Originally from the Chicago area, she has spent most of her adult life living in France, the UK and now Lugano, Switzerland. For over 20 years, she has been fortunate to call the wine world her work home. While working at the Université de Nice as an English lecturer, she changed career paths after participating in several tasting courses at Burgundy’s Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne. The inspirational experience led to a 4-month full-time professional course at the renowned Université du Vin de Suze-la-Rousse in France’s Rhône Valley, earning the diploma, “Sommelier Conseil”.

Over the past 15 years, she has sourced wines and exclusive labels from producers across all categories, focusing on classic wine regions of Europe, particularly France and Italy, as well as a number of New World countries. All the while, she was developing a vast network of contacts along the way. In addition, she has composed considerable amounts of marketing material. Outside of commercial projects, speaking and inspiring others about wine has been one of her most enjoyed activities. So over the years, she has organized and hosted wine tastings, dinners, tasting trips to wine regions, educational wine courses, and counts the WSET Educator certification amongst her credentials.

When time allows, she participates as a wine judge in such competitions as Decanter World Wine Awards, Bacchus International Wine Competition, and many more. After having completed additional professional tasting courses at University of California Davis and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, she embarked on the Master of Wine. After many years of hard work and study, she finished all elements of the program in 2014, following the successful completion of her dissertation of original research, “An Investigation of Whole Cluster Fermentation in Pinot Noir in the Côte d’Or.”