Marti Garlett:  

I live in the Los Angeles area, less than a mile from the beach. Earned my Ph.D. in higher education leadership at Claremont Graduate University and served as the Vice President of Academic Programs and Professional Licensure for the Laureate Higher Education Group, a global university community that serves about 500,000 students annually, until I was diagnosed in summer 2009 with a rate, incurable, and progressive disease. That disease is idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, which has caused me to lose my stamina and become disabled. From my early 30s to my early 40s, I was the "star" of television's ROMPER ROOM children's program, where I was known as Miss Marti. Loved that period of my life! I should have paid them for the privilege, it was such a great experience. I later also served as the Founding Dean of the Teachers College at Western Governors University, a unique competency-based (not course-based) higher education institution developed by 19 governors in the western U.S. What a ride to help invent something brand new that never was in terms of interesting human learning opportunities! In addition, I wrote three books related to parenting and teaching and had them published along the way. One of my most difficult parenting trial...Expand for more