Born and raised in New York I was educated at excellent schools, and mentored by amazing people. I attended Hunter College High School; the same school that gave us Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and Pulitzer Prize winning, multi-talented Lin-Manuel Miranda. I then graduated from Hunter College, double majoring in Psychology and Art with a minor in Philosophy. I went on to earn my Masters and Doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology at Long Island University, where I was mentored by Dr. Gustav Gilbert, the examining psychologist at the Nuremberg War Trials and John Exner Jr, the world renowned expert in diagnostics. Afterwards, I interned at a Yale affiliated hospital in Connecticut where I eventually settled down to live and practice. I hold licenses in two states and multiple board certifications in Psychology and related areas. I have a Cine award for a teen suicide prevention movie project I worked on, and served as a Cine jury chairwoman for several years. I have written a number of well-received screenplays. But, this is my first book. The book cover for this project was designed by me from one of my own photos, and I continue to study painting under the wonderful David Dunlop...whose most recent TV series was funded via Kickstarter. In high school one of my writing teachers was the award winning author Richard Peck. My first writing teacher, the late Ned E. Hoopes, introduced me to the brilliant actor/writer/ bad-ass Richard Burton when I was fourteen: Richard was my first celebrity interview, and his Hamlet was my first theater review. He liked my writing and befriended me. He talked to me til his passing twenty years later. I am also a good friend, a decent gardener and talented name-dropper. Some people think I'm funny.