Born in Chicago in 1956, I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Georgia State University in 1977. That same year I moved to Europe, later earning a Master’s degree in Adult Education from the Free University of Berlin, and a PhD from the Technical University of Berlin, where I occupied a 5-year teaching position from 1991 to 1996.

I began working as a trainer for conflict resolution in 1981 and as a mediator in 1990. Subsequently, I went on to design and implement dozens of professional and volunteer training courses and projects, and helped pioneer school and community mediation in Germany, as well as running a mediation center in Berlin from 1999 to 2008. As an avowed "pracademic", I have published widely in the fields of violence prevention, peace education, school mediation and, most recently, mediation in cross-border child abduction cases.

Long interested in expanding my work to a more international context, I began working as a consultant in the field of development cooperation in 2004, which has so far taken me to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Serbia, Kosovo and Russia. I currently focus on applying my intercultural communication skills to highly escalated conflict situations ranging from families and businesses to government bodies and NGOs. While English is my mother tongue, I speak and write German at mother tongue level.