MSI Press Blog

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication from the forthcoming memoir, In with the East: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver Chapter One: Acton I was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, but my earliest memories belong to East Rochester—a small mill town that felt big to a child on a bike. I spent my early years pedaling down its streets, ducking in and out of the Main Street shops, and playing games on the lawns of the two churches that sat directly across from each other like old, watchful neighbors. Back then, life was as local as it gets. I knew every sidewalk crack and shortcut path, every neighbor’s barky dog, and every familiar bell above a shop door. But as our family grew—eight children in all—my father couldn’t support us on a town lot alone. So we moved across the Salmon Falls River to Acton, Maine, where land was cheap and farms were many. That’s the place I truly think of as my childhood home, the place that shaped my bones and burned the soles of my feet ...

  Introduction I grew up barefoot and suntanned on a farm in rural Acton, Maine. Now, basking in the sunshine of San Juan Bautista, California, 3,000 miles from those roots and 75 years beyond my time in New England, I find no singular thread defining my life. No grand design guided my path—only the constant pull of urgent voices asking, Can you come help us? And so, I went. I packed my bags, boarded planes, crossed borders, and stepped into roles I had never planned but never hesitated to fill. Unlike those who chase opportunity, I responded to it. I taught teachers in Brazil, rescued a dying child in Siberia, brokered school exchanges between Minsk (Belarus) and Portland (Oregon, USA), trained astronauts and cosmonauts in Houston (USA) and in Star City (Russia). I set up university translation programs in Moldova, guided Turkmen diplomats, advised Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Social Justice. Each place offered a distinct challenge, and I shaped myself around its needs, learning as...

  (Princess Muna in white, middle; Me in black, far right; Dr. Alexa, NYIT/NY, in blue, far right; others - members of the American Psychological Association) I knew who she was. She knew who I was. But I had never personally met Princess Muna until the American Psychological Association came to Jordan on the quest of setting up a degree in psychology at one of the universities there. Until then, psychology was not a topic of study at any of the several universities in the country. At the time, I was working as the chief academic officer at New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. We also had a very small branch, computer science studies only, in Irbid, Jordan on the campus of the Jordan University of Science and Technology, which oversaw the in-country activities of NYIT. Princess Muna (nee Tony Gardner) was/is the mother of King Abdullah. A Brit by origin, she wed King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, a much-beloved (for obvious reasons, it seemed to me) royal, one whos...