BACKGROUND

I was born in North Tonawanda, NY.  My family moved nine times before I left home just before turning 18. (No, I wasn't a military brat. My dad was an intellectual vagabond who followed his passions and our family followed him.)  I graduated from high school in Southern California and spent the following year as an exchange student in Germany.

After that, my story doesn't lend itself very well to tidy recap. I've had more opportunity than one person has any right to expect from life. There have been amazing adventures with a number of pretty crazy plot twists. I've visited the Taj Mahal in 120-degree heat and I was once a guest on Oprah. I've planted bulbs in fall that have bloomed in spring. I've helped throw a neighborhood party for one of the richest men in the world and served holiday brunch to homeless kids. There have been joys that defy description and a couple of disappointments so deep I had to learn how to breathe again. I've seen birth and death, firsthand and up close.

The chapters of my story have built one on the next with their own logic - and while those chapters could reasonably be divided into at least a few separate books, their common theme reveals more about me than a fussy narrative full of biographical details possibly could. For me, it's always about connection.

Connection is what matters most to me and is at the core of everything I do best. I get a kick out of introducing people with complementary talents, or who I think might just really like one another. I love turning thoughts into words that clarify, explain and persuade. More than anything else, I love plotting connections that involve new constellations of people, ideas and/or ways of doing things - especially when the result is improvement of any kind or, once in a while, something altogether new and awesome and maybe even a little magic.

VOLUNTEER INVOLVEMENT

Board President
Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre

Joined the Board in 2019 after writing a successful proposal on behalf of Broadway Bound in response to a Seattle Parks & Recreation RFP to renovate and manage the Magnuson Park Building 47 Theater. Spearheading fundraising through grant writing and a capital campaign for the renovations. Recently approved for a grant from the WA State Dept of Archaeology Historic Theaters program. Elected Board President in 2021.

EDUCATION

BA Communications
University of Alaska, Southeast

MS Human Nutrition
Eastern Michigan University

INTERESTS

Reading, Theater, Nutrition, Fitness