Membership Details

Mija Lee was born and raised in South Korea. She earned her degree in Chemistry at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul and worked as a pharmacist until her move to America. With the language barrier and family commitments, she was unable to go back to school for a certification to continue her practice, so she restarted her career from the bottom in banking. She found it easier dealing with numbers and worked in accounting for about 23 years in Los Angeles and Century City, California. During that time, she returned to Seoul as a volunteer for the 1988 Summer Olympics-- a story covered by local news station KXAN leading up to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang (seen HERE.)

In 2007, Mija retired to Texas to be close to one of her two daughters. Within a few years, a family friend referred her to UT OLLI and she has been a LAMP member since 2014 and has served on several LAMP committees including: Diversity and ME, Registrar, and 2018-2019's Executive Committee as a Member-at-Large. Not only does she enjoy the program for its many choices of lectures as she continues to learn in her second language, the university campus is beautiful and walking among the students makes her feel young. The UT OLLI peers she's met has been the best: gracious, funny, and amazing. She now has four lovely grandchildren and her other hobbies include traveling and reading books.

Ken Cauthern grew up in Austin when it was a sleepy little burg-- no IH 35, the train ran straight down 2nd street, his Czech grandfather kept chickens, and the Colorado flowed free from Tom Miller dam to the Gulf. He attended UT, until his lack of discipline, and his least favorite uncle, Uncle Sam, caught up with him, teaching him a lifelong lesson that college was better than being a combat infantryman. After serving he returned to UT to finish an undergraduate degree in American Studies. Utilizing a TDHR grant and the last of his GI bill, he completed his graduate work in counseling, obtaining a degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Ken then switched careers by moving to LA and began a new adventure as a writer for television. His resume’ includes writing and producing an award winning national radio program: “On the Move with Tom Joyner.” Following, Ken moved to Prague in the early 90’s, where he freelanced for newspapers and magazines. Coming back to the US, he decided that he needed something more stable and obtained his clinical license. Making the circle complete, he returned to Texas to direct a child abuse prevention project for the Army and few years later, went into private practice.

Retiring in 2015, he lived in Bhutan where he trained mental health professionals, and spent weekends climbing the low Himalayas. Presently, he is the 2018-2019 Executive Chair Elect, and Seminar Co-Chair in UT OLLI FORUM.