Meet our colmunist Barbara Mader
Barbara grew up in a cozy town in upstate New York on the banks of the Hudson River. She spent summers hiking throughout the beautiful Adirondack Mountains where she learned about plants and gardening from her mother, a nature lecturer. Love of the earth and beauty in the changing seasons inspired her to climb trees, watch birds and observe the glory of nature. Gardening became an early hobby which remains an avid pursuit. “I love digging in the dirt. It relaxes me and it is my best thinking time,” she says. “My brain flies about while my muscles work.”
Her writing career began at age six when she composed a four line song set to an original poem about manners. “The music world is grateful I pursued a different career path,” she states. Throughout school she sponsored writing contests and invented ways to include humor into assignments, including an autobiography written and illustrated from the perspective of a 4 year old.
When Mader’s original career dreams of astronaut, ballerina and dinosaur hunter didn’t pan out, she pursued degrees in Speech Pathology/Audiology and graduate work in Special Education and Literacy. She attended Ithaca College, Johns Hopkins University and Castleton State College. She worked in three states in public and private education, teaching hearing impaired children, special needs students from pre-school through age 21 with mild through severe disabilities, and speech impaired students in all education settings.
She pursued additional training in literacy and became certified in teaching dyslexic adults and children through an intense multi-sensory intervention developed by Barbara Wilson (www.wilsonlanguage.com). She continues literacy volunteer work and tutoring through schools and private clients. “There is no greater joy than to see a struggling reader unlock the mystery of the printed word” Mader comments about her work.
As a mother of four children Mader reflects on over 28 years of parenting multiple teens. She wore out two minivans transporting string quartet musicians with instruments and music stands, sports equipment including track hurdles, soccer paraphernalia and pole vault poles, and art sculptures. She hosted foreign students from Ireland, Spain and Iceland, led Girl Scout troops, taught Sunday School and coordinated a regional newsletter for her church denomination. ‘I always cooked for more than just our family,” she reflects, “There were always extra hungry kids rolling in and out. Some just ate, some stayed overnight and others became semi-permanent sons and daughters.”
Mader has always loved felines and currently reports on cats for the Albany, NY edition of Examiner.com, an online newspaper tailored to connecting national and international news to local markets. (http://www.examiner.com/user) She utilizes the forum to educate people about cat issues from legal updates surrounding animal abuse to cat health and breed information. “We can learn so much about gratitude, loyalty and love from our adopted pets,” she states. She is currently a mommy to five cats and counting.
Mader also writes a humor blog on whatever tickles her funny bone at the moment. “There is humor in almost everything,” she continues. Her topics range from everyday issues to slightly irreverent viewpoints on current events, but always with humor as the common denominator. “Life without humor is existence without self-reflection. To grow we must be able to see ourselves in an abstract of humanity and embrace the caricature revealed.” Follow her blog: http://barb-says.blogspot.com/
Mader is also completing her first novel, a romance set a thousand years ago spanning two continents and filled with intrigue, jealousy, pirates, sex, gardening and fairies.
She is a lifetime member of Cambridge Who’s Who of Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs.