a woman of depth

Anne grew up knowing she wanted more.  (Jump to summary)

Class president, captain of the rowing team, Anne bolted out of Virginia with a college  scholarship to RUTGERS UNIVERSITY in New Jersey.  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and moved to New York City for a Master’s degree from COLUMBIA. 

Feeling foggy about "what's next" after graduate school, Anne found herself reading an article in a discarded Glamour magazine.

"I never read 'women's magazines'.'....and yet I felt like I was intimately communing with a writer. We were having a 'moment," across time and space. It was both bizarre and powerful."

That feeling of deep connection led to Anne pursuing a career in magazines and later,  to creating successful media brands around the world that inspire and motivate readers, listeners, by touching their heart and igniting action. 

Getting started in the Big Apple, she landed her first job at VOGUE as the Assistant to the Editor in Chief Anna Wintour (yes, that publishing powerhouse made famous in the movie The Devil Wears Prada). 

"Working at VOGUE was a gift. Seeing this super powerful woman ignited a fire in me." 

As a side-passion, wanting to explore her own voice in print, Anne wrote freelance articles and had her first articles published in THE NEW YORK TIMES (!!!)

Inspired by the women bosses at Conde Nast and the power of connecting with people via art, design, ideas and content, Anne set her sights on leading her own magazine. 

By age 29, she was Editor in Chief of NATURAL HEALTH, the biggest alternative health magazine in the United States, bringing in mind-body-spirit thought-leaders such as Dr Andrew Weil, Dr Christiane Northrup and Deepak Chopra to connect with hundreds of thousands of readers. 

From there, Anne was recruited to be Editor in Chief PREVENTION, leading the world’s largest women’s healthy lifestyle brand, expanding into online, TV, radio, video and internationally.

Inspired by listening to Prevention readers talk about their unmet needs, Anne wrote her first NYT bestseller, Win the Fat War, which was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She was also a frequent "talking head" on TV with a regular spot on NBC's The Today Show. 

Feeling a bit "stuck in print" and like she'd missed the big internet gold-rush, Anne jumped at the chance to go all-in on digital and move to Europe.

Recruited to London (!!!), Anne became the Group Publishing Director of AOL, overseeing 500 million page impressions a month, leading content, community and commerce for the UK start-up, including during the global shock of 9/11 when AOL's 24/7 news and vast community network served as a vital forum for people to connect and communicate with each other around the world. 

Next, Anne moved to Warsaw, Poland, and became the in-house Creative Director of EDIPRESSE collaborating with content and design teams in Poland, Ukraine and Russia to launch some of the biggest media brands in magazines and websites in Eastern Europe. 

Returning to Washington, DC, Anne was hired to lead NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC books as SVP and Editorial Director. 

Crazy, right? 

First, she started at NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC as a consultant charged with creating the prototype for a new magazine about history and serving as the top editor for the premiere issue, overseeing the launch of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY. Described by a reviewer for The Historical Society as  "the best magazine I ever opened," NG HISTORY is now global brand. 

Based on the success of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY, Anne was asked to lead the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC book division as Senior Vice President, working with world-class scientists, historians, and experts around the world. As luck would have it, this was also National Geographic's 125th anniversary. 

Next, recruited from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, back to her roots at Rodale as SVP and Editorial Director of PREVENTION, Anne wrote her second NYT bestseller, The Sugar Smart Diet. Inspired by new research on the effects of too much sugar and how sneaky sugars were creeping into people's foods, Anne exposed "sugarjacking" and shared how reclaim your love of sweets and enjoy sugar where and when you want. 

WATCH VIDEO CLIP 

Suddenly downsized as Rodale was sold to Hearst, Anne launched her own consulting company Brand Strategies, Inc and started doing launch development and consulting with mass market consumer brands. She was honored to consult for National Geographic, AARP and Healthy Directions. She was also invited to serve as an Adjunct Professor at Penn State University and keynoting talks on branding and women & leadership. 

Hired as Content Director for MINDFUL.ORG and MINDFUL MAGAZINE, Anne was thrilled to be exploring mind-body healing, through th lens of mindfulness and meditation. And as someone who has been practicing yoga daily and meditating for DECADES, Anne loved working with the best of the best, world-class scientists, meditation, mindfulness experts Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, Tara Brach, Jenee Johnson, Shelly Tygielski and more.

To increase awareness about mindfulness with a wider audience, Anne hosted a Women of the Mindfulness Movement live event with 1000+ women, interviewed top experts for conferences, led online meditations during COVID and hosted events on social media, including a live Twitter chat with neuroscientist Dr Amishi Jha, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and US Army Lt General Walter Piatt, advocate for mindfulness in the military. 

Along with all of these amazing career highs , there were some very deep lows. At age 50, the pinnacle of her career, Anne's life exploded. All of the rules she'd lived by - work hard, get results, overdeliver, be nice, serve others - blew up in her face. Suddenly downsized, divorcing her husband of 20+ years, single-parenting three kids brought on her own dark nights of the soul. 

In 2016, she started SOULCANDY as a way to explore the deeper landscape of busyness and how women erase themselves from their own lives, finding an audience of 33K  followers on Facebook. 

In 2019, she began the SOULCANDY podcast and developed the SOUL PRACTICE to help listeners explore their own inner landscape, listen deeply and move forward with their own authentic power.   

Now, launching SOULCANDY, a new multimedia newsletter, Anne is creating a place to explore unleashing your greatest potential. Because, she firmly believes, you have more inside -- beautiful potential that often gets buried in the busyness.

In the drive to serve others, be nice, work hard, and overdeliver, we under-deliver for ourselves. So, subscribe, and go deep. Explore your own more inside with delicious wisdom, practical and profound self-empowerment tools and practices. 

In 2020, Anne left Mindful to pursue a deep interest in spirituality. She attended All Faiths Seminary International, in New York, studying the intersection of science and spirituality and the process of spiritual awakening. In August 2022,  Anne was ordained as an interfaith minister.   

Anne's goal is NOT to preach religious dogma: "Spirituality is about opening up, not shutting down."

"My hope to create a warm Welcome Mat for anyone who may be spiritually curious, encouraging people to explore the full dimensions of who they are, wonder about things like, What's my purpose? Is there more than getting a bunch of stuff (job, kids etc) and then dying?  What's the deal with this God-thing? These are great questions! People have mulled them over for centuries so it's fascinating to lean in, explore and experience the deepest longings of your own heart."

"I've been on this path for years, studying the "BODY" and the "MIND" and I love going deeper into "SPIRIT." 

As the poet Rumi says: Your heart knows the way, run in that direction!

How cool is that?

Inspiring. Successful. Passionate about Science & Spirituality. A Yogi. Even a minister. 

Whether leading, speaking, mentoring, teaching yoga or sharing her SOUL practice, Anne is – at heart – about encouraging people to dig deep inside and be bold in following their heart. 

"At this point, I've read 1000s of books and articles on self-help, led the largest women's health brand in the world, directed National Geographic, been at the forefront of neuroscience, meditation, mindfulness and studied spirituality and ancient wisdom traditions......and lived a complicated life with awesome highs and seriously dark lows. 

According to ancient Chinese wisdom, I'm a Water, meaning a "Survivor and Sage." 

I have a wealth BODY, MIND, SPIRIT wisdom and experience and I LOVE sharing, encouraging and empowering. people, especially those who shy away from things like meditation, mindfulness, spiritually.. It's so much simpler than people make it out to be -- and so much more practical and rewarding. 

And, of course, so typical for me: I've boiled this intel down to the three most important daily practices -- 3 simple rituals so you -- anyone, everyone -- can GET GOING, get unstuck and create your own extraordinary, unique, authentically-your-own life that YOU love." 

As a single parent of three extraordinary humans,  Anne "wakes up" every morning with her simple 3-step ritual, enjoys traveling, teaching and volunteering around the world, and LOVES chatting with anyone who wants to wake up, explore their own deep knowing, unleash their potential and lead an extraordinary life. 

So glad you're here. 

💗