Barbara A. Bloom, author of Ephemeral Blooms, has two other accomplishments of which she is most proud. The first is the creation of a community education program, Mt. Airy Learning Tree, in 1980, based in a neighborhood in Philadelphia holding a proud tradition of being inclusive of a diverse audience. While she served as its founding director, she left in 1990 and is especially pleased that the program continues to the present day, serving 5,000 registrants annually. The second accomplishment is the creation of a group of volunteers at a local elementary school, Henry H. Houston, beginning in 2000, which has slowly expanded to over thirty regular volunteers working with young kids.
Bloom, born in Denver, Colorado in 1941, came to the east coast for college at Wellesley and graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, and felt at home with the variety of people of differing ethic and racial backgrounds. In addition to her work outside of traditional institutions and as a volunteer, she has held a variety of positions in education in formal institutions: associate professor of English at Community College of Philadelphia, director of the Regional Continuing Education for Women Program at Temple University, director of the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource and Career Center at the University of Kansas, and director of Non-Credit Programs at the Ambler Campus of Temple University.
She currently lives in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia with her spouse, Bob Rossman, and their dog, Dudley.