Author

SKILLS

  • Proven ability to research and translate complex subjects and ideas into lively, clear prose, customized to reach target audiences.
  • Seasoned team player who honors time, budget and marketing constraints.

BOOK PUBLICATIONS

A VISION OF HOPE: The 200-Year History of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary 1820-2020 (New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 2020).

THE VILLAGE I KNEW: My Life as an Anthropologist in a Mayan Mam Community (eventually).

A CLEAR VISION: The History of the Doheny Eye Institute 1947 – 2017 (Doheny Eye Institute, 2017).

BY THE COMMUNITY, FOR THE COMMUNITY: Presbyterian InterCommunity Hospital - The First 50 Years (Presbyterian Intercommunity Regional Health Center, 2008).

AND BE A BLESSING: The One-Hundred Year History of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 1902-2002 (Cedars-Sinai Health System, 2003).

CREATIVE WEDDINGS: An Up-to-Date Guide For Making Your Wedding as Unique as You Are (Plume-Penguin USA, 1994). Co-authored with Laura Golden Bellotti.

YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE: An Intimate Look At First Marriages After 40, (Dutton-New America Library, 1992). Co-authored with Laura Golden Bellotti.

THE WIFE-IN-LAW TRAP (Pocket Books, 1990). Ann Cryster, author. Co-ghostwritten with Laura Golden Bellotti.

MEDIA APPEARANCES

National TV appearances as a featured guest author on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Donahue, Jenny Jones, Sonya Friedman, CNN, among others, and extensive talk radio, live audience and newspaper interview experience in tandem with multi-city book promotion tours.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Cedars-Sinai Health System (Los Angeles, CA.)
Responsible for annual reports, executive speeches, support group communiqués, and institutional brochures.

Getty Information Institute, J. Paul Getty Trust (Los Angeles, CA.)
Responsible for synthesizing and interpreting the Institute's activities in collaboration with its director and senior staff. Authored diverse documents: executive speeches, internal reports, and publications, etc. Designed and implemented tracking procedures for document production and revision.

The Paper Tigers, Inc. (Bannocockburn, IL.)
Collaborated with system designer in writing a high-level technical description of an inventory tracking system for international paper-brokering.

Portals House (Los Angeles, CA.)
Commissioned to research and write the forty-year history of Portals House, a non-profit agency benefiting the mentally disabled homeless. Responsible for writing grant proposals which secured $3 million in federal and city government funding.

Fratelli Branca, Sp.A. (Milan, Italy) & G.P. Carpano, Sp.A. (Turin, Italy)
Managed a three-product multi-city qualitative research effort in the United States to determine market potential for digestive bitters and vermouth products. Designed research protocols, moderated focus groups, analyzed data and authored recommendations to support planned export campaigns.

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Doctoral Research in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
National Institutes of Mental Health Doctoral Research Grant
University of California, Los Angeles

Archaeological Expedition to Central Peru
University of California, Berkeley

Colección Fotografica de Todos Santos Cuchumatán archived in:

  • Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de MesoAmérica (Antigua, Guatemala)
  • Museo Ixchel (Guatemala City, Guatemala)
  • Museo Balam (Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Huehuetenango)
  • Selected photographs reproduced in: Patricia B. Altman & Caroline D. West, eds. Threads of Identity: Maya Costume of the 1960s in Highland Guatemala (Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Regents of the University of California, 1992).

EDUCATION

University of California, Los Angeles
Advanced to Candidacy for Ph.D. in Anthropology
Harvard University
M.A. Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
B.A. Anthropology