Winter 2026 Samplers
“Samplers” are lectures sponsored by the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) on Thursdays at 2:00 PM in the Catalina Vista.
They are open to all SCOV residents and guests. No reservations or ILR membership is required. Just bring your SCOV access card to enter the building. Attendance is limited to the fire marshal’s capacity. Thank you for understanding.
When: Thursdays in February and March at 2:00 PM
Where: Catalina Vista
Feb. 5, 2026
Topic: Immunotherapy, with Monoclonal Antibodies
Speaker: Sue Radka, PHD (SCOV Resident)
Sue will discuss Immunotherapy, specifically with monoclonal antibodies. This therapy is now one of the more recent treatments developed for cancer and autoimmune diseases. She will review how it works and the hurdles to be overcome for wider use. Her science degrees are from the U of Pittsburg Medical School, U of Pennsylvania Medical School and Duke University Medical School. She has worked with Genetic Systems Corp, Brystol-Myers Squibb, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and others.
Feb. 12, 2026
Topic: Updates on Medical Aid in Dying & Natural Organic Reduction
Speaker: Mary Ganapol, Natural Organic Reduction of AZ
2025 was a BIG year for Medical Aid in Dying as three states passed MAID laws after a dry spell since New Mexico passed in 2021. Also if you are already in hospice in Arizona, you might be able to go to New Mexico for MAID. Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) for human remains is an accelerated decomposition process using natural microbes, oxygen and plant materials. The resulting soil can be returned to families or used for environmental restoration. NOR reduces carbon emissions and resource-intensive burial practices.
Feb. 19, 2026
Topic: Meteorology – The Science and Art of Weather Forecasting
Speaker: Eyad Atallah, UofA Professor of Practice at the Dept of
Hydrology and Atmospheric Science.
Eyad has been a life-long weather enthusiast with a varied background, including operational forecasting, television, as well as academia. He specializes in the synoptic analysis of extreme weather events and climate change with over 300 peer-reviewed publications on extra-tropical transition, extreme precipitation events, droughts in western North America, and the impacts of climate change on temperature regimes over North America. He is also an intermittent tornado-chaser and has participated in about 10 tornado chases, including leading two storm-chasing field courses.
March 5, 2026
Topic: Zero Waste-Tips for Reducing Single-Use Products in Your Daily
Life
Speaker: Kevin Greene, Chair of the Zero Waste Committee for a
Sustainable Tucson
Single-Use products are convenient, but they come with a heavy environmental toll. Kevin will talk about the heavy toll single-use disposable items have on the environment and will give simple and practical tips for reducing commonly single-use items.
March 12, 2026
Topic: Perspective Changes Everything
Speaker: Kevin Harney, LPC, SCOV resident
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is today’s most commonly used talk
therapy. By providing strategies to replace negative thoughts with realistic, positive thinking, CBT can change patients’ feelings, resulting in more adaptive behaviors.
March 19, 2026
Topic: “Climate Philanthropy Can Make a Difference
Speaker: Susan Cook, Consultant with the Non-Profit,
ClimatePlus & daughter of SCOV resident Dick Cook
Susan is an experienced business manager and consultant with many years of experience in the technology sector and in climate related foundations and non-profits. She has traveled extensively with a focus on emerging economics and the Global South. She supports a major philanthropic investment to accelerate implementation of the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment on eliminating harmful gases and working with a team to recommend how a multilateral climate fund should evolve strategy and business practices to better support country climate and development platforms.
March 26, 2026
Topic: Archaeology and Early Hopi History near Winslow, AZ
Speaker: Richard Lange, retired from the Arizona State Museum, UofA
The presentation will review archaeological research done by the Arizona State Museum’s Homol’ovi Research Program in the Winslow, AZ area. It focuses on the late ancestral Hopi villages there and around earlier settlements near Rock Art Ranch, southeast of Winslow. 13,000 years of occupation are represented in these 2 areas, including seven pueblo villages founded in a roughly 140-year span between 1260-1400 CE.
Richard Lange was the Associate Director of ASM’s Homol’ovi Research Program since its inception from 1983-84. He led the survey of the Homolovi State Park in 1985-89 participating in the excavations. He the Multi-Kiva Site south of the Ranch. He received also conducted a survey in the Rock Art Ranch area and directed the excavation at his undergraduate degree from the U of Illinois-Urbana in 1974 and his MA from the U of A in 1977.