Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Rucharest, Romania
• Raised—Israel
• Education—B.A., State University of New York-Buffalo; M.P.A., University of Pittsburgh
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Rita Schinnar moved from Romania to Israel when she was a toddler. After completing her high school education and two years of studies at Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv, she moved to the U.S. to pursue further university studies. She started at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, majoring in psychology, with a minor in European History, and transferred to the State University of New York at Buffalo where she earned her BA degree in psychology. She also earned a MPA degree in public administration from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and completed her doctoral studies except for a dissertation, also from GSPIA.
After graduating from college, Rita Schinnar began a long career working at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Perlman School of medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. She learned epidemiology and research methods on the job and worked on numerous epidemiologic and pharmacoepidemiologic studies, co-authoring papers in scientific journals, contributing chapters to a book and textbook in pharmacoepidemiology, teaching research methods to fellows and medical students, and serving as managing editor for a journal in the field.
In retirement since 2014, Rita Schinnar is a writer of travelogues, short stories, and this first memoir. Her hobbies include photography and films.
William A. Meis Jr., co-author, is an editor, novelist, poet and publisher of Fallen Bros Press catalogue of fiction, essays and memoirs. He was the co-founder of the journal, New Perspectives Quarterly and a long-time Director of Publications for the Witers Guild of America (west). He holds an MFA degree from Goddard College, and lives in Southern California. (Author bios from the authors.)
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