After graduating Summa Cum Laude and Departmental Scholar from SUNY Potsdam, I completed my Masters and Ph.D. in Sociology, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Theory, at Binghamton University. While my broader research interests focus on interpersonal and family relationships, women’s and family health, health activism, and parenting “differently,” I am currently researching and writing about prenatal and perinatal psychology and the biopsychosocial - as well as iatrogenic - contributions to maternal fear and stress during pregnancy, birth and early motherhood and their subsequent effect on the mother and infant/child’s mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health and well-being including, but not limited to, the impact on individual and family violence.
I am also an experienced and certified Birth Attendant, Doula, and Childbirth Educator and travel nationwide and internationally to conduct Childbirth Educator and Doula certification trainings for BirthWorks International. I am also a Prenatal and Perinatal Educator (PPNE) with The Association For Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH), serve as APPPAH's Co-Director of Education, and am a certified Reiki Master.
In addition to publishing several book chapters and multiple articles, I am on the Editorial Board for the Peace Studies Journal, served as the Managing Editor of the BirthWorks International Newsletter, and have done extensive editing work for several major publishers.
I have over 20 years of teaching experience at the university level in Human Development, Child and Family Studies, Sociology, Women's Studies, and Criminology.
I am also a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) which promotes principles of academic freedom, academic integrity, tenure, and due process in higher education. I am the Executive Director of the NYS AAUP, Chair the NYS AAUP Committee on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession, and was twice elected as the District 8 Representative on the National AAUP Council. I was awarded the 2010 Robert Maynard Hutchens Award by The Drake Group for my “courageous defense of academic integrity in collegiate sports.”
As a trained mediator I regularly conduct family, parenting, custody, visitation, and civil mediations in my community for Accord; A Center for Dispute Resolution. I am also a Certified Divorce Mediator.
After training and certifying in Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching, and undertaking extensive professional coach training through Mentor Coach, I founded It's Your Life Coaching and Consulting. My specialty areas are transitional and transformative life coaching and consulting for professional and personal empowerment and fulfillment as well as pregnancy/birth/postpartum, couples, parenting, and family coaching. For those that are interested in dissertation coaching, I also offer my services as The Dissertation Doula.
I am also an experienced and certified Birth Attendant, Doula, and Childbirth Educator and travel nationwide and internationally to conduct Childbirth Educator and Doula certification trainings for BirthWorks International. I am also a Prenatal and Perinatal Educator (PPNE) with The Association For Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH), serve as APPPAH's Co-Director of Education, and am a certified Reiki Master.
In addition to publishing several book chapters and multiple articles, I am on the Editorial Board for the Peace Studies Journal, served as the Managing Editor of the BirthWorks International Newsletter, and have done extensive editing work for several major publishers.
I have over 20 years of teaching experience at the university level in Human Development, Child and Family Studies, Sociology, Women's Studies, and Criminology.
I am also a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) which promotes principles of academic freedom, academic integrity, tenure, and due process in higher education. I am the Executive Director of the NYS AAUP, Chair the NYS AAUP Committee on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession, and was twice elected as the District 8 Representative on the National AAUP Council. I was awarded the 2010 Robert Maynard Hutchens Award by The Drake Group for my “courageous defense of academic integrity in collegiate sports.”
As a trained mediator I regularly conduct family, parenting, custody, visitation, and civil mediations in my community for Accord; A Center for Dispute Resolution. I am also a Certified Divorce Mediator.
After training and certifying in Quality of Life Therapy and Coaching, and undertaking extensive professional coach training through Mentor Coach, I founded It's Your Life Coaching and Consulting. My specialty areas are transitional and transformative life coaching and consulting for professional and personal empowerment and fulfillment as well as pregnancy/birth/postpartum, couples, parenting, and family coaching. For those that are interested in dissertation coaching, I also offer my services as The Dissertation Doula.
