Thank you for visiting my web site, Moving Forward Newsletter. The goal of this newsletter is to be your long-term source of information for a host of topics having to do with your teenager’s life leading up to college.

During my 20 years of experience in higher education, I realized I had a talent for helping anxious families navigate the college admission/financial aid process which can best be described as part obstacle course, part scavenger hunt and part survival of the fittest (a.k.a. communicating with your teenager). I could help even the most perplexed families understand the foreign language of financial aid acronyms and alphabet soup. I could quell the yellers and calm the criers. I could make shy or humble teens realize something they did made them unique and interesting. I helped people become better consumers, advocates, and investors, and I loved (almost) every minute of it.

Today I continue to derive great pleasure from helping families understand the increasingly complicated higher education landscape. I aim to help students find colleges that are places where they can grow and flourish. This newsletter allows me to share this information to a wider audience using my professional experience, sense of humor, and power of the pen (err, keyboard). My own personal learning curve took place in the admission offices at Union College (NY) and Hartwick College (NY) and as the Director of Financial Aid at Lebanon Valley College (PA). I also worked for The College Board before beginning my own college counseling practice.

I graduated summa cum laude from Albright College (Pa) and earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Higher Education Administration (where one of my most difficult tasks was getting my own student loan processed!). I have volunteered at various college admission and financial aid programs and at the USA Today Admission and Financial Aid Hotline. I love writing and teaching students about the writing process. I am married and the mother of two children who I hope will someday acknowledge my skill in this field when it’s their turn for college!