Meet Ann

Glad to meet you! Thanks for exploring my site. Would you like to hear a bit about me?

I have been speaking out as a fem-evangelist since I gave my first speech back in high school. Odd, but true.

Thirty-some years later, after a long stretch as a women's studies professor, I am still devoted to the success and advancement of women. I escaped the ivory tower so that I can directly help women like you turn your ambitions into achievements. 

As a coach, I help women get clear about what they want and how to get it.

As a keynote speaker, I inspire and activate my audiences with real-life stories, cutting-edge research, and practical takeaways.

As an author, I show you how to find clarity, discover confidence, and live large. My six books include Clarity: How to Accomplish What Matters Most and Do-Over! How Women Are Reinventing Their Lives.

You'll find me featured in the national media: Family Circle magazine, ForbesWoman.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com, BusinessInsider.com, More.com, and Oprah & Friends' "Peter Walsh Show." I write the career coaching column for TheGlassHammer.com and guest blog for MariaShriver.com.

I am honored to serve on the panel of judges for the 2012 Talbots Scholarship Program, which grants $200,000 to women to reinvent themselves later in life through the power of higher education.

How did you get so clear?
I spent decades in rigorous professions -- journalism, scholarship, and teaching. But it started with my dad. I am the daughter of an engineer. I was raised on file folders.

What's the one best thing I could do to develop clarity?
Spend 15 minutes every day doing nothing. In that quiet space you can pay attention to what you're really thinking, feeling, and doing (not what you believe you should be thinking, feeling, and doing). From there you can begin to sort through your questions and issues.

What inspired you to write Clarity: How to Accomplish What Matters Most?
I've loved self-help books since high school, although that's nothing I ever admitted when I was a university professor! As a writer, I find self-help a fascinating genre, because it combines three very different discourses: narrative, theory, and how-to. With this book, I was especially interested in telling stories -- some of them even my own.

Your book is subtitled "How to Accomplish What Matters Most." What are you trying to accomplish?
I'm out to change the world. As a coach, I aim to unleash the power of women, one client at a time.

How does keynote speaking fit in?
Well, with speaking I can unleash the power of women hundreds of listeners at a time. (Patience has never been my strong suit.)