When Ann Dowsett Johnston attended her son’s graduation from Smith College she felt a “deep pang” that she says sounded like, “I will die and never have done this.” With her son’s encouragement, Johnston applied to Smith and moved into the student dorm with 25-year olds the next year. “I had broken my ankle and was in a wheelchair,” she says. “I was as old as many parents or grandparents. It was a phenomenal experience.” After graduating Johnston, a Canadian, who had been a journalist, then vice-principal of McGill University, launched her career as a psychotherapist at age 67 dealing with women in transition--”to post-retirement, wrestling with substance abuse or career disappointment”. When she found she missed writing, she dug into a topic she knew well: alcohol addiction (she is now 13 years sober). In 2013, she wrote the best-selling book, “Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol.” Today she runs memoir-writing workshops (“Writing Your Recovery”) in which she encourages women to tell their own stories of triumph over grief, substance, or burnout. “We have book proposals in the alumni group before international agents now,...articles in major magazines... pieces submitted to contests,” she says. “My approach to life is that we live in chapters. When friends are retiring, mine is fresh and inspirational. It’s very new. I plan to work until I’m eighty to pay off my student debt!”
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#67: Squeezed out? Fight Back. Here’s How. (Vera Gibbons)
#66: Putting her thought-leader network to work for health research (Carolee)
#65: Shattering stereotypes of women in the army (Jessica Scott)
#64: Control is an illusion (Lydia Slaby)
#63: Personal Branding 101 (Joanne Tombrakos)
#62: Reinventing through fear (Ruth Soukup)
#61: Creating a platform that allows you to make meaningful connections (Gina Bianchini)
#60: From music industry artist to cannabis entrepreneur (Aliza Sherman)
#59: “Even at 63 years old, I can’t imagine sitting by the pool; I’m not done” (Susan Feldman)
#58: Reinventing after a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder II (Shaillee Chopra)
#57: Always be in the mode of reinventing (Adrienne Garland)
#56: Reinventing because of life’s randomness (Lisa Lori)
#55: Take back your life by reinventing your relationship with your phone (Tim Kendall)
#54: Reinventing after losing yourself in motherhood (Nicole Jennings)
#53: Helping lawyers reinvent (Julie Anna Alvarez)
#52: Failure was not on her menu (Evelyn Isaia)
#51: Reinventing after burnout (Debra Boulanger)
#50: When she couldn’t find great career advice, she invented it herself (Kathryn Minshew)
#49: Reinventing because you no longer believe (Tova Mirvis)
#48: When disruption forces you to reinvent (Bonnie Levison)
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