About Me

I’ll start with the basics. I live in a community on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon with my husband and three children. I grew up here but spent eighteen years in the San Francisco area where I attended college and ended up staying for many years beyond graduation. I returned to Oregon in 1994 and enjoy life here in the Pacific Northwest.

I have my Masters degree in education from San Francisco State University. After graduating, I became an Instructional Designer and designed training programs for Fortune 500 companies. I freelanced on my own for a short time and then was offered a position at a company where I built a department of writers and instructional designers that developed training programs utilizing multimedia, classroom, online / web-based media, and video. During the process of building and managing this group of people, I discovered my love of coaching. I learned that the part of my job I enjoyed the most was coaching my employees to achieve both personal and professional goals.

It was my experience in this high level management position that gave me the desire and the confidence to get my coaching certification and start my own coaching business. I obtained my coaching certification from the ICF (International Coach Federation) accredited institution, The Centre For Coach Training.

I have been involved in a variety of businesses in the course of my life, and can relate to the desire for wanting to find the “one that fits”. I was involved in the book business for several years, the art business, I designed and manufactured a line of women’s apparel under my own label, and I worked in corporate sales.

The more personal info . . . if you really want to know more . . .

I have three terrific children, all teenagers now. My oldest are boy / girl twins. Their younger brother is famous for being in the Guinness Book of World Records for balancing spoons on his face (no kidding).

Here's my daughter and I at the beach in December on a trip to L.A. that I chaperoned for her high school marketing class. >

< Here's her twin brother.

I have to say, my kids are truly the delight of my life. Don't get me started, I could brag for hours - they are the BEST a parent could ask for. Awesome people.

I play in a marimba band called Zimba! Most of the music we play is from the Shona people of Zimbabwe. We have our second CD coming out sometime this Spring 2007.

Here I am on the right performing at a summer event. >

You can check out our band's website at zimbamarimba.com. It’s a lot of fun and we play gigs mostly throughout the spring and summer months.

I’m an avid reader – more non-fiction than fiction. But I belong to a book club that keeps me motivated to read fiction each month. Plus once a month I get to eat someone else’s food (great desserts) and talk about the book – which we actually do!

I am a runner. Just for the exercise, not competitively. I love to go out running in the early morning when the world is just waking up. I enjoy experiencing the different personalities of the changing seasons and getting a start on my day by being outside. I've also been know to do some art-making in my time - painting mostly.

	< This is a photo of my husband and I with our twin teenagers who were dressed up for the prom last spring.
Every year my daughter and I run in The Race for the Cure as a way to remember and honor her grandmother Eve who we lost to breast cancer several years ago. Here we are at last year's race - a little blurry-eyed (it was early!). >

Hopefully, that gives you some insight about me. Maybe one of these days when I feel really ambitious, I'll start a personal blog that I'll keep updated. Till then, I hope this brief description gives you some sense of me and if working together might be a good fit. Feel free to call me at (503) 372-5097 or email me if you have questions or are interested in seeing if we could work together.