Hello, thanks for stopping by. I am a storyteller who consults as a creative sounding board, editor, or writer. My love of story started with listening. 

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Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest of six, my Mom read to me in a nubby green rocking chair. Aesop's Fables were a favorite. When I was old enough to read, she took me to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, where I'd carry home a pile of books to devour before the due date. It was reading that inspired me to tell my own stories.

 

I wrote on looseleaf notebook paper and kept it in a cigar box. That's how I wrote the sixth grade play and the eighth grade essay read on local radio. On humid summer nights, I'd sit on the curb with friends, making up stories that we'd perform in the street to entertain ourselves and the fireflies.

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I never stopped writing or experimenting. Over the years, I studied playwriting with Toby Armour; fiction with Lou Mathews; journalism with Al Martinez and Ron Russell; and essay writing with Kenneth Miller. I published in newspapers, magazines, journals...but had yet to discover the key to 'making a living' as a writer. 

 

When I first started working at an arts center, I found so many challenges for my systems-thinking brain and soon wore many hats at the program and executive levels. Most importantly, I found an ever-present need that had to be fulfilled for the center to operate — fundraising. Events, individual donor campaigns and cultivation, sponsorships, and the one that taught me how to tell a story: grant writing. I learned to convey the most meaningful facts, anecdotes, and exposition in the fewest amount of words, without putting the reader to sleep. My approach raised millions of dollars in support of transformative arts, culture, and education programs. (CV linked below.)

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After a satisfying career, I pivoted to join the Centers for Research on Creativity in Los Angeles. Deeply inspired by the mission to better understand conditions that can promote imaginative approaches to learning, design, and problem solving, I coordinated creativity research projects across the US and abroad, where I witnessed teachers with students in classrooms, makers clubs, and other learning environments. These investigations led me to write multiple reports, co-author a chapter on dance and creativity, and to earn a Master's Degree in Creative Studies from the Center for Applied Imagination at SUNY Buffalo. As an elective credit, I finished the first draft of my novel, Seaglass. Then, opportunity knocked.

 

While my manuscript simmered on the back burner, I wrote, produced, and directed a short documentary on the impacts of public murals on Akumal, a small town on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. I wrote and received a $10,000 artist grant from Community Engagement and matched it through an individual donor campaign. Despite COVID-19 sweeping the Yucatan Peninsula, our guerrilla team of filmmakers forged ahead, and I enjoyed the most collaborative, creative experience of my life. 

 

Not only did we return home healthy, we had a story. 

Beyond the Bridge screened on PBS, in film festivals, classrooms, at the Southern Oregon University Creativity Conference in Ashland, Oregon and the Placemaking US Summit in Miami, Florida. The response was encouraging. I wanted to make another documentary. But first I had a novel waiting for a second draft. 

Returning to Seaglass, I joined Julia Fierro's fiction workshop at Sackett Street Writers, where I rewrote the manuscript using the techniques I learned, and now I am pitching to literary agents. 

After 36 years living west of the 98th Meridian, I returned to Baltimore and live in Hampden, where my storytelling journey continues.​ 

Here's my Writing CV.

For professional bona fides, please visit LinkedIn.​​​​​​​​​