From Amazon.com
I help girls and women who don't know or appreciate their own worth discover their strengths and gifts, and inspire them to live THEIR lives and dreams.

My mission is to help girls and women overcome their sense of inadequacy, fear of rejection, self doubt and habits of self sabotage, and empower them with skills and tools so they can live the amazing lives they were born to live. I do this primarily through the Lucy Dakota series of books as well as workshops, coaching and lectures.

I grew up in the western suburbs of Denver at the foot of the mountains. Like Lucy, I was a chubby, rejected girl during my middle-school years and surprisingly enough, rarely, if ever, ventured forth into the nearby hills. My pleasures were derived from armchair and bed-top adventures achieved while reading my favorite novels.

Like Lucy, my life took a turn for the better when a group I was involved with in high school started introducing me to the mountains, rivers and wilderness areas of Colorado. At that time I discovered one of my lifelong passions, high-altitude trekking and mountaineering, which led to my first career as the owner of a multi-million-dollar adventure travel company. For the next 20 years, I orchestrated, conducted and led thousands of travelers through the mountains of Nepal and the wildernesses of South America. I spoke to dozens of audiences each year on the joys and beauty of traveling to remote areas of the world. Although I am no longer an international climber and mountain guide, I continues to hike and explore mountains around the world.

My love of learning and sincere desire to share with and help youth led to my second career as a classroom teacher. Even though I had taught hundreds of people the art of backcountry travel and wilderness trekking through my business, Southwind Adventures, and my volunteer activities with the Colorado Mountain Club, I returned to school for a master's degree in education and began teaching in both public and private schools. I experienced tremendous satisfaction and joy in teaching children in the classroom setting. It was at that point, however, while conducting a creative writing class for my students, that I decided to write about Lucy's adventures.