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.” The publication of my first book, Finding God in Ordinary Time, in 2018 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 writing my next book, Finding God Abiding, which will be coming into the world on June 7, 2022 courtesy of Woodhall Press.
My Jesuit education taught me to find God in all things, and so here on this website you will find reflections and ruminations on many topics, original monologues of women in Scripture, and essays originally published in Liguorian and Praying magazines, as well as information about my book and a schedule of speaking events. I hope you find something that touches your spirit.
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 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.
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.