After graduating from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Russian studies, I taught school for a couple of years and then spent two years at Rutgers, The State University, working on a degree in Modern European History. Instead of finishing my PhD, I got married, worked in a law firm and a museum (perhaps my most fun job, until now!), and then went back to school to get an MBA for the University of California at Berkeley (yes, I love studying and learning!). I worked for several years at Bank of America and then Shawmut (which has morphed into Bank of America). I fell into the study of creativity rather serendipitously. I can't remember how it started exactly, but around 1989 or 1990, my good friend Sally Shaver arranged for me to have a magical lunch conversation in Palo Alto, California with Jim Adams, the author of "Conceptual Blockbusting." After that, I somehow received an invitation to a conference on Humor and Creativity in Saratoga Springs, New York, and while there, learned about a doctoral program in creativity at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, not far from my then home in Hartford, Connecticut (yes, another degree!) That chain of events significantly altered the course of my life over the past 20 years. My interest in the subject of creativity has continued to evolve, as a result of academic study and research, further deepened by summers at the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, New York. It has grown into my life's work (after I left banking) as a result of my experiences consulting with individuals and organizations. My passion for this topic caused me to leave the (relative) safety and security of a professional career and set sail on the rough uncertain seas of independent consulting. My initial research in creativity involved interviews with many senior executives and has expanded to include the results and observations of my consulting practice, the workshops and classes I have facilitated, and conversations and interviews with many more individuals from all over the world. It has now been enriched by extensive study and practice in the work of Carl Jung and several years of research and writing around critical management challenges at Harvard Business School. It's now been over 11 years since the publication of "Breakthrough Creativity," and it's still available. Even more importantly, it's still very relevant. I love talking about the different ways we can be creative and am passionate about sharing my belief that we are all creative—just in different ways!