior in a way that allows business professionals to quickly grasp and effectively use it as internal and external coaches, managers and consultants.  Our students take his information and make big changes in their organizations and careers.  In exit interviews, students overwhelmingly said this course was “transformational” for them. Doug is a master coach and teacher.”  Jordan Goldrich, LCSW, CEAP, San Diego State University