Fox Cities Book Festival: Connecting writers and readers across our diverse communities.

Susan H. McFadden, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She co-founded Fox Valley Memory Project in 2011, a nonprofit that offers programs and services to enable people living with dementia and their care partners to live as well as possible in the Fox Valley region. Susan wrote the Wisconsin best practice guide to memory cafés, volunteers at a local memory café, organizes the On a Positive Note dementia chorus, and consults with organizations throughout the country on their dementia-friendly efforts. In addition to her research and scholarship on the social and emotional lives of people with dementia, she has published many papers and books on older adults’ religiousness and spirituality. Her most recent book is, Dementia-Friendly Communities: Why We Need Them and How We Can Create Them (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020). She and her husband, John, co-authored, Aging Together: Dementia, Friendship and Flourishing Communities (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). Susan and John have a cabin in the Upper Peninsula where they love to kayak, hike, read, listen to and make music (John with his ukulele, Susan with her electronic drum kit). At home, Susan and John enjoy gardening, hiking, reading, and listening to and making music.