BIOGRAPHY

After a varied career, Montessori teacher, ski photographer, sound engineer, real estate developer, and government press and marketing professional I decided to follow my passion for storytelling in my day jobs and beyond.  Growing up feeling safe in a small Midwestern town, spending summers in Montana on my mother's family's operating cattle ranch, gave me freedom and a wide horizon line with a sense I could make a difference. Super 8 shorts in college lead to working as production coordinator on "The Music Masters", a documentary profiling conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, shown in 60 PBS markets. After that, I wrote and produced the successful short "This Old Church", which helped save the second oldest landmark in Chicago, garnering a National Trust for Historic Preservation Award.

 Then came several shorts for the Chicago Transit Authority: "A Day in the life of the CTA", to raise funds for transportation, and "Make the Change", which touted the value of graffiti mural art versus tagging. The City of Chicago-Kathy Osterman Award for Superior Public Service and an American Public Transit Association Grand award followed.  The young graffiti artists I met while organizing the annual mural contests eventually informed the film "Sketches".  Later I was approached by the Canal Corridor Association to tell the story of the building of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Much of my research became a part of “Prairie Tides” and was embraced by audiences and educators alike, as well as by professionals at the Newberry Library and the Chicago Historical Society.  

In addition to my current board affiliations at Hi-Artsnyc and Shotgun Productions/Global Arts Initiative in New York City, I've served on the Goodman Theatre Discovery Board, the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois Humanities Council Boards, Artistic Circles and Friends of the Chicago River Board. Currently associate producer at Lang Entertainment Group and investor in Broadway and Beyond Theatricals.  In 2004 I was one of the founding producers of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), which emerged as a force for the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals like “title of show” and “Next to Normal” that transferred to Broadway.