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.
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