...a college class assignment led to Anita's emersion in Deaf culture, her proficiency in American Sign Language (ASL), and teaching at the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.

Using picture books in her classroom ignited a passion to write and illustrate books herself, so after a number of years, Anita left teaching to do just that.  To date, Anita has illustrated and/or written and illustrated more than two dozen books, which have  been recognized with honors from Parents’ Choice, the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and others. Many of Anita's manuscripts, dummies, sketches, and correspondences are archived at the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Connecticut.

One of those award-winners is Beware the Brindlebeast, and in 2009, National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD), celebrating their 40th anniversary, commissioned Anita to adapt that picture book into a play that toured nationally for eighty performances.

Anita's adaptation and its subsequent performances sparked the writing of HEAR ME, a wholly original musical that blends her lived experiences as a teacher in the Deaf community,  a children's book author/illustrator, and as a perfectly flawed human. A full circle moment if there ever was one!

Anita is the founder and producer of Fat Chance Production Group, LLC, which is producing HEAR ME.

​Anita taught illustration at the Hartford Art School/University of Hartford, and writing in the MFA low-residency program at Lesley University.

Anita lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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