Bernard Lerner practiced neurosurgery at Northwestern University Hospital after a residency at Mayo Clinic and a special fellowship with Professional Yassergil in Switzerland in cerebral vascular microneurologic surgery, until a series of events led to writing HEADS: a memoir with co-author doncha freeman.

   doncha received her liberal arts degree in English Literature from Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois (now DePaul University, Chicago). She further pursued her life long passion for literature and the history of ideas at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford with the noted historian Alan Chapman. doncha practices yoga when she's not reading and writing.  doncha lives with Katie, her cat, and Sonny, her dog, in Miami Beach.