Your Horizon Coaching was born out of my desire to create a nourishing space where people can cultivate curiosity, find joy, create inner harmony, and feel inspired to create a fulfilling life. Online coaching provides a safe space for individuals committed to making positive changes in their lives. Through powerful questioning and conversation, I encourage clients to create and commit to actionable steps towards the life they want.
I am a certified Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessor and have my coaching qualifications through Erickson International’s Solutions Focused Coaching organization.
Thrilled to have been included in Gastronomica’s special issue on the future of food studies. Here I had a chance to talk about my work with Anna Tasca Lanza as the Program Director of our experiential food education program, Cook the Farm. You can find the PDF here, but being a lover of printed publications, I encourage you to subscribe to Gastronomica for some seriously interesting gastronomic content.
I currently serve as the Program Director for the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in rural Sicily. In addition to serving as a cultural liaison for our international guests, managing our overall communication strategy, and juggling logistics and operations, I organize the our winter Cook the Farm program that brings together international students to explore the Sicilian food landscape. Here all my true passions unite: good food, good company, cross-cultural communication and education.
I’m lucky enough to share a bit of myself and my heart with the online world. Holstee has always been a company that inspires me with their words, wisdom and signature manifesto. Three of my pieces (on compassion, wellness and resilience) can be found on their Mindful Matter blog.
Another piece from the heart (I did not choose that photo) is up on Rebelle Society.
From March 2016 to April 2017, I collaborated with Bulbo, a young Dutch-Italian design company producing carefully-crafted LED lights for effective and easy indoor gardening. I wrote or revised all content and copy for their current site and managed their communications and social media. I served as managing editor of (and serial contributor to) illuminate, an online journal dedicated to urban dwellers with a passion for plants and nature launched in fall of 2016.
During the summer of 2016, I was a contributing member to the Crowfooding blog where I wrote short profiles of food and beverage entrepreneurs who have launched successful crowdfunding campaigns in the UK. (No longer active as of 2020.)
From Fall of 2014 to Fall of 2015 I was part of a 24 person international Master's program in Food Culture and Communication at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. Our coursework focused on understanding gastronomy as a discipline and exploring the many ways in which food is represented around the world.
My essay from our Enogastronomical Communications course with The Atlantic's Senior Editor Corby Kummer was featured on the UNSIG website in May of 2015. An Ocean's Harvest talks oysters, family and island life.
In November of 2015 I returned to Pollenzo to defend my Master's Thesis. This short, cumulative reflection of my year at UNISG was inspired in part by three months working with The Future Food Institute in Bologna as well as my personal interest in mindfulness. Faced with the inevitability of technology's integration into our food systems, in my paper, I proposed using mindfulness as a tool to explore this so-called "Future of Food".
It's been a delight to contribute to Remedy Quarterly, a beautifully curated book-sized collection of food stories and accompanying recipes. In Volume 18 the article Faking Fresh and Finding Real Ricotta explores my personal discovery of not-quite-cheese making at home.
From September to December of 2015 I completed an internship with The Future Food Institute in Bologna as part of my Master's requirements at UNISG. I worked primarily in their communications department writing event roundups for their News site and supporting social media planning and implementation. I also helped research, organize and execute the Feeding Fair Hackathon. Post event, I wrote to communicate its success in bringing together over 180 people from almost 20 countries all in the name of exploring solutions to global malnutrition.
Through the Future Food Institute I was also invited to speak at a global event called The Feast, where I explored themes of desire and community in a short speech.
I continue to provide PR and translation support for their team.
For the 2013-2014 academic year I was fortunate to be a part of a very special school: Peabody Terrace Children's Center. The daycare/pre-school is operated by Harvard University and bases their curriculum and teaching methods on the Reggio approach. The school encourages a holistic view of education and highlights the importance of education through play, curiosity and exploration. In my toddler classroom of eight 3+ year olds I was encouraged to partake in project work, which meant exploring a consistent theme throughout the year on a weekly basis. I naturally chose to explore food. We were asked to reflect and document these interactions and experiences through visuals and texts. At the culmination of the school year I presented this book of documentation which outlines my experiences in filling children with wonder through food. Names and photos have been removed to respect the privacy of the families.
Know your farmer is a common refrain of the American sustainable food movement. But as my interest in good food blossomed I realized I didn’t just want to meet my farmer, I wanted to be my own farmer. In 2013 I spent Spring and Summer months apprenticing on an organic farm in Northeast Connecticut. It was an emotional, exhilarating and trying period where my understanding of food transformed from the linear to the infinitely complex. Food was no longer just food, it was life. For reflections on my time growing, sowing and eating take a look at the Farming tag in my Musings.
