All About Alison (who loves alliteration)

I grew up the second of four children with a mother who would always rather read than cook. I took that lesson to heart early on and was regularly lost in a book growing up. When my son Conor was born, I discovered just how many hours a day could be spent reading, and re-reading, every book on our shelves. And I fell in love with children’s books - the stories, the rhyme, the illustrations - all of it. When we moved back to Indiana, I started writing children’s books, which is much harder but almost as much fun as reading them. I’ve written everything from rhyming picture books to several chapters of a YA novel and I hope someday you’ll see all of them in print.

My roles as a mom, an elementary gifted & talented resource teacher and college advisor all inform the writing I do in a variety of formats. After quitting my day job and spending the first half of the pandemic doing some deep soul-searching, I discovered that my “why” is really about helping children of all ages develop a strong growth mindset so that they always believe in themselves and are confident decision makers who follow their hearts, guts and curiosity into a truly fulfilling life! So far those efforts include:

  • a chapter book, Ready, Regan? which introduces children in Grades K-3 to the growth mindset using a tangible toolkit

  • a brand new picture book, Ray & Kay Decide What to Play: A Move With Muffet Book, which is a collaboration with Notre Dame’s championship basketball coach Muffet McGraw. Its goal is to get your 2-6 year old excited about PLAYing team sports.

  • and The Open Book Test Podcast, on which I interview some of my favorite college graduates about their journeys into, through, and out of the Mendoza College of Business where I advised undergraduates for eleven years.


Brian and I, along with my writing and podcasting, got a nice bit of press in the MARCH 2021 issue of SOUTH BEND LIVING MAGAZINE! This wasn’t what I had in mind when I dreamed of being a cover girl as a teenager, but any press is good press!