I am an award-winning author, humorist, breast cancer prevention advocate and mom of four. My reluctantly inspirational memoir Nearly Departed: Adventures in Loss, Cancer, and Other Inconveniences has been described by comedians Iliza Shelsinger and Sarah Cooper as laugh out loud funny and heartbreakingly hilarious. I mention those comedic endorsements because the book is about losing both my parents to cancer, trying not to get cancer myself, then getting it anyway and if I led with that description, you might have made that face people make when I summarize my story and struggled to believe you'd find any laughter in reading it. 

My work includes the widely shared McSweeney’s piece “An Open Letter to Tiffany & Co. About Their Advertising Campaign for the Ring That Helps Women Remember They Survived Cancer.” I've also written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Today.com, Oprah Daily, AARP and more.  I speak to audiences across the US and in London about women’s health and empowerment through prevention as well as the importance of employing humor in challenging times. I’m a seventeen-year breast cancer previvor and survivor (not sure what a previvor is? Read my book!) and my “Feel It on the First” campaign uses tongue-in-cheek photo and video reminders to prioritize breast health. These monthly FEEL IT posts have directly led to earlier diagnoses and treatment for some very grateful women. They’re also the inspiration behind the name of my newsletter, Feelin' It where I unpack women's health, middle age probs, poignant human interactions and other things that make you, well, feel things. And always filtered through a humorous lens. 

I’m a Staten Island escapee and nice Jewish lady currently living in New York City and London. In case you’re not sure but too embarrassed to ask, my name is pronounced as it is in the classic Jewish banger “Hava-nagila” and not like the Gila Monster which is a lizard native to Arizona and whose venom led to the development of Ozempic. That is pronounced ‘hila’.