when the school literary magazine published my poem “Spiderwebs,” an exploration of stimulus-reaction psychology in one tight verse (…”Once I saw one by the stream, when I saw it I began to scream”…) Nurturing my interests in both the written word and the complexities of the mind, I proceeded to study English at the University of Notre Dame, then attend medical school at McGill University. These pursuits combined to provide exposure to a world of fascinating conditions as well as the vocabulary with which to describe them. (Imagine what I could have done with “Spiderwebs” had I known the word “arachnophobia” when I was eight?) After four years in Montreal, I came home to New York City and completed a residency in Psychiatry at Cornell Medical Center followed by a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry at Cornell and Columbia. I currently practice in New York and, in case you are wondering, yes, my life is exactly like something out of the show Law and Order. 

Writing has continued around the edges of my career with publications in professional journals and some dabbling in fiction writing. The fiction-dabbling ramped up several notches in 2015 when I teamed up with my old med-school friend, orthopedic surgeon Graham Elder, to write The Epsilon Project, a series of books following five childhood friends dealing with the aftermath of a cataclysmic solar event. You could say we drew upon our specific areas of expertise to create a tension-filled, blood-streaked thriller of a story. (I really hope that someone, someday, says that.)

I live on Long Island with my wonderful husband and three amazing children. In my spare time, I can usually be found trotting around the neighborhood in running shoes, sautéing something on the stove, or sitting on my porch, glass of wine at my side, tapping on a keyboard while the sun sets or the rain falls.