About

I’ve been a writer all my life.  My earliest preserved work was “The Story of Tommy Carrot,” a terribly-spelled brief tragedy about a root vegetable, which was inexplicably (to me) rejected by the TV show Zoom.  Then there was the aggrieved letter to President Nixon, demanding an end to the Vietnam War.  A couple decades after those false starts, I really hit my stride: working as a campus minister in higher education for 26 years, and writing about the intersection of faith and life.

As an adult, whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said the same thing: I wanted to be a “freelance me.” In 2018, the publication of my first book of daily meditations, Finding God in Ordinary Time, opened the door for me to pursue that dream.  I have a passion for public speaking, and am eager to bring my voice to a wider audience of faithful seekers, so on July 31, 2019 (the Feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola) I stepped down from my campus ministry position to devote my time to retreat facilitation, public speaking, and further writing. My next book, a companion volume called Finding God Abiding, was published in 2022 courtesy of Woodhall Press.

I’m thrilled to share that my third book, Finding God Along the Way: Wisdom from the Camino for Life at Home, was published in January 2025 by Paraclete Press. It tells the story of my 2022 pilgrimage along the “Ignatian Way” in Spain in the company of a group whose average age was 67. Knowing how privileged I was to be able to walk away from my regular life for a month, I narrate the journey with an eye to lessons learned that could enable anyone to strengthen their “pilgrim’s heart,” even in the midst of ordinary life. Though I’m quite fond of all my books, this is my favorite (so far)!

As the old folk song says, your life is more than your work, and your work is more than your job.  In case you’re wondering, however, here are the hot hits of my resume: I served for fifteen years as the Director of Campus Ministry at Gwynedd Mercy University, and before that for eleven years as the Associate Director of the Newman Center at West Chester University.  My background also includes full-time volunteer work at Freedom House, once a house of hospitality for homeless people in Richmond, Virginia, and a year of chaplaincy training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  I have my master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry from Boston College, and a bachelor’s in Theology and English from St. Joseph’s University.  I also sing, serving as a cantor and choir member at my parish, St. Vincent DePaul in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, serve on the Regional Advisory Council for the Philly/South Jersey region of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC), and facilitate monthly reflection gatherings for IVC’s Virtual Region.

Both in person and on the page, I strive to feed the faithful and to offer spiritual nourishment to people skeptical or weary of religion.  If you are part of a group that needs a speaker for a retreat, evening of recollection, etc., please be in touch.