If you’re anything like me, you might find reading bios to be a chore. It can be exhausting to try to determine if someone’s a good fit without getting swept away by the sheer undertow of too much information.

So let’s begin with what most people look for first: evidence that an editor/book coach has the education and experience to take them where they need to go.

For more than 30 years I’ve worked with words in various sectors of the publishing industry. As a freelance writer, I’ve created countless pages of content for a variety of editors. As an editor, I’ve worked with scores of freelance writers. To be a little more specific, I’ve done a great deal of work pertaining to health, wellness, social issues, food, and travel. I’ve created consumer publications and magazines for various healthcare professionals, authored a book, and have helped others write theirs. I’ve been an executive editor, a managing editor, and even a copyeditor (the latter of which I discovered is not my thing.) Bottom line is that I know what it’s like to be sitting on all sides of the writing and publishing process. My experience has afforded me the ability to understand the unique challenges of everyone involved.

Lately, I’m increasingly drawn to personal stories and lean toward creative nonfiction, a shift driven in part by my own discovery of unknown family secrets. As a result, I created Severance, an online magazine and community for people with similarly complex family circumstances—adoptees, donor conceived people, and others who’ve been shocked to discover they’ve fallen out of the family tree. 

In my mind, bylines aren’t exactly qualifications. But sometimes they’re good to know about. My work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, HuffPost, The Sun Magazine, WIRED, and Everyday Health, to name a few.

I’m a graduate of UCLA, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in art history as well as a master of arts in critical studies at the university’s School of Film and Television. But I’m a firm believer in lifetime learning, so I regularly attend webinars and workshops on creative nonfiction led by authors like Cheryl Strayed, Elissa Altman, Dani Shapiro, and Nick Flynn, as well as classes in the business and practice of publishing by experts such as Jane Friedman and Allison K. Williams. I’ve completed courses offered by the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and recently became an Author Accelerator-certified book coach. My philosophy is the more I learn, the more I can customize a solid plan for each client and offer them the unique tools I believe will serve them best. Your project, your writing style, your challenges, and your needs are unlike any other’s. So you deserve a strategy that will serve you alone.

What’s left to know? You may have guessed I’m a life-long enthusiastic reader. When I’m not working on others’ projects, I’m revising a memoir about maternal abandonment and family secrets and pitching an anthology of literary essays about encountering unknown relatives after a DNA surprise. 

I live with my husband near Milford, Pennsylvania, on the eastern edge of the Pocono Mountains, a quick train ride away from NYC.