Finding a niche ....

As far back as she can remember, Alice has been fascinated with the study of communication. When she was twelve years old, she begged her parents to schedule family meetings around the kitchen table so that she and her four siblings could, as she reflects, "discuss important things."

Family meetings never caught on, but from those beginnings on her family's farm in southern Minnesota, Alice found her niche.

That niche, which might best be described as a student of communication dynamics, is a thread that has woven its way through the fabric of Alice's life.

Getting an education ....

Since her teenage years, Alice has had an interest in working with people in the health care profession. That interest prompted her to earn a degree in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

As Alice remembers, the first time she visited the state mental hospital in Faribault, Minnesota, with her high school's Future Nurses club, she knew she was suited to help people.

Exploring other cultures ....

In her mid-twenties, after working as an occupational therapist for several years, Alice and her husband decided to weave in another life-thread. That thread would take them traveling on many back roads of the world, exploring eighteen countries in Europe and North Africa.

From the memorable hours standing midst the colossal crowd at St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday at the Vatican to sleeping in a pup tent on the snow-covered tundra beneath the Lap Gap in northern Sweden, these fourteen months of travel shaped Alice's view of life.

Living through rough times ....

So too, did the fact that when she was thirty years old, Alice learned she had a potentially disabling health condition.

As the condition worsened, it tattered many life-threads, but it also wove in some new threads that Alice never dreamed possible.

Because of her disability, Alice got serious about writing. From her view point, writing is a creative endeavor that is only limited by knowledge and the imagination of one's mind.

Learning to write ....

Alice's first serious work as a writer was hardly a creative endeavor. Instead, the project was a tedious process of researching and writing informational documents about large animal confinement feedlot farms and creating fund-raising request letters.

With that feedlot writing experience, Alice decided to pursue an advanced degree in technical communication at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In her writing classes, Alice soon discovered that her gift for writing was her best kept communication secret. 

Reaping the rewards ....

In 2007, Alice graduated with a Master's degree in technical communication. She was named as one of seven outstanding students in the fall graduating class of over 800 students.

As one of Alice's technical communication professors said, “[Alice] has always shown academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, and superior research and writing skills; but more than that, she has been our teacher by demonstrating that all perspectives are important. She has accomplished this by her good humor, her advocacy, and by her compassion and understanding."

Enjoying life ....

Besides writing and editing, Alice enjoys traveling, nature, long walks, gluten-free cooking (and eating), landscaping, history, her family and, of course, communication!

Alice is a freelance writer and editor based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

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