My career has been in education, research and planning in the criminal justice field.  I spent the first part of my life in Pittsburgh, and have enjoyed living and working in Toronto for many years.  I began my writing career after an early retirement from public service. My inspiration for writing my first novel, The Unveiling, came from the stories my mother and grandmother shared with me when I was a child. They recounted what life was like in a shtetl in Easern Europe, the attacks their community endured during the Russian revolution, and their dangerous escape to America. I always found it amazing that they survived and vowed that some day I would write about their experiences. The book's focus is not only on their struggles to survive and build a new life, but also on the destructive weight of family secrets and the liberation that comes from revealing the truth. My second novel, Shred of Evidence, follows a young woman's journey as she seeks the truth about her husband's shocking suicide. Her quest leads her to details of the CIA's secret MKUltra program that subjected unsuspecting citizens to mind control experiments without their consent or knowledge of the risks. These experiments began as World War II was ending and continued until the 1960s as the United States feared the spread of communism. I have dedicated this book to the many individuals and their families who suffered because they were subjects of these experiments, and to those researchers and journalists who  worked so hard to uncover the truth. When I am not writing, I enjoy the lively arts scene and cultural diversity of Toronto as well as the warmth and beauty of Florida in the winter. I have been blessed with a wonderful daughter and son. For the past several years I have been dividing my time doing private research consulting, writing, actively participating in the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the University of Toronto, and serving on the Boards of my neighborhood association and waterfront condominium in downtown Toronto.    

I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and an MSW from the University of Pittsburgh. I am a past president of the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the University of Toronto.