My parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) urged me to consider journalism because I “wrote such nice letters to your relatives.” That’s led to some interesting experiences — like covering the environment in New Jersey (from toxic sludge to hidden, old-growth trees), milking cows for a story on odd jobs, bouncing around in a beekeeper’s truck with 300 beehives and watching brain surgery in the OR.
I have a BA in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a news reporter and feature writer for more than a decade, I developed strong reporting skills, the ability to find and develop good stories — and the speed to get it all written accurately on deadline. I started out at a very small paper in Hatboro, PA, and ultimately worked at a large, northern New Jersey daily called The Record of Hackensack where I was the environment reporter.
A move into health and medical writing took me to Rodale, Inc., where I wrote and edited my first health books and became Health News editor for Prevention magazine for six years. At Rodale I won a CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) Fellowship to learn about targeted cancer therapies at Harvard Medical School. I spent an amazing week interviewing several dozen researchers about this fascinating field. As Health News editor, I oversaw the expansion of this popular section of the magazine and also was responsible for the magazine’s Medical Breakthroughs and Kids Health departments. And I wrote feature articles for Prevention, winning several Health Information Awards.
Now I’m a freelance writer — a change that’s allowed me to write for America’s top consumer magazines about health and wellness, to blog about children’s health, to follow happiness research for a leading magazine, and to expand my book-writing experience and do custom content, too. In my spare time I play the cello, garden and take care of a hive of bees, two Labrador Retrievers and an indoor-outdoor cat. My husband and I have a teen-age daughter.
You can read more about my books, publications and experience here.