about me

hiya! wondering who I am and how I got to this point? here’s the skinny.

I grew up in the small town of Greene, NY, where I spent my days exploring the woods and dreaming up elaborate projects.

When I was 10 years old, I circled all the things I needed in the Sears catalog to start my own business from my bedroom (see-through telephone, fax machine, the works). A few years later, I started to think about selling paper snowflakes (a dream that took about 20 years to manifest). I had the entrepreneurship bug early, but I didn’t know that word yet or what to do with my creative inspirations.

I went to Ithaca College and fell in love with waterfalls, design, and a handsome guy from New Hampshire.  After changing my mind a few times, I chose the major that had the most words I liked in the title: Organizational Communication, Learning & Design.  I followed that up with a master’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  I moved to NYC and paid my bills by freelancing nights & weekends. I had the opportunity to dig into the code of dozens of websites written by at least as many coders, which was an education in itself.

Worried that I was developing a hunchback from nights of coding (not to mention the classic short fuse of an over-stressed New Yorker), I re-discovered yoga and fell in love with that too.  I completed my 200- and 300-Hour teacher trainings at ISHTA Yoga in NYC with Yogiraj Alan Finger, and it transformed my life, my relationships and my work.

In the midst of my 300-Hour teacher training, I met another teacher who changed my life: my son, Liam.  His sister, Maisey, joined our family a couple years later. They are the funniest, weirdest, most inspiring little people.  If you haven’t met them yet, you really should! They’re the best.

I now spend my days in Ithaca exploring the state parks and dreaming up elaborate projects. I run my own graphic/web design business, I sell paper snowflakes, and 10-year-old Mariellen would be so proud. Now I just need to get my hands on a see-through phone………