About
LEARNER. TEACHER. ALCHEMIST. SPIRITUAL GUIDE/ZEN BUDDHIST CHAPLAIN
Learning, change, and personal transformation are in everything I do. Over time, I have persistently discovered new ways of helping people be their best selves.
This path/worldview/these passions first led me to the world of academia, where I became a teacher for students with special education needs in New York City, then a principal and administrator. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees in child psychology and bilingual special education, respectively, and doctorate in curriculum development from Teachers College, Columbia University, formed the foundation for this work.
After our daughter was born, with a desire for a more flexible work schedule and a decade long commitment to the anti-violence movement, I shifted from the world of education to nonprofit work. Over the next nine years, as the director of two rape crisis programs in New Jersey, I stepped into the roles of administrator, public speaker, trainer of volunteers, after-hours hotline counselor and coalition builder. I broadened and deepened my commitment to individual and large scale understanding and change around issues of interpersonal violence.
For the past twenty years, I have grown my instructional design, speaking, and coaching firm. My passion is integrating my academic skills with my desire for perpetual learning—from CoachU and Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness Coaching Program, Points of You, mindfulness, EFT, and nonviolent communication, to Christina Merkley’s programs, Fundamentals of Interactive Graphics, Magic Marker Mastermind, and Fast and Loose Sketching. I am a past member and former secretary of the Board of Directors of the International Forum of Visual Practitioners. My clients in corporate, nonprofit, government and educational settings have included Daimler, Bosch, the Ford Motor Company, CibaVision, Novartis, McGraw-Hill, Reed-Elsevier, PertroTrin, Siemens Medical, Turner Broadcasting Sales, Inc., Rutgers University, the NJ Juvenile Justice Commission, the Englewood, NJ school district, and the PAST Foundation. My practice spans the globe, with clients in Australia, Canada, England, Jamaica, Singapore, Switzerland, Trinidad, and the United States.
In June 2018, I became the US member of the Bikablo Global Training Team. Since then, I have shared the Bikablo method with over 500 people in both public and onsite programs in the US and India. I share my passion for visualization at conferences—in-person and virtually—with learners around the world
My newest areas of interest are the death-positive and literacy movements and graphic medicine. I offer workshops in creating visual obituaries, I graphically record people's end-of-life plans, and contribute to the field of graphic medicine as an illustrator, zine creator, author, and speaker.