I hold a Master of Education in Counseling (M.Ed.) and am a Board Certified Chaplain (BCC). During my years at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, I supported patients, loved ones, and healthcare teams in intensive care units while developing programs in staff well-being and collaborating on research in critical care and spirituality.
 

My years in intensive care taught me that modern medicine has changed not only how we die, but how the people we love experience serious illness, difficult decisions, and grief. Those years continue to shape my work as an author, speaker, artist, and chaplain.
 

But my understanding of critical illness began long before I entered the hospital as a chaplain. When my husband, Lyon, spent six months in an intensive care unit, I found myself on the other side of the bedside—trying to understand ventilators, impossible medical decisions, hope, and heartbreak.
 

His illness changed the course of my life.
 

It led me back to the ICU, where I accompanied patients, loved ones, and healthcare teams through serious illness and end-of-life decision-making. I also developed staff well-being programs and collaborated on research in critical care and spirituality.

Over time, I came to understand that while modern medicine can prolong life in extraordinary ways, it also asks extraordinary things of the people who love the patient.
 

I am also a visual artist, and my artwork explores many of the same themes that shape my writing: love, loss, resilience, and the mystery of being human.

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