BIOGRAPHY

Andrea’s most recent book is Radical Endurance: Growing Old in an Age of Longevity (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). Praised as “a personal guide to the transformations, hard truths, profound pleasures, and infinite possibilities of aging,” the book traces Andrea’s truths and transformations as she enters old age, including the shock of facing her timeworn self; the choking fear of losing her health and with it, her independence; the terror of being vanquished by ageism; the profound pleasure of “growing up again” as she reconsiders transformative experiences from her young adulthood; her awakening as she embraces her later life vocation as a writer; and finally, her unexpectedly optimistic journey toward contentment as she contemplates her future.

Winner of an Honorable Mention from the Forward Indies 2023 Book Awards, After Effects: A Memoir of Complicated Grief (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) traces Andrea’s deeply personal struggle with abnormally intense and prolonged grief after the untimely death of her husband, ultimately leading her to a profound reconsideration of what might constitute happiness in a life without her beloved partner. In 2020, she was awarded a Next Step grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Metropolitan Regional Arts Council to support After Effects, and in 2022, she was a featured writer in the Minnesota Humanities Center’s popular Minnesota Writers Series.

Andrea is also the author of Restoring Flexibility: A Gentle Yoga-Based Practice to Increase Mobility at Any Age (Ulysses Press, 2015), which received enthusiastic reviews from yoga, health, and wellness media outlets, and was recommended in over two dozen articles in newspapers around the country and in radio and online author interviews.

Andrea founded and directed LearningLife, the University of Minnesota’s diverse collection of learning opportunities for people in the second half of life, as well as Encore Transitions: Preparing for Post-Career Life, a trailblazing, nationally replicated program that offered a holistic approach to preparing for a meaningful life after retirement. These programs allowed her to develop an enduring professional and personal interest in health, well-being, and vital engagement in later life, concerns that have become foundational to her writing. 

As the founding director of the University of Minnesota’s legendary Split Rock Arts Program, Andrea led an internationally renowned series of intensive residential workshops in the literary and visual arts. During her tenure, she put cultural, racial, gender, and aesthetic diversity at the heart of the program by bringing groundbreaking writers and artists of color and pioneering LGBTQ+ artists to the program, and by offering program participants opportunities to learn non-European art forms from master practitioners.

In 1995, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s Department of American Indian Studies, Andrea also founded and directed American Indian Lives, Lands, and Cultures travel study tours to tribal nations. The program offered opportunities for members of participating tribal communities to create curriculum and serve as teachers in order to develop their capacity in intercultural tourism. This work grew from Andrea’s abiding interest in and passion for Native American art, especially contemporary beadwork created for sale to tourists.

Between 2010 and 2018, Andrea taught hundreds of yoga classes through her Third Age Yoga teaching practice, working with a wide variety of participants ranging from 45 to 98 years old. She taught exclusively in community-based nonprofit settings, including the West 7th Community Center and the Wilder Foundation Center for Aging, both located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Andrea’s home town.