Professional Profile
(Updated: May 4, 2007)

  • Extensive experience with niche markets in diverse fields: indigenous arts, publishing, tourism, specialty coffees and foods.

  • 28 years as a free-lance writer and public speaker serving and promoting culturally diverse peoples

  • Ability to convey complex information to non-specialists; multilingual communications skills

  • Facilitator of cross-cultural cooperation. Capacity to energize and motivate groups and individuals while helping them solve problems.

  • Commitment to dialogue and activism in support of worldwide biological and social diversity.

  • Collaboration with local and international non-profit and non-governmental organizations.
Professional Accomplishments

  • MAY 1999: FIRST-PRIZE WINNER for "Sustainable Agricultural Practices". An SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Award for design of a coffee-based mutual fund to provide credit to small-holder coffee farmers and their communities.

1971-99 Writing, Editing, and Lecturing

  • A variety of reviews, articles, and photography on fine & folk arts, horticulture, food history, and travel for these and other publications: Antiques—Arab Perspectives—The Christian Science Monitor—Garden Design—Gourmet—Hali (The International Journal of Carpets & Textiles)—Journal of Gastronomy—Los Angeles Times—Mediterraneans.

  • Assorted proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food & Cookery; International Food Congress (Istanbul).

  • 1990: Wrote the “Islamic Art” curriculum guide for New York State high school teachers.

  • 1993: Author of Turkish Tapestry, A Traveller’s Portrait of Turkey; Bosphorus Books

  • 1994: Wrote the Istanbul chapter in Culinary Cultures of the Middle East; I.B. Tauris (London)

  • 1996: Wrote the historical introduction to Istanbul for Istanbul: The Hali Rug Guide (London)

  • 1992-99: PUBLISHING & importing multicultural titles; proprietor of Bosphorus Books.

    Ongoing: Frequent talks and slide presentations on the social and natural environments, arts, & cuisines of Asia and the Mediterranean for both academic and non-academic audiences (Programs for the Smithsonian Institution, Christie's, University of London, U.S. Navy, Whole Foods Markets, and other organizations.)

Specialty Promotions, Indigenous Arts— Research, Marketing, and Design

  • 1970-74: Product design & procurement of Asian crafts for Primitive Artisan (importer of crafts from developing nations).

  • 1972-87: Owner of retail shops dealing in antique and contemporary crafts, carpets and textiles.

  • 1974-77: Crafts marketing advisor for the Development Foundation of Turkey, an NGO focusing on rural development;   Conception and set-up of DFT’s non-profit retail crafts shop in Ankara, Turkey.

  • 1979: Commission from the American Museum of Natural History (New York) to collect and document ethnographia in the Sultanate of Oman. (Artifacts collected are on permanent display in the Museum’s Hall of Asian Peoples.);  Study and documentation of the date-palm in pre-industrial Middle Eastern societies.

    1992-99: Pre- & post-project assessments (including environmental impact issues), skills transferals, and/or written proposals for craft preservation, sustainable production, & micro-enterprise development in  -- Hungary for International Executive Service Corps (IESC)  -- Bahrain for Bahrain Ministry of Labour & US Information Agency  -- Kenya, Jamaica, Haiti & Morocco for IESC  -- Uganda: Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA) and National Association of Women’s Organizations of Uganda (NAWOU)  -- Haiti (native coffee & crafts exports) Institut Interaméricain de Coopération pour l’Agriculture (IICA)  -- Bolivia (indigenous textiles) Domestic marketing advice and museum development for Antropologos del Surandino (ASUR); project facilitated by ACDI-VOCA

  • 1973 and Ongoing: TRAVEL CONSULTING - Coordinator & leader of cultural travel experiences in the Mideast, Mediterranean,& India for museums, alumni groups, & individuals. Specialty: tours of rural and urban Turkey

  • 1995-97: LANDSCAPE DESIGN - Comprehensive green-spaces revitalization proposal for Kampala, Uganda.

  • 1984 and Ongoing: Private residential landscape plans in the UK, Portugal, US, and India.

Skills

  • Photography: 35 mm SLR camera (to illustrate my lectures, published articles, & reports)

  • IBM-PC literacy

  • Technical proficiency in drawing, embroidery, weaving & other applied arts

  • Landscape design for temperate and tropical settings; compatible horticulture

  • Multicultural cooking and food-styling

  • Languages (in order of proficiency): English (mother-tongue), French, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Italian; knowledge of other Central Asiatic (Turkic) languages and Latin; familiarity with Hungarian, Persian, and Kurdish; ESL (teaching English as a Second Language); willingness to learn new languages

Foreign Residence & Travel

  • Periods of residence in Turkey, Portugal, Uganda, and India (on a coffee plantation)

  • Extensive travel in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Mexico.

Education

  • 1990: Modern Standard Arabic (total immersion language course) Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT

  • 1977-78: Courses in Arabic literature & language The Middle East Institute, Washington, DC

  • 1972: French language; L’Alliance Française; Paris, France

  • 1971: B.A., High Honors - History & Literature, Charter Oak State College (Connecticut)

  • Graduate of Miss Porter’s School; Farmington, CT

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