Hi, it’s Lisa:

The idea for The Gift of Our Stories was first planted many years ago when I asked a family friend, a few decades older than I, if we could spend a weekend together so I could learn more about her long career as a women’s and civil rights advocate. Our conversations culminated in a written version of her oral history. When she passed, her son asked me to speak at the funeral, sharing that he had learned a great deal about his mother through my work. 

My deep curiosity about people’s stories was threaded throughout my thirty-year career as a consultant focused on women’s leadership and diversity. I listened to hundreds of stories about people’s lives, from CEOs to shift workers and from chemists to cooks. The stories were the favorite part of my work. 

I published an award-winning book in 2012 illuminating an approach to dual-earner parents sharing ownership of breadwinning and caregiving demands. In the stories of the couples I interviewed, I learned about their motivations, their strategies for navigating obstacles to gender equality while raising children, and the many benefits they experienced from fully sharing the joys and responsibilities of parenthood. 

After retiring from consulting, I trained with the Birren Institute in California to teach Guided Autobiography, an approach to writing stores of our lives that is manageable, supportive, and fun. I also began writing my own life stories, so I understand what turns the desire into reality. I would love to support you in capturing your unique stories.