My greatest passion in life is my daughter, Gillian. When she was diagnosed with nonverbal autism at age 2, it became my mission to learn everything I could to understand how to best help her have an extraordinary life.  As it turns out, it was Gillian who taught me how to live an extraordinary life. 

Over the last 25 years she has been the driving force that has kept me focused on creating and developing programs for autism.  It is because of her, that I founded a school with a friend for Gillian and other children with autism ages 3 – 22. 

I’m incredibly proud of the work I did and the work that continues to ensure that the school lives on to be one one of the most respected nonpublic schools for autism in the Chicago area. Over my 20 years as the Executive Director, I was dedicated to creating programs at the school and it was my true passion project.

However, a serious, life threatening illness caused me to prematurely retire and step out of my life to focus on healing my body.  After nearly 19 months of rehabilitation, it’s time to get back to  my mission to create adult programming for Gillian and other adults with autism.

There are so many young adults, like Gillian, with nowhere to go after school ends at 22. There will be many adults with autism that will need housing and support after their aging parents are no longer able to care for them , including my own daughter.

I’m excited to be part of the solution and consult with parents, corporations, non-profits, hospitals, care facilities, private investors, government, and educators to create and develop programming for adults with autism. I continue to work every day to find ways for Gillian to have an extraordinary life and bring others along.