A graduate of Smith College, she was also the first female member of Local #1, the stagehands’ union in New York. She graduated from National College of Chiropractic in Lombard, Illinois, in 1993, and opened her practice in 1995. After being diagnosed with endometrioid adenocarcinoma in December 2002, she decided to forgo the hysterectomy that was offered and figure it out on her own, with the able assistance of her acupuncturist, Jenny Fairservis. She is still practicing chiropractic and has written a book, Healing Cancer Peacefully: A Memoir, describing her journey, the principles behind her healing, and the specific herbs and other remedies she used and their effects. She used no allopathic medicine except for diagnosis and spent almost nothing on her therapy. Healing Cancer Peacefully is available on healingcancerbook.com.