A California
native, I graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of California,
Berkeley and earned a Master's degree in Education, Instructional Technologies
from San Francisco State University.
In the
mid-Seventies, I conducted my first oral histories with Sicilian fishermen
on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. At the time, I was working as
a travel consultant for the E.N.I.T.-
the Italian Government Travel Office, located in the St. Francis Hotel
on Union Square in San Francisco.
After many
years working in information technology and instructional design, I
combined my love of language and history to create Circle of Life Stories,
to help people write their family histories and life stories, and to
work with communities and organizations to create oral history and community
memory projects. I attended the Soleil Institute in Maine to become
certified as a Life Writing facilitator for Turning
Memories into Memoirs.
I have
conducted oral histories for the Mill Valley Historical Society, for the Faces of Marin City Project
and for the Save
Our Stories Oral History Project of the Alliance for American Quilts
and the International Quilt Festival. I have documented in mixed media
San Francisco's Madonna
del Lume Celebration and the Blessing of the Fishing Fleet for the
Library of Congress' Bicentennial Local Legacy Program. I am also on
the Board of Directors of the Mill Valley Historical Society, for which
I edit and produce its quarterly newsletter. I am a member of the Association
of Personal Historians, the Oral
History Association, and the Bay Area Oral Historian's Group.
For the
California History Room of the Marin
County Free Library, I have converted to narrative form oral history
interviews conducted in the 1970's by Anne Kent and Carla Ehat. I continue to conduct oral histories in Marin County for the California History Room. I have
written biographies of several honorees in the Marin
Women's Hall of Fame and have authored Marin
City Memories, a book honoring Marin City elders who migrated from
the South during World War II.
My work includes newspaper and journal articles and poetry in the West Marin Review.
I am co-founder of LeaveLight, LLC, a company that offers motivational programs for holistic end-of-life planning, and co-author with Jacqueline Janssen of the book LeaveLight: A Motivational Guide to Holistic End-of-Life Planning.
