I write about stepping into the unknown and being changed by it.

I grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the three secret cities that produced the first atomic bomb. I earned a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of Tennessee and a master’s in Counselor Education from the University of Alabama. I’ve worked as a therapist at a state psychiatric hospital, exhibited my photography across the country, and taught English as a Second Language to adults. The pivotal experience of my life, however, was serving in the Peace Corps as a community organizer in The Gambia, a small country in West Africa. While working on my memoir of these transformative years, I was granted several residences at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with my husband, whom I met and married in The Gambia.