This is the stuffy official bio. If you want a better sense of who I am and what matters to me, go here.
I was fortunate to attend the esteemed Punahou School on Oahu in Hawai’i. After high school, I earned a BA in creative writing from the University of Illinois, an MA in Literature from The Pennsylvania State University, and a PhD in rhetoric from The Pennsylvania State University.
After working for four years as a tenure-track college professor, I left academia to work in fundraising for a charter school working with educationally and economically underprivileged kids. That turned into a position editing and managing online publications.
I was trained as a life coach by Dr. Martha Beck. Alongside that training, I bring to my coaching experience with the Enneagram, with spiritual inquiry, and with Byron Katie’s techniques.
I started New Leaf Life Design in 2009 to help people bring conscious intention — and therefore more joy — to their lives.