About Me

I have lived many lives in this lifetime. From the age of nine to nineteen, I played drums in an all-girl drum and bugle corps, which was way ahead of its time. I then played as a professional drummer/lyricist after studying percussion and music composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston. At 30, I won a writing scholarship to Columbia University earning a B.A. in Literature and Writing. While there, I won the Bennet Cerf Prize for Literary Criticism and placed second in Columbia’s annual Poetry Contest.  Upon completing my Master’s degree at Columbia on an academic scholarship, I began my professorship, and eventual tenure, at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey, where I have served for over 25 years. As an educational innovator, I not only taught literature and writing courses, but designed curriculum, including a Freshman Life Skills course and Intro to LGBTQ Cultures in the US, one of the first in the nation. On a more personal note, I am an avid gardener, poet, voracious reader and lover of animals, who hopes to spend my next life on acres of farmland with many big red dogs, several cats and farm animals, and hopefully, my present wife.