“There is practically no difference between reading this book and having Dr. Doe sitting across from you for a chat. I've been lucky enough to know, work with, and learn from Doe in real life at Leadership Greater Hartford and at Goodwin University, and I'm delighted that through Look, Ma! No Hands! others will benefit from her insights, her humor, and her humanity. I've heard so many people remark, "Doe's such an inspiration at her age." No, she's an inspiration at ANY age... doing great work... making us all better human beings.”
– Philip Moore, Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, Goodwin University
About Doe
Lifelong Learner. Creator. Teacher.
Dynamic Leader. Optimist.
In 2025 a new chapter in the life of Dr. Doe Hentschel began when she retired from a 25 year “encore career” at Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH). She began her LGH career as program director to develop the Third Age Initiative™, LGH’s program to identify, develop and engage older adults in meaningful ways in the community. As Senior Program Director (2006-2007) and then Vice President for Programs (2008-2020), she was involved with developing and implementing many of LGH’s core programs and its consulting and training services. As “Leadership Preceptor,” (2020-2025), she directed the Third Age Initiative™, contributed as curriculum designer and facilitator in many LGH programs and services, and served as a guide and mentor to her colleagues.
A seasoned administrator in higher education, “Dr. Doe” had served as Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Pine Manor College, Dean of Extended and Continuing Education at the University of Connecticut, and Dean of Adult and Continuing Education at SUNY College at Brockport. A faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), she taught graduate courses in Adult Learning and Development, Continuing Professional Education, Program Development and Implementation, Program Evaluation, Leadership for Change, and Group Dynamics. Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Urban Education with a focus in Administrative Leadership/Adult Education from UWM in 1979, she held administrative positions at William Rainey Harper Community College in Palatine, Illinois, and in the statewide public service administration at the University of Illinois.
Chief among many recognitions in her later years are the Shield Award (1997) recognizing members of Delta Gamma whose professional accomplishments have a national impact, and the Preceptor Award (2016), the highest recognition of the Association of Leadership Programs. She was named a Top Ten member of the Connecticut 60 over 60 class of 2018. In 2013, Dr. Doe Hentschel was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. Learn More.
Her lifelong academic, community and professional achievements have been recognized by many awards and honors. Collegiate honors at the University of Missouri (B.A., 1963) include Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, Mortar Board, and Phi Beta Kappa. She was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and earned her M.A. at Northwestern University in 1964. Her career in adult and continuing education began in 1973 and was marked by professional leadership roles at the state and national level.
“Dr. Doe” has published more than 50 articles, chapters, and research papers. A leader in creative and innovative curriculum design, her expertise has enriched and expanded personal and professional development and individual and organizational leadership programming for people of all ages in many different settings. In her first book, Look Ma! No Hands! Life’s Lessons Learned the Hard Way (2022) she shares her philosophy of life and leadership drawn from stories about the six months after she broke both elbows in a bicycle accident and had no use of her hands and arms.
Dr. Doe has often quoted Robert Bundy’s 1977 keynote address at the National Adult Education conference in Chicago who said, “We all have a work to do in life, that cannot be done in less than a lifetime.” An active octogenarian, she is a frequent speaker and facilitator of workshops that enable her to continue to do her work to do in life, which she defines as “helping people learn, and grow, and change.” Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2009 and currently preparing for a life that will be impacted as her macular degeneration progresses, she continues to learn, and grow and change herself.
”From the very beginning, Doe has fought to live her best life every step of the way – not just later in life. She’s adventurous, funny; bigger than her physical challenges, a great friend, a role model worthy of admiration.”
– Shirley Robinson Pippins, Ed.D., Senior Consultant & Senior Executive Coach, Academic Search
Former President, Thomas Nelson Community College (VA) and Suffolk Community College (NY)
1992 Roommates at Harvard University Institute in Educational Management (IEM) and Best Friends ever since.