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 in English Literature from COLUMBIA. 

Feeling foggy about "what's next" after Columbia but loving NYC, Anne picked up a discarded copy of 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 -- reader and writer -- 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 hearts and igniting action. 

Stayinig in the Big Apple, Anne landed her first job at VOGUE as the Assistant to the Editor in Chief Anna Wintour (yes, the fashion world icon made famous in the movie The Devil Wears Prada). 

"Working at VOGUE was a gift. Seeing a super powerful woman in action -- unapologetically running an empire -- ignited a fire in me." 

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. 

Next, Anne was hired as 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 media appearance on NBC's The Today Show. 

Feeling a bit "stuck in print" media, Anne jumped at the chance to go 100% digital and move to Europe.

Recruited to London (!!!), Anne became the Group Publishing Director of AOL in the UK, overseeing 500 million page impressions a month, leading all content, community and commerce, including during the global shock of 9/11 when AOL's 24/7 news and vast community network served as a vital forum connecting people 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 the USA, landing in 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 became a global brand. 

Based on that success, 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. 

Recruited 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 cutting edge research on the little known effects of too much sugar (and how sneaky sugars were creeping into people's foods), Anne exposed "sugarjacking" to millions of readers, TV and radio audiences. Also, Anne's team developed a successful program for losing weight while still enjoying the sweets you love.  

WATCH VIDEO CLIP 

Suddenly downsized by corporate change, 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 the 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 plenty of amazing career highs, there were deep lows. 

At the pinnacle of her career, Anne's life collapsed. The rules she'd lived by - work hard, get results, overdeliver, be nice, serve others - nothing kept her safe. Car crash, job lost, divorcing her husband of 20+ years, single-parenting three kids Anne experienced her own dark nights of the soul. 

In 2016, she started SOULCANDY as a way to explore the deeper landscape of how women erase themselves in people-pleasing and busyness, 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 to their own inner desires and cultivate with their own authentic power.

She started writing SOULCANDY on Substack, described by a reader as "a warm hug to your soul."  💗

In 2020, Anne left Mindful to dive deep into spirituality. 

She attended All Faiths Seminary International studying the intersection of science and spirituality and the process of spiritual awakening. 

In 2022, Anne was ordained as an interfaith minister, NOT to preach religious dogma. 

"Spirituality is about opening up, it's expressing the unique combination of individual Self and divine Soul that you have deep inside of you. And it's learning to bring that forth by co-collaborating with this extraordinary, magnificent participatory universe we live in, whether you call that co-creating with Spirit or science."

"My hope to welcome anyone who may be spiritually curious, encouraging you to explore the full dimensions of who you are, helping to find answers to questions like What's my purpose? Why am I here? and helping people put those answers into action. 

"Make it real. Don't just ponder the possibilities. Live them." 

Ever the pragmatist, "Anne with a Plan" loves to do what she calls "practicalize" ancient teachings, making them accessible and actionable.  

"I'm less into navel-gazing, and more into learning how to identify and actualize the deepest longings of your own heart."

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

"So let's get going. Let's run!"

Whew!

Whether leading, speaking, mentoring, teaching yoga, writing, podcasting, Anne is – at heart – about encouraging you to dig deep and express your self. 

Live the way the sages say...

Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths. 

-- Rumi 

Let's get going.

💗