Experience

Hopeworks Camden

• United States
• Education Administration Programs
• 1 - 100 Employee

• College Success Coach

  • Nov 2020 - Present

  As Hopework's only College Success Coach, it is my job to help the young professionals who attend our program choose a college, apply, apply for financial aid, and meet the college's other requirements for entry. I administer several scholarship programs, coach the college students on a weekly basis, and intervene with their tutor, professor, or department dean, as necessary. In my first 18 months at Hopeworks, the course pass rate rose from somewhere around 70% to 82%. I attribute that to my "superpower:" Helping young people figure out which career paths light them up, and making sure they know how relevant their current courses are to their future success.



Two Cats & A Fish Book Development & Coaching

• Proprietor

  • Jan 1999 - Present

  As Chief Creative at "Two Cats and a Fish Book Development & Coaching," I make it my business to help you choose the right audience, and the right approach to that audience so you can achieve your publishing objectives. I strive to help you express your own creative best, your highest vision for the work. And I help you connect directly with the publisher, or find an agent with suitable experience in the type of book you want to do. One recent book I developed, "BabyBod" by Marianne Ryan, PT, won the Parent's Choice Award. Berkley Books also purchased--and published as is--Dick Duff's book on retirement planning. When I craft book proposals, I bring to the work all I learned during the five years I served as a Senior Acquisitions Editor for Running Press Book Publishers, where I was part of the exec team that voted on which manuscripts to buy and which to pass up. I learned then what attracts a publisher, and what makes rejection a near certainty.



Townsend Press

• United States
• Book and Periodical Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Education Mentor/Program Coordinator --Langan-Nadell Scholarship

  • Jan 2008 - Oct 2020

  Working as the "Vision Former" for John Langan and Dr. Judy Nadell's desire to become a "good neighbor" to the deserving children of Camden, NJ, I built from the ground up a scholarship enrichment program that included tutoring, emotional support; college, financial aid/scholarship, and career counseling, and ultimately, salary negotiation coaching for that first post-college professional job. In this role, I mentored over 60 gifted high school students who were chosen from among Camden's parochial school students for a four-year scholarship. Within that group, one went on to win the NATIONAL Mock Trial competition for Rutgers Camden (beating out competitors from affluent schools; another went on to the NYU Stern School of Business and has become a well-paid information architect; and four went on to graduate school. Of those four, one has earned an MBA; another is in the process; another is a licensed occupational therapist; and the fourth will soon have her MFA from NYU. Five are working nurses, and were on the front lines during the Pandemic. One student, who was born to teenagers addicted to crack, went on to become the first recipient of the Lew Katz Memorial Scholarship, which provides a "full ride" to Temple University.