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About Doe

Lifelong Learner. Creator. Teacher.

Dynamic Leader. Optimist.

Re-Imagining Our Third Age

Finding Purpose With Parkinson's

“Unlike jigsaw puzzles, the puzzle of my life – and yours – didn’t come all packaged with a photo on the box to guide us. We create the picture ourselves, sometimes with the pieces we are given, sometimes with pieces we find along the way. Sometimes we get a puzzle piece we didn’t ask for but can’t discard – and we need to redesign the picture incorporating this intrusive piece. It is in our 

power to put the pieces of our puzzles together and decide what the picture will become. And when we put the pieces of our life puzzles together, I think we should leave the edges, which can limit us, undefined. Be open to become all that you can be.”

- Doe Hentschel, Ph.D. 

For more than four decades, Dr. Doe Hentschel has developed transformative, creative, and pioneering continuing education programs and policies. As a strategist, collaborator, innovator, teacher, and facilitator, she has distinguished herself in multiple settings. A leader and visionary in the field of adult education, she was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2013. 

This prestigious honor recognized her as a practitioner who has consistently initiated, pioneered, administered, taught, and led unique and internationally acclaimed outreach to diverse populations. Her legendary leadership has been far reaching. In addition to her research and academic contributions, examples of her programmatic innovations include:

  • One of the first Women’s Programs to support college reentry and career development

  • Two Centers for Learning in Retirement

  • A program to support career transition from the private sector to the nonprofit sector

  • An innovative program to facilitate and support self-directed learning required of all residents of a continuing care/life plan retirement community located on a college campus

  • A leadership development program for college student leaders from multiple institutions to collaborate and lead in the broader community

  • A system to identify and train people interested in serving on nonprofit boards and connect them to nonprofit organizations seeking to strengthen and diversify their boards.

  • The ground-breaking Third Age Initiative™, an award-winning program of Leadership Greater Hartford

Her service in adult learning is embedded in the history of the field – its innovations, organizations, and community and educational associations. A longtime member and major contributor to state and national professional associations, she served in executive leadership positions in the National University Continuing Education Association, the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education, the Adult Education Association of the USA, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, the Continuing Education Association of New York, and the Public Adult and Continuing Education Association of Illinois.

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Dr. Hentschel has contributed more than 50 published articles, chapters, and research papers in the field of adult and continuing education. She has been the recipient of multiple awards in addition to her induction in the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. These include the Shield Award from Delta Gamma Fraternity, the Preceptor Award from the Association of Leadership Programs, and the Wonder Woman award from the Malta House of Care. Named to the “Top Ten” of Sixty over Sixty in the state of Connecticut, she is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Lambda Theta, and Phi Delta Kappa.

“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

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