What is my background?
I am an educator and generalist by nature, with a lot of advanced schooling and forty years of experience in a wide variety of sectors, working with people from many cultures and backgrounds. My professional life has always called upon me to write and almost as often, to teach and mentor…
With a PhD in English from Northwestern, I taught at the university level for 15 years, including at Iowa State University (Associate Professor with tenure ); at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (Director of Liberal Studies); and at Regis University, where I directed the Master’s degree in Development Practice. I spent seven years as an arts educator in community and K-12 settings, including at Colorado Ballet (Director of Education & Outreach) and Performing Art Works, a life-skills non-profit that I co-founded. For ten years, I was an international development professional in the effort to provide water and sanitation access across Latin America, Africa and India (Water For People). Along the way, I wrote a 300-page book of literary cultural history (published by Oxford University Press) and many scholarly articles, as well as innumerable funding proposals, strategic plans, annual reports, and feature articles. For some time, now, my creative outlet has been writing plays for the theatre.
… and I bring all of that experience to bear in my book coaching (which may be the most fun I’ve ever had in a job. And that is saying a lot.).
What is it like to work with me?
I help professionals across myriad fields get the wisdom of their experience and expertise into cogent, beautiful, written form and into the hands of readers who are hungry for what they are offering.
In my coaching, I am first of all a thought partner, ready to go deep on a writer’s ideas and on ways to give them clear expression. I have the preparation and curiosity to accompany my clients into whatever subject matter they are passionate about. Together, we dive beneath the formal surface of the writing into the substance, unearthing conceptual connections and possibilities for building their most powerful book.
I am equally an accountability partner, providing ongoing strategy for getting words on the page, building chapter by chapter, to get the book written. I understand the pain points and the pressures that keep us all from writing and I stand ready to help my writers to overcome them.
Finally, I am a champion of writers and their books. There is nothing like a book – and there is no book like your book. That spirit is what carries us through the undeniably hard but uniquely rewarding work of authorship.
For the perspectives of some clients, have a look at these testimonials.
