Shelli is a NJ native, and Rutgers alumni. She's been an ad agency copywriter working on big brands (Samsung, Volkswagen, TJ Maxx, Taco Bell, UPS, Jeep, Fox Sports); a producer and choreographer of live theater (Six Flags theme parks, and Isle of Capri Casinos); an event producer (Austin City Limits, Special Olympics, Google events, and celebrity comedy fundraisers at The Hollywood Improv).
She wrote and co-executive produced a pilot ("The Anea Show") for PBS, has sold and optioned features and TV pilots, as well as winning or placing in numerous screenplay competitions (Amazon Studios, Austin Film Fest, Second City, and Sundance Writer's Lab).
Her work with REALgirl empowerment programs led to starting a tampon company, TrueMoon, with educational outreach about the moon cycle. As founder and CEO, Shelli was invited to be a mentor in a transformational high security prison program.
Shelli has studied Taoism, Buddhism and other religions and philosophies. She is a traveler of over 32 countries, a free-range parent of two adult children, and a life learner.
>Katherine's work has always focused on helping people live their best, most creative lives. As Director of the Creativity Studies Lab and Chair of eleven departments in the Language Arts Division at West Los Angeles College, she launched the first Creativity Studies and Innovation certificate program at a community college in the State of California. She spearheaded the annual The Creative Edge Creativity Conference, a TED Talk-like event around creativity, now in its third year. She is author of The West Guide to Writing and several articles on the link between Creativity and Well-Being. Katherine has presented her work at the American Creativity Association, the League for Innovation, the Torrance Creativity Roundtable, the Knowledge, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Conference and at the Creativity Expert Exchange sponsored by the Center for Creativity Studies at SUNY, Buffalo where she is working on her MS in Creativity and Change Leadership. She is a creativity coach and principal of Make Lemonade Creativity Consulting and is developing The Creativity App.
Katherine earned her PhD from Harvard University and taught there for ten years as a lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies where she advised 350 students in making big life decisions. She left Harvard to become a staff writer on the television show Missing (Lifetime/Lionsgate) and The Haunting Hour, and recently optioned her original pilot The Virgins (about women and faith) to Sundance and Radar. She is head writer on a 52-episode television series, NYALA, for RTI in Cote d'Ivoire, Africa. While on hiatus, she created the MFA in Creative Writing at Mount Saint Mary's University. She was a Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic. She continues to blend writing and innovative teaching. She has lived and worked in Paris, the Czech Republic, Rome and London, has her motorcycle license, climbed the unrestored sections of the Great Wall of China, and summited Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Salkantay with her three children, Maximilien, Penelope, and Lily. She lives and writes in Los Angeles, California.