A little bit about me...I have my Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Social Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. The stress and challenges of grad school led me to meditation. Meditation and mindfulness have changed my life! So much so, I decided to take the teacher training and incorporate it into my research. I received my training through the UMASS Center for Mindfulness and became a Qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Instructor. If you would like to meditate with me, tune into my meditations here or find me on the Insight Timer app.​

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My research is focused on the impacts of mindfulness on communication; specifically, communication about sensitive topics such as aging, body image, and significant loss due to death.

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People often ask me what led me to study and teach about these "heavy" topics. First and foremost, I am passionate about connection, and the experiences that we all share.

Yes, some of these experiences can be challenging to talk about, and yet, talking about them can give us much-needed perspective and a sense of not being alone as we grapple with some of the biggies. For example: aging: If we are lucky, we will all experience aging and growing older and the joys and challenges of becoming an elder. Or, body image: we all have a container, how we relate to our container can cause a sense of suffering or celebration. And finally, death: a common denominator of being human. And yet, it is a topic that is often avoided and infrequently discussed. For these reasons and many more, I am committed to bringing light to challenging topics.