Writer, Historian, and Nonfiction Coach

I work with people who have lived long lives of thinking, researching, noticing, and gathering—and who are now asking a deceptively simple question:

What should I do with what I know?

Most of the people I work with don’t lack material or motivation. They have abundance. What they’re missing is orientation: a way to approach serious writing without overwhelm, urgency, or pressure to perform.

That’s the work I do.

How I Came to This Work

I’m a writer and historian by training. I received my PhD in history from the University of Maryland, College Park, and I’ve spent years immersed in archives, manuscripts, and the challenge of shaping complex research into work that can be read and held.

For over a decade, I served as editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, where I worked closely with scholars at every stage of the writing process—helping them clarify arguments, find structure, and stay oriented as their projects evolved.

Over time, I began to notice something: the hardest part of serious writing isn’t discipline or productivity. It’s knowing how to stay with complex material long enough to discover what it’s really trying to say.

What I Believe about Serious Writing

Research-driven writing is not linear. It changes you as you do it. It raises more questions than it answers.

Trying to force that kind of work into rigid systems or productivity frameworks usually backfires. What actually helps is a way of thinking that can hold uncertainty without losing direction.

My Work as a Writer

I’m the author of Crosshatch: Martha Schofield, the Forgotten Feminist (1839–1916) (Blackwater Press, 2025), which weaves archival research with personal narrative to explore feminism, race, and inheritance across generations.

I’m also the author of The Women’s Rights Movement since 1945 (Bloomsbury, 2022).

My writing and my coaching are driven by the same question: how do we make meaning from what we’ve inherited, studied, and lived?

How I Work with Clients

I work with research-driven writers who want to do serious, long-form work—often after a career shift, retirement, or a growing sense that it’s time to pursue something more personally meaningful.

This isn’t about hustle or speed. It’s about companionship, clarity, and sustained attention.

Through ongoing coaching and editorial support, I help clients

decide what work is worth doing
find a structure that fits the life they’re in now
approach writing without overwhelm or self-erasure

Most of my clients stay with me for a year or more. This work takes time—and that’s part of the point.

Speaking and Public Work

I speak on women’s history, research-driven writing, and the challenges of shaping long, complex projects. My work has appeared on C-SPAN, local NPR affiliates, and in the documentary Sisters in Freedom: The Daring Battle to End Slavery.

If you’re interested in inviting me to speak, you can get in touch here.