June 1, 2011 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Disconnect remains between school board, teachers

The cost of healthcare
insurance for teachers in the Unionville–Chadds Ford School District remains a
stumbling block in negotiations between the teachers and the school board.

Representatives from both sides
agree the salary matters are basically resolved, and hope the remaining issues
are resolved soon.

Pat Clark, president of the Unionville-Chadds
Ford Teachers Association, said the union told district representatives on May
9 that they accept the district’s salary proposal, but not willing to accept
what the district proposed for healthcare.

He said the union agrees to a
salary freeze for the current school year with no retroactive increase,
followed by delayed raises for the next two years.

“We still have to negotiate
over the healthcare piece,” Clark said. “We’ve agreed to the compensation
package that the board has put out… We have agreed to pay more for our current
healthcare plan… The board would like to see us move plans. From our
perspective, the cost estimates for next year have come in and there’s really
only two-and-a-half percent, or so, increase, so we’re willing to pay more for
the benefits that we have.”

In a press release issued
before the interview, Clark said: “The UCFEA proposed retaining its current
benefit plan because the district’s health care costs on average have not
increased. The current plan will actually cost the District and the teachers
less than projected in the 2011-2012 school year. The decrease of health care
costs, combined with the salary freeze that the teachers are currently working
under provides the district with substantial savings.”

Frank Murphy, the school board
director involved into the negotiation said that one element is dependent on
the other.

“The association, in large part,
agreed with our salary proposal. The caveat is that our salary proposal was
based, in part, on certain healthcare savings and work rule changes that would
result in financial savings that the teachers’ association rejected,” Murphy
said. “We view this as all tied together, not as separate components. While the
association may have accepted one of the components, by rejecting the other
two, we view that as a rejection of the entire package.”

Murphy acknowledged that UCFEA
is willing to pay more to keep the current health plan, but “It’s not clear to
the board, however, how much more they’re willing to pay. That is the point
that still needs to be bargained.”

He said the union did offer to pay
more into the plan for the second and third years, but the district is still analyzing
the precise cost to the district.

He added that the board did
receive the union’s offer in May and that he, Murphy, e-mailed the union
negotiator saying the board’s formal response would be delayed because of other
matters, such as the investigation into possible outsourcing of transportation,
the budget analysis and support staff agreements among other issues.

Murphy went on to say that it’s
good the two sides do seem to be getting closer and “narrowing the differences
and the disagreements in the bargaining process.”

Murphy and Clark each said the
two sides are continuing to look for mutually agreeable dates and times for
further negotiations.

Talks have been going on for
the last 18 months and the teachers have been working without a contract since
the beginning of the current school year.

Other district issues

• The school board voted 7-0 on
May 31 to maintain in-house transportation services instead of outsourcing.

District announcements:

• Starting in the 2011-2012 school year,
volunteers in our schools who provide direct services to students or may
reasonably be expected to have unsupervised contact with students are
considered “independent volunteers” and are required to submit the
following two clearances.

– Pennsylvania State Criminal Background
Check (Act 34)
– Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance from the PA Department of
Child Welfare (Act 151)

Each school has a list of volunteer positions
requiring clearances. Please refer to the district website (http://www.ucfsd.org/clearances/index.html)
or contact your child’s school for additional details.

• The district is moving a pre-first
classroom to Chadds Ford Elementary. Starting in the 2011-2012 school there
will be one pre-first classroom at Unionville Elementary and one at Chadds Ford
Elementary. Moving the classroom
to Chadds Ford Elementary will allow for shorter bus rides for many pre-first
students.

Chadds Ford is also projected to have
adequate classroom space to be able to provide a home for the program in future
years. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact John Nolen at
jnolen@ucfsd.org.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

Disconnect remains between school board, teachers Read More »

Chadds Ford youth helps Orioles’ charity

Local News

Friends 33a — Chadds Ford youth helps Orioles’ charity

A Chadds Ford boy is an avid
Phillies fan, but he decided to help a charity associated with the Baltimore
Orioles.

Michael Walter-Dillon, a
9-yeard-old student at Chadds Ford Elementary School collected more than 500
pounds of baseball equipment for the Oriole Advocates who send the equipment to
youngsters in Latin America.

“I heard they used crumpled
cardboard for balls and sticks for bats, the third-grader said. “I felt I knew
how wealthy this country is and it felt so sad, in my heart… It’s not community
service. It’s global service.”

With the help of friends, the
school district, KAU and URA, collection containers were placed at CFES,
Hillendale Elementary, CF Patton Middle and Unionville High schools, and at
little league fields during the opening weekend in April.

About half of what was
collected came with the help of Marlene Doherty of the KAU Little League.
Michael refers to her as “his angel” in the project.

Michael said he feels grateful
for all the help he received in collecting the equipment. He was also
surprised.

“It felt awkward that people
were helping a stranger, and I’m just a kid,” he said.

According to Michael’s mother,
Mary Walter, Michael collected more than 1,300 pieces of equipment—bats,
gloves, cleats, caps and uniform shirts and socks—enough to field 15 teams of
15 players each.

It all goes to the group Oriole
Advocates for its Cardboard to Leather program.

He got the idea, he said, after
gong to the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Md., last year where he met
members of the Advocates and learned what they do.

Bob Harden, from the Advocates,
who came to Chadds Ford to pick up the gear, said the equipment would go to a
warehouse in Baltimore before being sorted, repackaged and sent, probably, to
Nicaragua, Puerto Rico or Venezuela.

About Rich Schwartzman

Chadds Ford youth helps Orioles’ charity Read More »

Deli closes, again

Opinion

The Chadds Ford area is one
business poorer today. The Old Wooden Market and Deli is no more; its doors
closed May 31.

This is the same location that
was once home to the old Wawa on Route 1 at Station Way Road. When the Wawa
pulled out unexpectedly in January of 2008, the site was empty for a year and
the location never fully recovered, even after a new shop opened in early 2009.

That owner sold in September to
the recent owner, Bill Bondarchuk. It can’t be said he didn’t work hard. Mr.
Bondarchuk worked seven days per week and went months before ever taking a day
off. He busted his buns, but wound up taking it on the chin.

So what went wrong? Pointing
fingers is easy. Was it simply a bad economy, national and local? Was it a bad
business climate in the township? Was it the year the storefront was empty? Was
it a result of poor business decisions? Was it something else or all of the
above? Most likely the answer to each question is yes, but that’s not very
instructive. The devil is in the details and we are not privy to all those
details.

Suffice to say, overhead was
high, extraordinarily so, according to the owner. Ultimately, that was the
downfall. Not a lack of signage, though that was an impediment.

Perhaps, as someone suggested,
the name of the shop never caught on. Would “Chadds Ford Deli” have worked
better? Maybe.

During the year after Wawa
left, the parking lot was a ghost town on weekends. A photo taken on a Saturday
in May of 2008 showed how desolate the parking lot was. All that was missing
were tumbleweeds.

We hope that doesn’t happen
now. There has been talk of a new owner taking over—possibly reopening in
July—but so far there is nothing official, just talk.

It’s a good location, with a
bank and a U.S. Post Office branch in the same strip. It should do well, but it
should have been doing well already.

We wish Mr. Bondarchuk well in
his future endeavors. His personality and work ethic make him deserving of the
success that eluded him in Chadds Ford.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

Deli closes, again Read More »

Police log June 2

Police

• State police from the Avondale barracks reported the theft
of a digital camera from an unlocked car in Pennsbury Township. The report said
the Kodak Easy Share camera was stolen from a car parked on East Pennsbury Way
sometime between 6 p.m. on May 13 and noon, May 15.

• Three people from Wilmington were arrested on theft
charges in two separate instances on the same day at TJ Maxx in East
Marlborough Township. According to a state police report, Samantha Hill and
Jamir Coleman, both 19, were arrested for retail theft at 3:30 p.m. on May 25.
Police allege the pair concealed merchandise in a baby stroller. In a second
incident, at 6:08 p.m., Myisha Kashe Jenkins, 22, was also charged with
stealing a pair of women’s shoes valued at $29.99.

• Kevin Joseph Laskey, 43, of Aston, was charged with DUI
after a traffic stop at Route 202 and Smithbridge Road in Concord Township
shortly before 9 p.m. on May 29, a police report said. According to the report,
Laskey was stopped for multiple violations.

• State police said 44-year-old Frank Robinson, of Upland,
was riding a bicycle while intoxicated at 3:43 a.m. on May 29. The incident
happened on Route 202 at Johnson Farm Lane in Concord Township.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

Police log June 2 Read More »

Scenes from Around the Town June 2

Along the Ford

May-Queen-60a — Scenes from Around the Town June 2

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

Scenes from Around the Town June 2 Read More »

Blogging Along the Brandywine: Remembering Ralph Wittle

Along the Ford

Ralph-Wittle-1943 — Blogging Along the Brandywine: Remembering Ralph Wittle

I
saw the obituary notice in the Feb. 6 edition of Chadds Ford Live saying he had
passed the day before at the age of 88. It saddened, but did not surprise me.
The love of his life had passed a few years before, and age and a broken heart
had taken its toll.

Ralph
Wittle lived in Chadds Ford but had spent the last year or so of his life in a
beautiful assisted- living facility in Glen Mills. I visited him there on
occasion, and sent him birthday and Christmas cards.

I
used to spend many an hour on the front porch of the Sanderson Museum talking
with him, or I might say listening to him. To say he had the gift of gab was an
understatement. He could segue-way from one subject to the next as smooth as
silk without so much as coming up for air.

He
was born on Aug. 30, 1922, northwest of Lancaster, in the little town of
Florin, the youngest of 15 children.

At
the age of 20 he was inducted into the Army in September 1942 and sent overseas
as part of the Third battalion, 407th Regiment and 102nd Infantry Division,
landing in Cherbourg, France and was all too soon sent to the front as part of
a forward party.

In
October 1944, his unit was assigned to the area along the Netherlands – Germany
border to participate in the Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns.

Advancing
in rank to battalion sergeant major, his unit was positioned on the Elbe River
when the war ended in May 1945. He was later transferred to the 15th Tank Battalion,
stationed in Rothenburg, Germany’s ancient walled city.

He
was released from the Army in February 1946.

During
the European campaign, his division had taken more prisoners than any other
unit.

For
his actions during combat operations he earned the Combat Infantry Badge and
was awarded the Bronze Star Medal of Valor, Good Conduct Medal, American
Service Medal, EAME Service Medal with two bronze stars, the Victory Medal and
the Occupation Medal.

He
would often tell me of the German lady who would do his men’s laundry in
exchange for cartons of cigarettes and how beautifully their uniforms were
always washed and folded. She would take the cigarettes to town to trade for
food for her family.

But
often during our front porch talks, Ralph would stop as his eyes became red
with tears, thinking of the time when Germans gunned down two young Dutch boys
who had brought his men apples.

One
day he gave me a small photo of him taken in Germany in December of 1944. He said they had finally found a place
to stop near some bombed-out farm buildings. They had been on the march for
several weeks, and in that time he had not been able to shower or change
clothes.

I
held that photo in my hand as I sat in the Presbyterian Church of Kennett
Square for his memorial service on Feb. 12, but this time, the tears were mine.
The prayer card printed up by the funeral home featured his portrait painted by
Chadds Ford artist Karl J. Kuerner.

This
past Memorial Day weekend, I spent some time thinking of my friend…

Ralph
Wittle of Chadds Ford – American hero.

*
Some facts in this story were taken from a 2007 interview by Chip Lohmann of
the Sanderson Museum.

About Sally Denk Hoey

Sally Denk Hoey, is a Gemini - one part music and one part history. She holds a masters degree cum laude from the School of Music at West Chester University. She taught 14 years in both public and private school. Her CD "Bard of the Brandywine" was critically received during her almost 30 years as a folk singer. She currently cantors masses at St Agnes Church in West Chester where she also performs with the select Motet Choir. A recognized historian, Sally serves as a judge-captain for the south-east Pennsylvania regionals of the National History Day Competition. She has served as president of the Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates as well as the Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford where she now curates the violin collection. Sally re-enacted with the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment for 19 years where she interpreted the role of a campfollower at encampments in Valley Forge, Williamsburg, Va., Monmouth, N.J. and Lexington and Concord, Mass. Sally is married to her college classmate, Thomas Hoey, otherwise known as "Mr. Sousa.”

Blogging Along the Brandywine: Remembering Ralph Wittle Read More »

Bits & Pieces June 2

Along the Ford

• Jamie Wyeth’s Brandywine farm
has long been a rich source of imagery for the artist. This exhibition of works
spanning his career will feature Wyeth’s lively depictions of farm animals,
equipment, and surrounding landscapes. Farm Work by
Jamie Wyethwill be on view at the
Brandywine River Museum from June 11 through Sept. 11,2011.

• State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of
Chester, reminds constituents that applications for this year’s Property Tax /
Rent Rebate Program are due on June 30.

Eligible residents are those 65 or older, widows and
widowers 50 or older, and those 18 or older who are disabled. Annual household
income for homeowners may not exceed $35,000, and the annual income limit for
renters is $15,000. Only half of any Social Security income and railroad retirement
benefits count towards that calculation.

• Pulte Homes of
Pennsylvania will close Bondsville Road between Hadfield Road and East
Reeceville Road in East Brandywine Township, beginning Monday, June 13 through
July 22 for roadway widening, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
announced.

During construction,
Bondsville Road through traffic will be detoured over East Kings Highway,
Reeceville Road and East Reeceville Road. Local access will be maintained up to
the construction zone.

PennDOT also announced that East Penn Railroad LLC
will close Route 41 between Baltimore Pike and Ellicott Road in Avondale
Borough, from 6 p.m. Friday, June 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 13 for the
replacement of a railroad crossing.

During construction,
Route 41 through traffic will be detoured over Baltimore Pike and Newark Road.
Local access will be maintained up to the construction zone. Motorists are
advised to allow extra time when traveling through the area.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

Bits & Pieces June 2 Read More »

Know Your Finances: Social Security snippets

Business

With Memorial Day now come and gone, summer
is really here. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and the outdoors is
calling. It’s nice to feel somehow
younger and full of energy. So, now is as good a time as any to bring you back
to earth and give you some good advice about taking your social security
benefits. And don’t worry, Congress isn’t about to do away with benefits for
the largest voting block out there.

Many people want to get their hands on their
benefit as soon as possible, which is when you turn 62 years old. Unless you
(1) really need the money to live on and cannot do some kind of part-time work
for additional income or (2) you have serious health issues or genetic
predispositions to a shortened life expectancy, I suggest you not take your
social security payment until you at least reach your full retirement age. Full retirement age is between 65 and 67
years old depending when you were born. By waiting until full retirement age to
take your benefit you gain an additional 25 percent-30 percent of benefit each
month.

A general rule of thumb is that if you expect to live until
at least 78 years old, then don’t take your social security benefit until you
reach full retirement age. The
several years of benefit you give up between early and full retirement age will
be more than made up for by the much higher monthly payment you will receive at
full retirement.

For example, if your benefit at early
retirement age of 62 is projected to be $1,400 each month, at full retirement age
of 66 it would be about $2,000 each month. That $600 difference each month really adds up. If you live
till 80 years old and you had waited until full retirement age of 66 to take
your benefit, you will have had $33,600 more dollars to spend then if you had
started dipping in at age 62.

It gets even more dramatic if you can wait
until age 70 to begin taking your benefit. In our example, the benefit at age
70 would be about $3,000 each month, that’s more than double the amount you
would get at early retirement. Collecting every month until age 80 would realize
a gain of $57,800 more than if you started at age 62 and $24,000 more than if
starting at age 66.

So, I think you get the picture. If you are
healthy, had long-lived parents, and do not need the extra money, delay taking
your social security check as long as possible. Though, you must start taking
it at age 70.

One more snippet for you married folks. There
is a strategy called “file and suspend” that is quite useful for married
couples who can afford to delay taking the older spouses benefit. Let’s assume in this example that the
husband, Joe, and wife, Jen, are 66 and 62 years old and Joe made a lot more
money in his career than Jen did. Joe
and Jen are healthy and can afford for Joe to not take his $2,000 a month
social security check. Joe should
file with the social security system as if he will begin taking his checks.
Then, he should immediately suspend taking checks. This filing allows Jen to
begin taking her social security check at her full retirement age of 66 based
on Joe’s higher amount. The social security system lets a spouse take the
higher of (1) what is due to them based on their own career or (2) half of the
amount due to the spouse. So, in our example, we will assume that half of Joe’s
benefit, or $1,000, would be more than Jen’s benefit. Since Joe had originally “filed”
to take his benefit Jen can take this higher amount based on Joe’s career
record. There is an additional win with this strategy. Since Joe is delaying taking his own
benefit until he reaches 70 years old, it will be a substantially higher
amount.

Start getting comfortable with your potential
benefit. A month or so before your birthday every year, social security will
send you an estimated benefit amount for your early, full, and late retirement
dates. If you are healthy and can
afford it, you will be wise to wait until at least full retirement age to take
your benefit. And married couples will be wise to delay taking the larger
benefit. There is an 80 percent chance that one or both members of a 65
year-old couple will live to 85 years old; and a 58 percent chance that one or
both will make it to 90 years old.

There may be other strategies to consider given
your unique situation, so don’t hesitate to call on us or another investment
advisor for advice.

* Ellen Le is the founder and president of Ascend
Investment Management (www.ascendinvmgt.com). She has been a financial planner
and investment adviser for more than 20 years. Send questions to: ellen@ascendinvmgt.com and write “Chadds Ford Live” in
the subject line.

About Ellen Le

Ellen is the Founder and President of Ascend Investment Management. She was born in Philadelphia and has lived in the Delaware Valley for most of her life. When she is not researching investments and managing portfolios, she pursues her interests in tennis, bridge, hiking and art. Beginning her investment career in 1981 as a stockbroker at E.F. Hutton and Co., Ellen now has over 20 years of investment management experience. Prior to founding Ascend in 2006, she managed high net worth assets for many years at Bank of America, Mellon Bank, and most recently at Davidson Capital Management. At Davidson Capital Management, Ellen served as a Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the firm. She managed assets for more than 50 family relationships and was a core member of the firm’s Investment Committee.Ellen earned a BA in History from Brown University and a MBA in Finance & Investments from The George Washington University. She is a member in good standing of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute, which is a global organization dedicated to setting a high ethical standard for the investment profession. Her professional memberships include the Delaware County Estate Planning Council, Women Enhancing Business (WEB), and the Chadds Ford Business Association. She is a docent with the Delaware Art Museum and an active volunteer with the Brown University Alumni Association.

Know Your Finances: Social Security snippets Read More »

Mind Matters: Ayn Rand, the I, the We, and a stink bug

Health

Ayn Rand has been bugging me
lately, but then so have stink bugs. Now stay with this meandering journey, and
you’ll come to find how they are connected.

Many of us know Ayn Rand as the
author of “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” among other things. Rand was
an ex-patriot from Russia who made it to Hollywood and then to New York in the
1930’s. Born in 1905 (as Alisa Rosenbaum) with a silver spoon in her mouth that
was yanked out by the Bolshevik Revolution, traumatized Rand became forever
reactive to her loss of family wealth. She evolved to become the flame thrower
for the “rationality of selfishness,” which, of course, is the diametric pole
of the collective. Torching the tension between the one and the many, she
proclaimed the virtue of selfishness to be the reasoned view. Indeed, we all
need to be differentiated individuals, an “I,” not just part of the “many.”
Every child needs to learn to become an adult and “individuate” from the
family’s “group grip.” However, becoming one’s own person doesn’t mean “going
it alone.”

We need our families sometimes
and they need us sometimes as well. Unless our families have mercilessly abused
us, we generally keep connected as well as, hopefully, differentiated. Likewise
with couples: the dance of the “I” and the “we” is ongoing. Partners need to
have their own individual lives (the “I”); yet they also come together to
enjoin in the “we” (togetherness, connectedness). This process continues as
much as an ocean’s wave ebbs and flows. So too with communities and cultures.
In some cultures, the “we” is more the focus than the “I.” In our culture, the
“I’s have it. Nevertheless, to go to the extreme “I” of Ayn (yes, it is
pronounced “I”) Rand is to disregard the necessity of the tension between
polarities. You really can’t have one without the other. “I” and “we”—it’s a
marriage that can never divorce!

And so the other side of Ayn
Rand for me is precipitated by a stink bug. The other night, as I lay sleeping,
a stink bug decided to attempt to snuggle inside my nice warm, dark ear. I
awoke screaming, yanking at the insect with my fingers. I extracted most of the
bugger but decided to go to the ER. The nurse noted “there is something black
still in your ear.” She gave me anti-biotic drops and urged me to see my
physician for follow up. After the weekend, I went to the ear, nose, and throat
specialist who informed me, “There is debris laying on your ear drum.” And, by
the way, “how is your hearing?” He flushed out the ear with some sort of
solvent, then had me take a hearing test. Fortunately, my hearing was okay.

How does this relate to the
non-relational Ayn Rand? I wondered to myself what would have occurred in that
scenario had I not had health insurance or the means, wherewithal and presence
to get myself to the ER and the M.D. afterwards. People who have no health
insurance, who are barely making ends meet haven’t the luxury to take care of
themselves properly. I do think that this is where community and the common
good come in.

Of course, I like my
independence and want to be my own quirky individual self, but that doesn’t
preclude my from being connected to my community. I believe we do need to heed
the call of the common good. No one can really be a rugged individualist
without the help of others along the way.

[Note: For more on Ayn Rand, I
recommend the book, Goddess of the Market by Jennifer Burns.]

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is
in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or (610)388-2888. Past columns are posted
towww.drgajdos.com.

[Editor’s
Note: Two videos with Jennifer Burns speaking about Ayn Rand are available on
YouTube. They are less than 10 minutes long. Go to

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rY8Zt3VIdY
or

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRJD0_7z-7E&feature=related

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.

Mind Matters: Ayn Rand, the I, the We, and a stink bug Read More »