All Osher memberships give you access to fun activities outside the classroom! The Osher staff will email throughout the semester with instructions and details on how you can take part.
You’re invited to attend Osher@Mizzou’s Engaging in Aging Workshop and Resource Fair on Saturday, August 16, 2025, from 12:45 to 3:30 p.m. at Poehlmann Education Center at MU’s Bradford Research Farm, 4968 S. Rangeline Rd., in Columbia, Mo.
Join us for an educational event that emphasizes healthy, meaningful aging in mid-Missouri. A resource fair will feature organizations that focus on the senior lifestyle. Please see the full schedule of speakers below.
This event is FREE and open to the public. Please let us know you are coming using this form or emailing osher@mizzou.edu or calling (573) 882-8189. We look forward to seeing you there!
Schedule
- Noon Doors open.
- 12:45 – 1:00 p.m. Welcome from the Osher staff and volunteer committees.
- 1:05 – 1:35 p.m. Healthy Aging and Hearing Loss by Dr. Lisa Guillory, audiologist for Missouri Ear, Nose and Throat Center.
- 1:40 – 2:10 p.m. Must Love Dogs: The Human/Animal Bond by Dr. Carolyn Henry, MU College of Veterinary Medicine.
- 2:15 – 2:45 p.m. Keep Your Keys presented by the the Aging Best team on behalf of MU Health Care’s Injury Prevention and Outreach program.
- Resource Fair continues until 3:30 p.m.
Exhibitors in the Resource Fair
Access Arts
Aging Best
City of Columbia
Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture
Columbia STEM Alliance
CoMo Preservation
Daniel Boone Regional Library
League of Women Voters Columbia-Boone County
Maples Repertory Theatre
Meals On Wheels
Missouri State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP)
The Missouri Symphony
MU Retirees Association (MURA)
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid Missouri
The State Historical Society of Missouri
Services for Independent Living (SIL)
United Way
University Concert Series
University of Missouri – NextGen
What is Osher@Mizzou?
Established in 2001, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Missouri (Osher@Mizzou) plays an important role in our community by offering non-credit, affordable courses in exciting and relevant academic topics for mid-Missourians aged 50 plus, all for the joy of learning. This year, more than 550 members attended more than 100 classes, lectures, events and social gatherings.
The series has evolved from its Saturday-morning time slot, but will still offer coffee, scones, author visits and book signings. Sessions will take place on the first Friday of each month, from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. in the Moss Building (1905 Hillcrest Drive in Columbia). Doors open at 9:00 a.m.
The sessions are open to the public – free for current Osher@Mizzou and Columbia Parks and Rec 50+ members; $3 at the door for others.
2025 Schedule
- January 3: Ken Gierke, Heron Spirit (poetry), Spartan Press, 2024
- February 7: Trudy Lewis, “Morado” (presentation/discussion), Article in the New England Review, 2024
- March 7: Sharon SingingMoon, The Weight of One Hummingbird Feather (poetry), Spartan Press, 2024
- April 4: Mike Trial, Red Onyx (fiction), Compass Flower Press, 2025
- May 2: Michelle Collins Anderson, The Flower Sisters (fiction), Kensington Books, 2024
- June 6: Andrew Mulvania, Also in Arcadia (poetry), University of Nebraska Press, 2008
- No Book Talk in July.
- Aug. 1: Lisa Stewart, The Big Quiet (memoir), independent publishing, 2020
- Sept. 5: Daren Dean, Shelter Me (fiction), Livingston Press, 2025
- Oct. 3: John Dorsey, Dead Photographs (poetry), Stubborn Mule Press, 2024
- Nov. 7: Jennifer Gravley, The Story I Told My Mother (poetry, essay), Twelve Winters Press, 2023
- Dec. 5: MaryFrances Wagner, The Immigrants’ New Camera (poetry), Spartan Press, 2018
The Robert G. Silvers Memorial Seminar Series:
Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in Moss A
History, Humanity, and the Screen: Reflections of a Global Filmmaker
Open to all current Osher members and other guests, by invitation
Osher@Mizzou is proud to present the 2025 installment of the Robert G. Silvers Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind, generously established by Sally Silvers in honor of her husband’s insatiable curiosity, wondrous intelligence, and humanity.
Robert was a beloved member of the Osher community who set records for course enrollment before becoming an instructor himself. His passion for the beauty of wood and opulent veneers was so great that he was teaching a woodworking course at Osher in 2008 when he became ill. Join Sally’s family, friends and fellow Osher members in honoring the legacy of one of the program’s most dedicated and caring instructors, someone who embodied the spirit of lifelong learning.
“Because of how my Robert loved this program, I wanted to give a gift to him and to our community by creating an endowment establishing The Robert G. Silvers Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind. Robert wanted to learn everything ... all of the time. This tribute series is a bequest to all who seek, as he did, to grow in knowledge and understanding.” –Sally Silvers
Instructor: Daniel Dreifuss is an acclaimed film and television producer based in Los Angeles, with the rare distinction of having produced Oscar-contending films for two different countries: the Oscar-nominated No (2012) and the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (2022).
Born in the UK and raised in Rio de Janeiro and Columbia, Missouri, Dreifuss has worked globally on a wide range of celebrated projects. His most recent is Ghosts of Beirut, a limited series filmed in Morocco and released on Showtime and Paramount+ in 2023. The show chronicles the international manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, one of the most significant espionage stories of our time.
Dreifuss also produced the critically acclaimed All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger and released by Netflix. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, the film won four Academy Awards and seven BAFTAs – the most ever for a non-English language film.
Earlier in his career, he produced No, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Gael García Bernal. The film won the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and screened at major international film festivals including NYFF, TIFF, Telluride, Tokyo, Sundance, and London. It was Chile’s first film to receive an Academy Award nomination. He later returned to Chile to produce You’ll Never Be Alone, which won the Teddy Award at the 2016 Berlinale.
Dreifuss holds an MFA in Producing from the American Film Institute and has served on juries at major international festivals, including the Queer Palm at Cannes, and festivals in Zurich, São Paulo, SANFIC, Rio de Janeiro, Guadalajara, and José Ignacio.