Born in New York City, Janey Belsky always wanted to be a writer
but was also very interested in people. After receiving her undergraduate
degree from the University of Pennsylvania, she deferred to her more
practical and people-loving side and got her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the
University of Chicago. After years in New York teaching at Lehman College
and doing clinical work in nursing homes and city hospitals, she moved to
Tennessee in 1991 to teach full time. In between teaching three sections of
lifespan development every semester, Janet found the time to write a few
textbooks in adult development and aging and one trade book, Here Tomorrow:
Making the Most of Life After 50. Her son Thomas is now an emerging adult
working in Orlando, Florida. Janet lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with her
husband David, to whom she has been married for more than 31 years. In
writing Experiencing the Lifespan, she has been able to merge her three
enduring life passions—writing, teaching undergraduates about the lifespan,
and interviewing people from age 3 to 103. Following her own personal
optimally aging (and, hopefully, stimulating neurogenesis!) program, Janet
has recently developed a new later life passion—acting in community theater.